Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Does Attachment To Parents Mediate The Relationship Between Marital Conflict And Child Self-Regulation, Lisa T. Hansen, James M. Harper, Jeremy Yorgason

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This longitudinal study considers the effect of parent-child attachment on the self-regulation of children. Four hundred and forty-eight families from the Northwestern U.S. were surveyed as part of Brigham Young University's Flourishing Families Project. Each family studied included a child between the ages of 11 and 13. Couple conflict and the child's attachment to parents were assessed at time 1 and the child's self-regulation was assessed each year thereafter for three years. Higher couple conflict predicted lower attachment to father and to mother at time 1 with a greater negative effect for fathers. Higher scores on attachment to father predicted …