An Exploration of Childhood Environments and Adult Attachment Outcomes

Abstract

A multitude of childhood factors may impact long-term developmental outcomes. Family structure, primary caregiver, and parenting style all play a role in a child’s socioemotional development, and more specifically, attachment outcomes. The ever-changing landscape of family structure and dynamics highlight the need for current research to explore what factors help or hinder development. The current study primarily examined what childhood factors, if any, relate to attachment security in adulthood. The study also individually investigated the effects of childhood family structure, primary caregiver, and parenting style on attachment security in adulthood. It was hypothesized that family structure, primary caregiver, and parenting style would significantly predict adult attachment security. The study also expected to find participants raised by authoritative parents having higher attachment security than participants raised by authoritarian or permissive parents, participants raised in single-parent households having significantly lower attachment security than participants raised in two-parent households, and no differences in attachment security existing between participants with fathers versus mothers as primary caregivers. Results indicated that authoritarian and authoritative parenting significantly predicted attachment security. Results also showed that individuals with fathers as primary caregivers had lower rates of attachment anxiety than those raised by mothers. Overall, findings suggest that quality caregiving plays a key role in fostering secure attachment outcomes, regardless of other components of family units.