TRANSGENERATIONAL EFFECT: REMEMBERED ATTACHMENT, ATTACHMENT TO PARTNERS AND BONDING TOWARDS NEWBORNS

Abstract

There is no doubt that emotional relationships are very important. Attachment theory describes functioning in these relationships through inner working models that guide expectations and behaviours in the relationships. Therefore, we can suppose that attachment affect actual relationships toward partners as well as own children since both are emotional-relationship objects. Our aim was to explore transgenerational effect of attachment (what was I given, what do I share with my partner, what do I give to my newborn). We had three objectivesto find out whether remembered attachment is a predictor of attachment in close relationships and bonding; whether attachment in close relationships is a predictor of bonding, and whether there are differences between men and women in attachment and bonding. Our sample consisted of fathers (n=27) and mothers (n=73) who recently gave birth. Participants of age between 21 and 46 years were approached at obstetrics and gynaecology clinic in Bratislava, Slovakia. They filled in 3 self-administered questionnaires: sEMBU (remembered attachment), ECR-R (attachment in close relationships), and MIBQ (bonding towards infant). The results showed weak to moderate correlations among remembered attachment and attachment in close relationships/bonding. Mother ́s emotional warmth in remembered attachment predicts both avoidance (adjusted R2= .091, β= -.317, p= .001) and anxiety (adjusted R2= .045, β= -.233, p= .019) in attachment in close relationships. Mather ́s emotional warmth (adjusted R2= .086, β= .309, p= .002) and rejection (adjusted R2= .051, β= -.246, p= .014) in remembered attachment predict acceptance of parental role in bonding. Attachment in close relationships did not prove to be a predictor of bonding. As to differences between men and women, we found that men felt more rejected by mother than women in remembered attachment (rm= .215), men scored higher in both avoidance (rm= .210) and anxiety (rm= .209) than women in attachment in close relationships, and women were more prepared for nurturing the infant than men in bonding (rm= .272). The differences were small though. We see several limits among which self-reported instruments, new questionnaire MIBQ, relatively big age range of our participants, smaller sample of men are the most serious ones. Even though, we consider our research to be important in slightly clarifying an importance of remembered emotional warmth of mother in functioning in actual relationships.