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Reciprocal Relations between Emerging Adults’ Representations of Relationships with Mothers, Fathers, and Romantic Partners
Author(s) -
Suh Go Woon,
Fabricius William V.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/famp.12458
Subject(s) - romance , reciprocal , psychology , developmental psychology , attachment theory , context (archaeology) , social relation , social psychology , psychoanalysis , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , biology
This study employed a fully cross‐lagged, longitudinal model to examine reciprocal relations between representations of relationships with parents and romantic partners at ages 20 and 22. Representations were assessed with continuous measures of dismissing/avoidant and preoccupied relationship styles across the attachment and affiliation systems for parents, and across the attachment, affiliation, and caregiving systems for romantic partners. Earlier relationships with both mothers and fathers independently predicted changes in later views of romantic relationships, and earlier romantic relationships predicted changes in later views of relationships with both mothers and fathers. This evidence of a developmental system of interconnected representations across relationships has theoretical implications about the nature of working models, and practical implications alerting parents to the onset of dating as a potentially fertile context for changes in their relationships with children.