Research suggests that adult attachment is associated with various social roles, such as parenting, with insecure attachment patterns corresponding to lower levels of parenting competence. An increasing amount of research suggests that attachment patterns and social roles are interwoven with gender role beliefs. With family systems theory as an overarching framework, the current study extends the literature by examining dyadic associations between these variables in a sample of 61 cohabitating couples with at least one child under of the age of 18 in the home. Participants included opposite-sex and same-sex romantic partners who were recruited using online snowball sampling processes. The actor-partner interdependence model was used to assess the mutual influences between romantic partners in the parental dyads, specifically focusing on attachment patterns, parenting competence, and the moderating effect of individual gender role-beliefs and incongruence between the two partners' gender role beliefs in the co-parenting relationship. Results indicated both actor and partner attachment anxiety and avoidance were negatively correlated with parenting competence; gender roles beliefs moderated that association with egalitarian gender role beliefs buffering the negative effects of partners' high attachment avoidance or anxiety. Additionally, results indicated that gender role belief incongruence between partners also moderated the relationship between attachment strategies and parenting competence. In light of these findings, limitations, future directions, and clinical implications including attachment-focused individual assessment strategies and therapy techniques as well as couples therapy (i.e., EFCT) modalities are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1833423 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Oosterhouse, Kendra K. |
| Contributors | Wang, Chiachih DC, Riggs, Shelley Ann, 1961-, Kaminiski, Patricia, Watkins, C. Edward, Jr. |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | v, 83 pages : illustrations, Text |
| Rights | Public, Oosterhouse, Kendra K., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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