Parental bonding in retrospect and adult attachment style: A comparative study between Spanish, Italian and Japanese cultures

Attachment is an innate human relational mechanism that develops progressively from early childhood, influences individuals’ representations and behaviors, shapes relationships, and affects the social and cultural environment. Parental bonding refers to the ability of parents to be emotionally and behaviorally available to the child during infancy. Attachment style refers to the individual’s relational attitude in close relationships that influences adult love, bonding, handling relationships, and social exploration. The role of intergenerational, cultural and developmental factors influencing the relationship between the attachment style in adulthood and the parental bonding style recalled during childhood has been debated. This study explores the relationships between recalled parental bonding, adult attachment style, and cultural background in a sample of Spanish, Italian, and Japanese adults using a cross-sectional and cross-cultural design. For this purpose, the validated versions of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale and the Parental Bonding Instrument were administered to a non-clinical population of three hundred and five participants in the three countries. Results show that the most frequent adult attachment style is the secure style, followed by the dismissing-avoidant, the preoccupied, and the fearful-avoidant style. The dismissing-avoidant style was the most frequent insecure attachment style in the Japanese sample whereas the preoccupied style was the most frequent insecure attachment style in the Italians and Spaniards. Japanese are more anchored to the memory of maternal and paternal overprotection, which is related to more avoidance in actual close relationships. Spaniard’s current relationships are mildly independent of recalled parental bonding, showing an association between lower current avoidance to primary parental care. In the Italian sample, there is no significant relationship between current adult close relationships and recalled parental bonding. These results suggest that different cultural models influence adult attachment representations differently, in terms of the weight placed on attachment-related avoidance, attachment-related anxiety, care, and overprotection in infant and adult relationships.