TITLE:
Parent Attachment: Assessment, Effects of Gender Difference, and Mediation between Past Perceived Parenting and Mental Health into Adulthood
AUTHORS:
Masayo Uji, Makiko Kawaguchi
KEYWORDS:
Parent Attachment, Internal Working Model, Past Parenting, Later Mental Health
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.15 No.5,
May
31,
2024
ABSTRACT: Background: Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) has been widely used in various countries, in examining the effect of parent attachment on later mental health. However, a limited number of studies have verified its psychometric property, in particular, its three-factor structure originally proposed by Armsden & Greenberg. Purposes: This study aimed at examining whether or not the three-factor structure (Trust, Communication, Alienation) of the Japanese version of parent IPPA is valid and examining whether respondents’ gender and/or their parents’ gender affects their attachment security level. We further studied the hypothesis that parent attachment assessed by IPPA is influenced by past parenting, and will influence later mental health. Methods: Data from the questionnaire survey targeting Japanese college students was used for analyses. The three inventories: IPPA, Authoritarian parenting subscale from Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), and Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM), were used in the analyses of this study. After confirming factor structures of father and mother IPPAs by confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), ANOVAs were conducted to see whether respondent and/or parent gender had effects on the attachment security level. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted to demonstrate the pathways from past parenting to later mental health via parent attachment for men and women respectively. Results: Three-factor structures for both father and mother IPPAs were confirmed by removing one item from the Communication subscale. ANOVAs showed that, concerning Trust, there were no differences between male and female respondents in evaluating their fathers and mothers, and mothers were more likely than fathers to be scored higher both by male and female respondents. Concerning Communication, mothers were more likely than fathers to be scored higher both by male and female respondents, and male respondents were more likely than female respondents to score their fathers higher, and to score their mothers lower. As for Alienation, mothers were more likely than fathers to be scored higher by male respondents, and male respondents were more likely than female respondents to give their mothers higher scores. Parent attachment assessed by IPPA was found to intermediate past parenting and later mental health among both male and female respondents. Conclusion: This study has proven the three-factor structure of the Japanese version of father and mother IPPAs. The attachment security level varied depending on the combination of parent and child gender. The parent attachment was found to have a crucial role in Japanese male and female young adults’ mental health.