Buffering and ambiguity effects of maternal warmth on associations between psychological control and child attachment in a cross-national perspective

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05477-5

Attachment security is the foundation for personality that fosters a sense of one’s mastery, adaptive emotion regulation, and positive relationships with others (Sroufe, 2016). Attachment quality develops early in childhood within the parent-child relationship (Bowlby, 1969) and is established by two security and two insecurity-related aspects. Security refers to one’s ability to view their attachment figure (e.g., a parent) as a safe haven providing sheltering protection in times of distress (e.g., by support provision) and as a secure base enabling one to explore the world when distress is absent (e.g., Ainsworth et al. 1978; Cassidy, 2016).