The relation between early attachment experience and adult interpersonal relationships

Pages: 325-327
Sunita Tiwari and Pooja Garg (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttrakhand)
Sunita Tiwari and Pooja Garg (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttrakhand)

According to Bowlby, early attachment experiences with parents provide prototypes for later interpersonal relationships outside the family. The basic premise of the study is based on early childhood experiences that people develop general expectations about relationships. Then once formalized into mental structures, these beliefs are resistant to changes and have implications for the nature of one’s relationships across the life span. In the present study, the relation between the early attachment experiences with parents and adult interpersonal relationships (love and friendship relationships) were examined. The sample comprises of 100 married college students (50 females and 50 males). Parental Attachment Questionnaire (PAQ) was used to assess the subject’s perception about their parents’ attitude towards them and their relationship with their father and mother. QRI (Quality of relationship inventory) was used for the assessment of love and for friendship relationships. The results supported the hypothesis that early parent-child attachment experience is significantly related to adult interpersonal relationship.