# The Role of Attachment in Emotional Support Provision in Adult Child–Parent Relationships: A Dyadic Response Surface Analysis

## TL;DR

This study explores how attachment styles between older parents and adult children affect the emotional support they provide each other.

## Contribution

It introduces a dyadic, attachment-based perspective on emotional support in intergenerational relationships.

## Key findings

- Low attachment insecurity is linked to higher emotional support from both parents and adult children.
- Parents increase support when children show higher insecurity, while children support parents only when their own insecurity is low.
- Attachment processes differ across generations in emotional support provision.

## Abstract

The adult child–parent relationship is a key source of emotional support across adulthood and older age. This study takes a dyadic, attachment-based perspective to examine how (dis)similarities in attachment orientations between older parents and adult children relate to the emotional support they provide each other. A total of 104 adult child–parent dyads (M parents’ age = 67.85; M adult children’s age = 36.18) participated. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Response Surface Analysis (RSA) were used to assess how dyadic (dis)similarities in attachment anxiety and avoidance are associated with own support provision. Both parents and adult children provided greater emotional support when their attachment insecurity was at low levels. Support also increased when the partner showed higher insecurity but differed across generations: parents offered more support when the child’s anxiety or avoidance exceeded their own, even at own high levels of insecurity, whereas children supported insecure parents only when their own insecurity was relatively low. Attachment-based processes in the adult child–parent bond serve as a source of emotional connection, operating differently across generations: parents can adapt caregiving to meet children’s needs, while children’s support is more constrained by their own attachment insecurity.