Effects of parent personality, upbringing, and marijuana use on the parent-child attachment relationship

Objective: To examine the predictors of the quality of the parent-child att achment relationship among: a sample of 248 young adults with children. Met hod: In this longitudinal study, data were collected during early adulthood in 1992 and in 1996/1997 via a structured questionnaire. Using logistic re gression and multiple regression analyses, the authors assessed the extent to which participants' personality attributes, substance use, and relations hips with their mothers predicted the quality of the parent-child bond. Res ults: Logistic regression models showed that participants with certain pers onality attributes (e.g., high sensitivity), less frequent marijuana use, o r a close relationship with their mothers had a greater likelihood of havin g a close parent-child attachment relationship with their own children at a later time. Regression analysis also showed that the risk of earlier subst ance use on the parent-child relationship was offset by protective factors in the parents' personality domain. In addition, protective factors in the various parental domains synergistically interacted with a low frequency of marijuana use, relating to a closer parent-child attachment relationship C onclusions: The findings suggest that certain parenting styles are transmit ted across generations and interventions in the personality and drug use do mains can help increase the likelihood that parents will form close attachm ent relationships with their own children.