Childhood relationships with parents and attachment as predictors of resilience in young adults

ABSTRACT

Resilience researchers have shown that positive relationships function as protective factors, offsetting the negative effects of adverse life experiences. Relationships with parents may be among the most important protective factors of resilience in the development of children. Few studies have examined the extent to which childhood relationships with parents predict resilience in young adults. The present research tested the hypothesis that the childhood relationship with parents and attachment would predict resilience in young adults. The hypothesis was supported in a study with 245 participants (92 men, 153 women). Higher levels of resilience were predicted by higher levels of positive mother relationship, lower levels of negative father relationship, and higher levels of close attachment. The pattern of predictors varied when the four protective factors of resilience were analyzed separately and included different combinations of parent and attachment variables. The results provide evidence for the long-term effect of parent–child relationships during childhood and support theories of resilience that emphasize the important role of parent relationships on children’s development.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• childhood relationships
• attachment
• college students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [smk].

Notes

1 We explored the possible roles of participant age and income, but observed no significant results for these variables.