Attachment to Parents and Well-Being After High School Graduation: A Study Using Self- and Parent Ratings

Parental attachment is associated with well-being in early emerging adulthood. The present study is the first to measure attachment from multiple perspectives by obtaining attachment ratings from both children and parents, allowing us to examine discrepancies between both attachments in the relationship and the association of those discrepancies with well-being. We used a large sample of 558 young emerging adults and 405 parents to assess self- and parent ratings of different facets of attachment and well-being. Using 15 structural equation models, we were able to show that security, trust, communication, and relatedness (but not dependency) are associated with the emerging adult’s subjective happiness, life satisfaction, and psychological flourishing. Moreover, psychological flourishing was higher for adult children whose parents were more attached to them than would be expected on basis of the child’s attachment.