Abstract
Background: Parenting self-esteem includes two global components, parents’ self-efficacy and satisfaction with their parental role, and has a crucial role in parent–child interactions. The purpose of this study was to develop an integrative model linking adult attachment insecurities, dyadic adjustment, and parenting self-esteem.Methods: The study involved 118 pairs (236 subjects) of heterosexual parents of a firstborn child aged 0–6 years. They were administered the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R) questionnaire, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, and the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale.Results: Path analysis was used to design and test a theoretical integrative model, achieving a good fit with the data. Findings showed that dyadic adjustment mediates the negative influence on parenting self-efficacy of both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. Parenting satisfaction is positively influenced by parenting self-efficacy and negatively affected by child’s age. Attachment anxiety negatively influences parenting satisfaction.Conclusion: Our findings are in line with the theoretical expectations and have promising implications for future research and intervention programs designed to improve parenting self-esteem.
Highlights
It has been recognized in both developmental and clinical research that parents’ cognitions and beliefs about parenting have a crucial role in parent–child interactions (Dix and Grusec, 1985; Johnston, 1996; Bugental and Johnston, 2000; Rubin and Chung, 2006), and relate to virtually every aspect of children’s developmental accomplishments (Sigel and McGillicuddyDelisi, 2002)
Findings concerning attachment anxiety are less convincing: only Cohen et al (2011) reported a negative relationship between anxiety and satisfaction; Rholes (2006) found no significant relationship between the two; Vieira et al (2012) found both a positive direct effect of attachment anxiety on satisfaction and an indirect path linking anxiety with less parenting satisfaction via more severe work-family conflict; and Lau and Peterson (2011) found no significant associations between attachment style and parenting satisfaction. These results provide some support for links between adult attachment styles and parenting self-efficacy, but these links are likely to be indirect and mediated by other relevant variables; and the picture concerning parenting satisfaction is unclear
Model 1 showed only a partial fit with the data: χ2(4) = 9.97, p = 0.041; goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.986; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.984; root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.080
Summary
It has been recognized in both developmental and clinical research that parents’ cognitions and beliefs about parenting have a crucial role in parent–child interactions (Dix and Grusec, 1985; Johnston, 1996; Bugental and Johnston, 2000; Rubin and Chung, 2006), and relate to virtually every aspect of children’s developmental accomplishments (Sigel and McGillicuddyDelisi, 2002). Self-efficacy is about people’s belief in their ability to achieve their goals (Bandura, 1997), and in the context of parenting this means how confident people feel about their capacity to deal competently with difficult childrearing situations It stems from parents’ cognitions and self-perceptions about how skillfully they accomplish tasks related to parenting (de Montigny and Lacharité, 2005; Jones and Prinz, 2005; Farkas and Valdés, 2010), and positively influence their children, fostering the latter’s adjustment and development (Ardelt and Eccles, 2001). The purpose of this study was to develop an integrative model linking adult attachment insecurities, dyadic adjustment, and parenting self-esteem
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