L. Tayler et al., PARENTAL DIVORCE AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE QUALITY OF INTIMATE-RELATIONSHIPS IN ADULTHOOD, Journal of divorce & remarriage, 24(3-4), 1995, pp. 181-202
We examined whether exposure to parental divorce had any influence on
quality of intimate attachments in adulthood, in a sample of 146 adult
s from ''divorced'' and ''intact'' families. Early attachment to paren
ts was assessed by the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and a modific
ation of the Personal Relationships Questionnaire (PRQ), while another
modified PRQ rated attachment to the intimate partner. The ''divorced
'' group scored their parents' marriage as more conflictual, and repor
ted less care from and less attachment to their fathers. However, neit
her exposure to parental divorce nor exposure to parental conflict was
associated with quality of attachment to adult intimates. Across the
sample, general links were demonstrated between quality of parenting a
nd quality of adult intimate relationships, reflecting either a contin
uity phenomenon or respondents' ratings of interpersonal relationships
being influenced by general response biases.