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Security and Similarity: Parent-Child Political AttitudeCongruence as Predicted by Parental Attachment
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by Laura D. Van Berkel, Erin D. Solomon, and Eddie M. Clark - Agnes Scott College
We sought to examine parental attachment as a predictor of
parent-child political attitude congruence. Participants completed the
Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 2009),
self-reported their level of liberalism and conservatism, and reported their
parents’ liberalism and conservatism. Participants had greater conservative,
t(122) = -2.18, p = .031, d = .19, and liberal attitude congruence,
t(122) = 2.70, p = .008, d = .24, with their mothers than with their fathers.
Paternal attachment was a significant predictor of father-child conservative,
F(2, 120)=3.43, p = .036, η
= .05, and liberal attitude congruence, F(2, 120)
= 3.23, p = .043, η
2
2
= .05. Maternal attachment was not a significant predictor
of mother-child conservative, F(2, 120) = .04, p = .963, η
= .00, or liberal
political attitude congruence, F(2, 120) = .36, p = .696, η
2
= .00. Mothers’
political attitudes may be more influential in political attitude formation
overall, while the influence of fathers’ political attitudes is dependent on
contextual factors, such as attachment.
2
Fall 2012 | Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research (Vol. 14, No. 1, p. 35), published by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright, 2012, Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.