What is past is prologue: Pre-natal testosterone and parental bonding predicts adult attachment styles

Blanchard, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0449-0425, Lyons, M and Nelson, E, 2014. What is past is prologue: Pre-natal testosterone and parental bonding predicts adult attachment styles. Personality and Individual Differences, 60, S47. ISSN 0191-8869

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Abstract

Research consistently evidences deleterious consequences of poor parenting in the development of dysfunctional and antisocial behaviours in children (Jaffee et al., 2005). For example, foetal development is affected by the psychological and physical health of the mother. Indeed, maternal smoking increases in utero testosterone (Rizwan et al., 2007), which is associated with aggression (Bailey & Hurd, 2005), risk-taking (Stenstrom et al., 2010) and dom- inant (Millet, 2011) behaviours. However, interactions such as these may offer survival advantage to offspring within hostile environments (Belsky, Steinberg & Draper, 1991). We investigated relationships between prenatal testosterone (2D:4D ratio), perception of quality of parental bonding and adult attachment style. As expected, low maternal warmth and high levels of prenatal testosterone predicted anxious attachment, while the addition of maternal over-controlling to this model predicted avoidant attachment. This evidences how changes in hormonal level might equip an unborn child to survive more successfully within a prospective adversarial environment.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Personality and Individual Differences
Creators:	Blanchard, A., Lyons, M. and Nelson, E.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	April 2014
Volume:	60
ISSN:	0191-8869
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.paid.2013.07.140 DOI
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	15 Aug 2016 08:50
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 14:05
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28308

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