Adult Daughter-Mother Attachment: Psychometric Properties of Turkish Version of Adult Attachment Scale

Abstract

The present study aims to assess the psychometric qualities of the Turkish version of the Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) assessing adult daughter’s current attachment to their elderly mother. In total, 560 women with the mean age of 39.6 have participated. Parallel to the original study, exploratory factor analysis was conducted with adult daughters (N = 304) who were providing instrumental help to their mothers regularly. Results yielded 2 correlated factors (secure base and safe haven). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the factor structure is applicable to the adult daughters who were not providing regular help to their mothers (N = 256). Measurement invariance was established across two groups constructed in terms of the presence of instrumental help provided to the elderly mothers by their adult daughters. Internal consistency and 6-month stability for the scale are satisfactory. Further evidence for convergent and concurrent validity has been supported by presenting a positive correlation of AAS with the level of significance of the mother in the adult daughter’s attachment hierarchy as compared to other attachment figures, levels of quality of the current relationship and the frequency of contact with the mother. Results are discussed in terms of AAS’s appropriateness for Turkish culture and possible contribution in an understanding attachment to a parent in late adulthood, a critical emerging need for the aging world. 

Keywords

• Attachment,adult daughter,elderly mother

References

1. Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Attachment beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44, 709-716.
2. Armsden, G. C. & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 427-451.
3. Ataca, B., Kağıtçıbaşı, Ç. & Diri, A. (2005). The Turkish family and the value of children: Trends over time. In G. Trommsdorff, & B. Nauck (Eds.). The value of children in cross-cultural perspective: case studies from eight societies (pp. 91-119). Lengerich, Germany: Pabst Science.
4. Beauducel, A., & Wittmann, W.W. (2005). Simulation study on fit indexes in CFA based on data with slightly distorted simple structure. Structural Equation Modeling, 12(1), 41-75.
5. Bowlby, J. (1969/1982). Attachment and loss: Vol 1: Attachment. New York, NY: Basic Books.
6. Bowlby, J. (1979). The making and breaking of affectional bonds. London: Tavistock.
7. Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233–255.
8. Cicirelli, V. G. (1983). Adult children's attachment and helping behavior to elderly parents: A path model. Journal of Marriage and the Family, (pp. 815-825). Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/351794.

9. Cicirelli, V. G. (1993). Attachment and obligation as daughters' motives for caregiving behavior and subsequent effect on subjective burden. Psychology and Aging, 8 (2), 144-155.
10. Cicirelli, V. G. (1995). A measure of caregiving daughters’ attachment to elderly parents. Journal of Family Psychology, 9(1), 89-94.
11. Cicirelli, V. G. (2010). Attachment relationships in old age. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(2), 191-199.
12. Doherty, N. A. & Feeney, J. A. (2004). The composition of attachment networks throughout the adult years. Personal Relationships, 11(4), 469-488.
13. Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics: And sex and drugs and rock “n” roll, (4th Ed.). London: Sage.
14. Fraley, R. C., & Davis, K. E. (1997). Attachment formation and transfer in young adults’ close friendships and romantic relationships. Personal Relationships, 4, 131-144.
15. Gündoğdu-Aktürk, E. (2010). Attachment Figure Transference, Caregiving Styles and Marital Satisfaction in Arranged and Love Marriages (Unpublished master’s thesis). Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
16. Hazan, C., & Zeifman, D. (1994). Sex and the psychological tether. In K. Bartholomew & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships, Vol. 5: Attachment processes in adulthood (pp. 151-177). London: Jessica Kingsley.
17. He, W., Goodkind, D., & Kowal, P. R. (2016). An aging world: 2015. Washington, DC: United States Census Bureau.
18. Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1-55.
19. Hui, C. H. & Triandis, H. C. (1989). Effects of culture and response format on extreme response style. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20(3), 296-309.
20. İmamoğlu, E. O. (1987). An interdependence model of human development. In Ç. Kağıtçıbaşı (Ed), Growth and progress in cross-cultural psychology (pp.138-145). Lisse, Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.
21. Kağıtçıbaşı, Ç. (1985). Intra-family interaction and a model of change. In T. Erder (Ed.), Family in Turkish society (pp. 149-166). Ankara: Turkish Social Science Association.
22. Lozano, L. M., García-Cueto, E., & Muñiz, J. (2008). Effect of the number of response categories on the reliability and validity of rating scales. Methodology, 4(2), 73-79.
23. Onaylı, S., Erdur-Baker, Ö, & Aksöz, A. (2010). The Turkish adaptation of the mother-adult daughter questionnaire. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 1516-1520.
24. Rastogi, M. (2002). The mother-adult daughter questionnaire (MAD): Developing a culturally sensitive instrument. The Family Journals, 10 (2), 145-155.
25. Rosenthal, N. L., & Kobak, R. (2010). Assessing adolescents' attachment hierarchies: Differences across developmental periods and associations with individual adaptation. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20(3), 678-706.
26. Sroufe, L. A., Fox, N. E., & Pancake, V. R. (1983). Attachment and dependency in developmental perspective. Child Development, 54(6), 1615-1627. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1129825.
27. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th. Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
28. Trinke, S. J., & Bartholomew, K. (1997). Hierarchies of attachment relationships in young adulthood. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14(5), 603-625.