Childless adults with higher secure attachment state have stronger parenting motivation

Abstract

This study aimed to systematically examine the coherence in the motivation of parenting with the security attachment state of adults. A total of 228 childless participants (126 men, 102 women) first completed a self-report questionnaire including the State Adult Attachment Measure scale and the Interest in Infants questionnaire. They were then administered three laboratory-based tasks: a) liking, which measured the specific hedonic experience to infants' neutral faces; b) representational responding (actively seeking infants' neutral faces); and c) evoked responding (actively retaining images of infants' neutral faces). The results revealed that after controlling for gender, anxiety, and avoidance, security attachment state was associated with higher levels of interest in infants, assessed via verbal measures, and associated with liking and wanting (divided into representational and evoked responding) for infants' neutral faces. Moreover, infant faces elicited pleasure but not the sense of dominance or wanting in individuals with high avoidance attachment state. These results suggest that improving security attachment state may enhance motivation for parenting and improve the quality of parental caregiving.