Recalled Parental Bonding Interacts with Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphism in Modulating Anxiety and Avoidance in Adult Relationships

Abstract

Early interactions with significant individuals affect social experience throughout the course of a lifetime, as a repeated and prolonged perception of different levels of care, independence, or control influences the modulation of emotional regulatory processes. As many factors play a role in shaping the expectations and features of social interaction, in this study, we considered the influence of parental bonding and genetic allelic variation of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (rs53576) over levels of experienced anxiety and avoidance in 313 young adults belonging to two different cultural contexts, namely Italy and Singapore. Results highlighted a major effect of maternal characteristics, care, and overprotection, with differences between the two cultural groups. Additionally, the interaction between rs53576 and maternal overprotection suggested different environmental susceptibility in the Italian sample and the Singaporean one. Implications for clinical work and future steps are described in the Conclusion.

Serotonin Transporter Gene Polymorphisms and Maternal Overprotection Regulate Adult Social Expectations on Close Relationships

“…The present study extends previous knowledge on parent-infant attachment and adult attachment which characterizes social development [ 58 , 59 , 60 ]. The observed correlations between PBI and ECR-R dimensions almost replicate the attachment patterns reported by previous studies on an Italian sample [ 20 ]. These results indicate that the reported scores in parental caregiving are associated with the levels of adult attachment at distinct directionality: the higher the scores in parental (e.g., maternal) overprotection dimension, the higher the scores in anxiety and avoidance dimensions; conversely, the higher the scores in parental care dimensions, the lower the scores in the same ECR-R dimensions.…”

“…The evidence of a linear relationship between the PBI maternal overprotection and the ECR-R subscales meets the starting assumption on the prototype hypothesis, which postulates that the early relationship with the parents represent a shared basis for subsequent social experiences [ 63 ], underpinning romantic functioning and believes [ 64 ]. In reference to the attachment theory [ 65 ], individuals who experienced a negative relationship with the parent (high scores in maternal overprotection) would have shown higher levels in anxiety and avoidance in romantic relationship [ 20 ], as witnessed by the heightened scores obtained in the ECR-R dimensions. The current data suggest that a history of adverse maternal bonding may have a long-term impact on the adult attachment status [ 66 ].…”

“…The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The present research is part of a broader project investigating the relationship among genes, psychological traits related to parental bonding and adult relationships, and social behavior in an Italian population [ 20 , 25 , 32 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Participants were recruited among undergraduates of the University of Trento (Italy) through public announcements on students’ Facebook groups and rewarded with credits for their participation.…”

“…As a consequence, less adaptive parenting practices can be the early core of later anxiety and avoidance experienced in social relationships [ 18 , 19 ]. A recent investigation on two different cultural contexts found that maternal overprotection perceived during childhood was associated with increased anxiety in close adult relationships in a Western-representative country [ 20 ], while greater reported levels of maternal care were correlated to lower experienced avoidance [ 20 ]. A previous study by Riskind and colleagues highlights that increased paternal and low maternal overprotection levels were predictive of a cognitive vulnerability to preoccupation and anxiety [ 21 ].…”

Interpersonal Synchrony in the Context of Caregiver-Child Interactions: A Document Co-citation Analysis

“…Social interactions are crucial for humans since the first days of life. Not only do newborns largely depend on significant others in order to satisfy their fundamental needs, but the quality of early relational exchanges influence the infants' subsequent emotional, cognitive and social development (Belsky and Fearon, 2002 ; Malekpour, 2007 ; Groh et al, 2017 ; Bell, 2020 ; Cataldo et al, 2021 ). For this reason, studying the quality of early interactions has become the key to understanding typical and atypical trajectories that can emerge in the individual's development (Harrist and Waugh, 2002 ; Bertamini et al, 2021 ).…”