How Good It Would Be to Turn Back Time: Adult Attachment and Perfectionism in Mothers and Their Relationships with the Processes of Parental Identity Formation

Parental identity formation may be a factor of the utmost importance in helping us to understand the mechanisms of adaptation to parenthood. However, our knowledge regarding the processes involved in the development of parental identity is very limited. In the present study the relationships between three dimensions of parental identity (commitment, in-depth exploration, reconsideration of commitment), and two trait-like characteristics that determine the quality of family life, i.e. romantic adult attachment and perfectionism were analyzed. 206 mothers aged 22 to 40 participated in the study (M = 33.33, SD = 3.68). The results revealed that a high level in anxious attachment, avoidant attachment and maladaptive aspects of perfectionism (other-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism) positively correlate with a low level of parental identity commitment and a high level of reconsideration of parental commitment. Regression analysis revealed that especially attachment-related anxiety and other-oriented perfectionism can be treated as independent, specific predictors of an increased crisis of parental identity.