Effects of the adult attachment style of dual-income parents on their coparenting

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify the effects of the adult attachment styles of dual-income parents on their coparenting. Total of 580 parents (290 fathers and 290 mothers; not paired), whose first child was a two-year-old, participated in the web survey. The participants were asked to complete the Experiences in Close Relationships inventory-the-generalized-other-version (anxious-preoccupied and avoidance of intimacy) and the Coparenting Relationship Scale Version Japanese (CRS-J, seven factors). The average age was 38.1±5.7 and 34.4±4.3 years for fathers and mothers, respectively.
Four classifications created through combinations of the high/low anxious-preoccupied and high/low avoidance of intimacy adult attachment styles were considered, and a stepwise regression analysis was conducted. The CRS-J score of “low anxious-preoccupied and low avoidance of intimacy” was significantly higher for both fathers and mothers than that of other types (p‹.001). In contrast, the CRS-J score of “high anxious-preoccupied and low avoidance of intimacy” was significantly lower for fathers than that of other types, and the CRS-J score of “high anxious-preoccupied and high avoidance of intimacy” was significantly lower for mothers than that of other types (p‹.001). Moreover, in the stepwise regression analysis method, the interaction between the adult attachment styles of “abandoned anxiety” and “avoidance of intimacy” significantly affected CRS-J (β=.213, p=‹.001) for fathers but not for mothers. Thus, the influence of adult attachment style on coparenting was significant for both fathers and mothers. To promote the parenting style of fathers and mothers, full support is required to encourage coparenting based on the adult attachment style of each.