Changes in marital satisfaction across the transition to parenthood: the role of adult attachment orientations.

This longitudinal study investigated marital satisfaction trajectories across the first 2 years of parenthood. Data were collected from new parents (couples) 6 weeks before the birth of their first child, and then at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months postpartum. Growth curve models revealed two key findings. First, for highly anxious individuals, satisfaction was lower or declined when they perceived their partners as less supportive and as behaving more negatively toward them. Second, for highly avoidant individuals, satisfaction was lower or declined when they perceived more work-family conflict and greater demands from their families. The findings suggest that attachment insecurities predict dissatisfaction in new parents primarily when stressors block the pursuit of important attachment goals.

Attachment orientations and depression: a longitudinal study of new parents.

In this longitudinal study, we followed a large sample of first-time parents (both partners) across the first 2 years of the transition to parenthood. Guided by attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969), we tested several predictions about how attachment anxiety and avoidance are related to the incidence, maintenance, increase, and decline of depressive symptoms in both sexes across the first 2 years of the transition. We found that (a) the association between attachment anxiety and depressive symptoms was moderated by factors related to the marital and/or romantic relationship; (b) the association between avoidance and depressive symptoms was moderated by factors related to family responsibilities; (c) styles of caregiving provided by romantic partners affected depressive symptoms differently among anxious and avoidant persons; and (d) in certain predictable situations, depressive symptoms persisted at higher levels or increased to higher levels in anxious or avoidant persons across the 2-year transition period. Important implications of these results are discussed.

Attachment and information seeking in romantic relationships.

Testing predictions derived from attachment theory, this research investigated how adult attachment orientations are associated with selective exposure to information about the self, one's partner, and one's relationship. The results of two studies revealed that (a) more avoidantly attached individuals have limited interest in knowing their partner's intimate thoughts and feelings, (b) more anxiously attached individuals selectively prefer information on intimate topics pertaining to their partner and relationship and focus on information that highlights their own as well as their partner's shortcomings, and (c) regardless of attachment orientation, individuals express interest in learning about the negative relationship behaviors and characteristics of their insecurely attached partners. These findings suggest that selective information seeking may have important effects on relationships and may help explain how attachment orientations affect important relationship outcomes.

Recollection and familiarity in recognition memory: adult age differences and neuropsychological test correlates.

Dual process theories account for age-related changes in memory by proposing that old age is associated with deficits in recollection together with invariance in familiarity. The authors evaluated this proposal in recognition by examining recollection and familiarity estimates in young and older adults across 3 process estimation methods: inclusion/exclusion, remember/know, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC). Consistent with a previous literature review (Light, Prull, LaVoie, & Healy, 2000), the authors found age invariance in familiarity when process estimates were derived from the inclusion/exclusion method, but the authors found age differences favoring the young when familiarity estimates were derived from the remember/know and ROC methods. Recollection estimates were lower for older adults in all 3 methods. Recollection and familiarity had variable relationships with frontal- and temporal-lobe measures of neuropsychological functioning in older adults, depending on which method was used to generate process estimates. These data suggest that although recollection deficits appear to be the rule in aging, not all estimates of familiarity show age invariance.