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Attachment, Caregiving, and Parenting

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Pathways and Barriers to Parenthood

Abstract

According to attachment theory (Bowlby in Attachment and loss: vol. 1. Attachment. Basic Books, New York, 1982), parenting is governed by two behavioral systems—attachment and caregiving. Our goal in this chapter is to summarize what we have learned about the link between the attachment and caregiving systems and the ways in which attachment security and different kinds of insecurities shape parenting-related cognitions, feelings, and behavior. We begin by explaining Bowlby’s (Attachment and loss: vol. 1. Attachment. Basic Books, New York, 1982) behavioral system construct in detail and showing how individual differences in the attachment system affect the functioning of the caregiving system. We then review adult attachment studies that show how individual differences in attachment security and kinds of insecurity explain variations in parenting-related desires and attitudes among childless adults, parenting-related expectations during pregnancy, emotional reactions during the transition to parenthood, and parents’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions during interactions with their children during infancy, childhood, and adolescence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, 46150, Herzliya, Israel

    Mario Mikulincer

  2. Department of Psychology, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616-8686, USA

    Phillip R. Shaver

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  1. Mario Mikulincer
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  2. Phillip R. Shaver
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Correspondence to Mario Mikulincer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Orit Taubman – Ben-Ari

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Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P.R. (2019). Attachment, Caregiving, and Parenting. In: Taubman – Ben-Ari, O. (eds) Pathways and Barriers to Parenthood. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24864-2_18

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