The Relationship Between Parents' Verbal Aggressiveness and Responsiveness and Young Adult Children's Attachment Style and Relational Satisfaction with Parents

Abstract

Guided largely by an attachment theory perspective, a two-part study was conducted to determine the effects of perceived and self-report parent verbal aggression and responsiveness on young adult children's attachment style and relational satisfaction with parents. In part one, 205 undergraduate students completed an in-person self-administered survey. In part two, mail surveys were sent to 389 parents; 79% of parents returned the surveys. As hypothesized, mothers and fathers of children with a secure attachment style were perceived as significantly lower in verbal aggression and higher in responsiveness than parents of children with nonsecure attachment styles. Further, perceived and self-report parent verbal aggression was negatively related to, and perceived and self-report parent responsiveness was positively related to, young adult children's relational satisfaction with both mothers and fathers. Implications for these and other findings are discussed.

Notes

¹Though Brennan et al. (1998) argue in favor of continuous measures of attachment, they also provide an algorithm so that individuals completing their continuous measure can be collapsed into one of Bartholomew and Horowitz's (1991) four discrete attachment categories. For example, individuals scoring low on both the avoidance and anxiety dimensions would be considered as having a secure attachment style. Other combinations include high on both avoidance and anxiety (fearful), high on avoidance and low on anxiety (dismissing), and low on avoidance and high on anxiety (preoccupied). As an alternative test of Hypothesis 1, we converted responses to the continuous Experiences in Close Relationship Inventory into the four discrete attachment styles. Results of this operation yielded results that were nearly identical to those obtained when using the Bartholomew and Horowitz's (1991) attachment measure. Specifically, one-tailed t-tests revealed that mothers of adult children with secure attachment styles (M = 2.20, SD = .89) were rated as significantly lower in perceived verbal aggression than mothers of adult children with nonsecure attachment styles (M = 2.66, SD = 1.08), t (201) = −3.29, p < .001, r ² = .05. Further, the difference between perceived father verbal aggression for adult children with secure attachment styles (M = 2.43, SD = 1.05) and fathers with adult children with nonsecure attachment styles (M = 2.66, SD = 1.09), approached significance and was in the expected direction, t (194) = −1.54, p = .06, r ² = .01. However, no differences were observed between self-report mother verbal aggression of adult children with secure and nonsecure attachment styles, t (159) = −1.37, p = .09, or for self-report father verbal aggression of adult children with secure and nonsecure attachment styles, t (137) = .12, p = .45.

²As an alternative test of Hypothesis 3, we converted responses to the continuous Experiences in Close Relationship Inventory into the four discrete attachment styles (see note 1 for details). Results of this operation yielded results that were nearly identical to those obtained when using the Bartholomew and Horowitz's (1991) attachment measure. Specifically, one-tailed t-tests revealed that mothers of adult children with secure attachment styles (M = 5.48, SD = .79) were rated as significantly higher in perceived responsiveness than mothers of adult children with nonsecure attachment styles (M = 5.27, SD = .76), t (202) = 1.89, p < .05, r = .13. Further, the difference between perceived father responsiveness for adult children with secure attachment styles (M = 4.68, SD = 1.14) and fathers with adult children with nonsecure attachment styles (M = 4.38, SD = 1.15), was also significant and in the expected direction, t (197) = 1.90, p < .05, r ² = .02. However, no differences were observed between self-report mother responsiveness of adult children with secure and nonsecure attachment styles, t (160) = .88, p = .19, or for self-report father responsiveness of adult children with secure and nonsecure attachment styles, t (139) = -1.03, p = .16.