Transmission of the Parent-adolescent Attachment Bond to the Next Generation: A Case-control Study

Background and Goals: Many studies have examined how types of parent-child attachment bond are transmitted from one generation to the next, and how this may be associated with the occurrence of psychological disorders and dysfunctional relationships. In this study, we proposed to investigate the relationship, if any, between dysfunctional attachment bond and psychopathology, and to see whether dysfunctional parent-adolescent attachment bonds are handed down to the next generation.

Methods: The clinical group (cases) consisted of 44 adolescents with psychological disorders (21 males and 23 females) with a mean age of 15.3 years ± SD 1.549, attending our Service for Children, Adolescents and Families, ULSS 16 (Padua); the control group consisted of 44 adolescents, matched pairwise for age and gender, recruited at secondary schools in Vicenza. We used the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) to measure the adolescents’ perception of how their parents behaved towards them.

Results: A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups of adolescents regarding their attachment bond with their fathers and mothers: the clinical group had a higher percentage of dysfunctional attachment bonds with both their fathers (37% vs 10%) and their mothers (45% vs 13%). As for the transmission of dysfunctional attachment bonds to the next generation, we found that adolescents with dysfunctional relationships with their mothers had mothers whose attachment bond with their own parents had been dysfunctional too. The opposite was true in the control group, who showed 'positive' changes in relation to both the grandparent-father-adolescent triad, and the grandparent-mother-adolescent triad.