Maternal and Paternal Attachment Style and Chaos as Risk Factors for Parenting Behavior

• Published date: 01 April 2020
• Author: Bharathi J. Zvara,Christine Lathren,Roger Mills‐Koonce,
• Date: 01 April 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12423

B J. Z, C L, R M-K,   F L P

K CThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Maternal and Paternal Attachment Style and Chaos

as Risk Factors for Parenting Behavior

Objective and Background: Household chaos

and insecure parental attachment styles are

associated with lower quality parenting behav-

iors. However, there is a paucity of evidence

regarding fathers’ parenting behaviors, and no

studies examine whether chaotic home environ-

ments moderate the attachment style–parenting

behavior relationship.

Method: Using data from both mothers and

fathers of 742 children (40.5% African Ameri-

can) living in rural, low-resource communities,

the current study examined the individual and

joint effects of self-reported adult attachment

style and two domains of household chaos

on observed maternal and paternal parenting

behaviors during structured play with their

58-month-old child (49.6% female).

Results: Multivariate models revealed that even

after controlling for confounders, attachment

insecurity predicted lower quality parenting

behavior for mothers and fathers. Further, for

both mothers and fathers, the disorganized

domain of household chaos, representing envi-

ronments high in noise, clutter, and disorder,

predicted less sensitive and more intrusive

parenting behavior. Finally, for mothers with

dismissive attachment styles, high levels of dis-

organization appeared to exacerbate caregiving

difculties; this moderating relationship was

not evident for fathers.

Gillings School of Global Public Health, 405 Rosenau Hall

CB #7445, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 (zvara@email.unc.edu).

Key Words: adult attachment, fathers, household chaos,

mothers, parenting behavior.

Conclusion: These ndings suggest that the

stress of a chronically disorganized family

environment may inuence the expression of

mothers’ insecure tendencies in the context of

parenting, thereby intensifying less sensitive

and more intrusive parenting behaviors.

Implications: These ndings suggest that the

stress of a chronically disorganized family envi-

ronment may impact the expression of mothers’

insecure tendencies in the context of parenting,

thereby intensifying less sensitive and more

intrusive parenting behaviors.

There is extensive evidence that early parenting

behaviors likely exert an enduring inuence

on children’s adjustment in multiple domains

of functioning as well as in the development

and maintenance of psychopathology (Cassidy,

2008; Zvara et al., 2014). Reviews of the child

development literature have identied two key

domains of parenting, maternal sensitivity and

harsh intrusiveness (Cox & Harter, 2003) as

particularly important for long-term adjustment.

Parental sensitivity refers to the quality with

which caregivers recognize and respond both

effectively and promptly to their infants’ cues

and bids for care. In so doing, the parent or

caregiver helps the child develop his or her

own self-regulation by responding to the child’s

distress with support and sensitivity (Cassidy,

2008). In contrast, parenting behavior that is

emotionally negative (i.e., angry and hostile),

behaviorally and verbally controlling, referred

to as harsh-intrusiveness (Egeland, Pianta, &

O’Brien, 1993), may increase children’s risk for

adjustment problems independent of parental

Family Relations 69 (April 2020): 233–246233

DOI:10.1111/fare.12423