Relationship Change at the Transition to Parenthood and Security of Infant-Mother Attachment

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Abstract
Attachment research has so far favoured maternal and child characteristics as determinants of secure or insecure attachment relationships between infant and mother. Several recent findings now suggest that the broader context of the family and the couple’s relationship should receive more attention as possible determinants. The quality of parental relationships was assessed in a prospective longitudinal study using 28 women and 23 of their partners. A Partnership Questionnaire was administered at four points of measurement from the beginning of pregnancy to one year after the birth of the first child. At 13 months of age the infants and their mothers were observed in the Strange Situation Procedure. Statistical analysis revealed two systematic results. (1) Both wives and husbands from families with a secure infant-mother attachment judged the quality of their partnership as more satisfying than parents with insecurely attached infants: lower decrease in “tenderness”, relative absence of “quarrelling” as perceived by the wives, and husbands’ “general happiness” across the transition to parenthood were related to secure mother-child relationships. (2) After becoming parents, both parents perceived a decline in the quality of their marital relationship. The results also suggest that parental partnership and mother-child relationship are systematically interdependent and support the idea that early parenthood is a critical time for establishing different attachment qualities.