Quality of Parenting and Adolescent Attachment Security: A Twin Study to Explore the Impact of Genetic Factors

The overall focus of the thesis is the role of genetic and environmental influences in the relationship between quality of parenting and adolescent attachment security. Part one is a literature review exploring interactive antecedents of attachment security beyond infancy. The review includes 16 papers exploring the relationship between the quality of parentchild interactions and attachment security in children and adolescents, with security assessed using a representational measure of attachment, in order to establish which aspects of parenting are most strongly associated with attachment security. Part two of the thesis reports findings from a twin study designed to explore child-based genetic influences in quality of parenting and adolescent attachment security, using archived data from the Twins Early Development Study. Specifically, the study firstly aimed to examine the relative contribution of child genetic factors on quality of parenting, when parenting is assessed using observational methods. Secondly, the study examined whether common genes or common environments can account for the covariance between parenting quality and adolescent attachment security. Part three is a critical appraisal of the research process, which considers the conceptual issues and dilemmas involved in observational research and reflects on the implications of the study findings for future research and clinical practice