10.1177/0146167205280910PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETINRholes et al. / ATTACHMENT AND PARENTING Avoidant Attachment and the Experience of Parenting

Guided by attachment theory, this research investigated connec-tions between avoidant attachment styles and the experience of parenting after the birth of a couple’s first child. One hundred and six couples completed a battery of measures approximately 6 weeks before and 6 months after the birth of their first child. As anticipated, parents with more avoidant attachment styles expe-rienced greater stress after the birth of their child and perceived parenting as less satisfying and personally meaningful. Attach-ment theory maintains that adult attachment styles should affect relationships with adults and with one’s children. The present findings provide some of the first evidence that self-reported adult romantic attachment styles, which have been the focus of attachment research by social and personality psycholo-gists, are systematically associated with parent-child relation-ships. They also provide insight into the processes through which secure and insecure attachment styles might be transmitted from one generation to the next