Adult Daughter-Mother Attachment: Psychometric Properties of Turkish Version of Adult Attachment Scale

Meltem Anafarta Şendağ,Funda Kutlu

doi:10.21031/epod.553763

Abstract

The present study aims to assess the psychometric qualities of the Turkish version of the Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) assessing adult daughter’s current attachment to their elderly mother. In total, 560 women with the mean age of 39.6 have participated. Parallel to the original study, exploratory factor analysis was conducted with adult daughters (N = 304) who were providing instrumental help to their mothers regularly. Results yielded 2 correlated factors (secure base and safe haven). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the factor structure is applicable to the adult daughters who were not providing regular help to their mothers (N = 256). Measurement invariance was established across two groups constructed in terms of the presence of instrumental help provided to the elderly mothers by their adult daughters. Internal consistency and 6-month stability for the scale are satisfactory. Further evidence for convergent and concurrent validity has been supported by presenting a positive correlation of AAS with the level of significance of the mother in the adult daughter’s attachment hierarchy as compared to other attachment figures, levels of quality of the current relationship and the frequency of contact with the mother. Results are discussed in terms of AAS’s appropriateness for Turkish culture and possible contribution in an understanding attachment to a parent in late adulthood, a critical emerging need for the aging world.

Highlights

Given that the global population has aged at an unprecedented rate and that 28% of the European population will be over 65 in 30 years (He, Goodkind & Kowall, 2016), it becomes a critical and urgent task to question and to improve our scientific understanding of aging and old age
Before Exploratory Factor Analysis for DH Group (EFA), inter-item correlations for singularity, VIF, CI, and TI (Tolerance Indices) for multicollinearity problems were examined for 15 items in the original Attachment Scale (AAS)
It was noted that there was a subtle difference between the expressions of these two items in English, which might be lost in translation

Summary

Introduction

Given that the global population has aged at an unprecedented rate and that 28% of the European population will be over 65 in 30 years (He, Goodkind & Kowall, 2016), it becomes a critical and urgent task to question and to improve our scientific understanding of aging and old age. The number of people reaching the age of 100 is increasing every year in the world (Martin & Baek, 2018; Rochon et al, 2014). In previous times, it was not normal for a person to live enough to see his/her grandson’s child, but nowadays it is considered as normal. For women who have a longer life expectancy than men, but generally have lower education and income levels, health care costs are a critical problem that needs to be addressed and the renovation of an administrative structure is unavoidable. The necessity to provide both instrumental and emotional care to the aging member of the family increases as well

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