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Attachment, mating, and parenting

An evolutionary interpretation

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Abstract

A modern evolutionary perspective emphasizing life history theory and behavioral ecology is brought to bear on the three core patterns of attachment that are identified in studies of infants and young children in the Strange Situation and adults using the Adult Attachment Interview. Mating and parenting correlates of secure/autonomous, avoidant/dismissing, and resistant/preoccupied attachment patterns are reviewed, and the argument is advanced that security evolved to promote mutually beneficial interpersonal relations and high investment parenting; that avoidant/dismissing attachment evolved to promote opportunistic interpersonal relations and low-investment parenting; and that resistant/preoccupied attachment evolved to foster “helper-at-the-nest” behavior and indirect reproduction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State University, S110 Henderson Bldg., 16802, University Park, PA

    Jay Belsky

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  1. Jay Belsky
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Correspondence to Jay Belsky.

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Work on this paper was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH44604) and the Sara Scaife Family Foundation.

Jay Belsky is Distinguished Professor of Human Development, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State University. Trained in the traditions of main-stream developmental psychology and family sociology, he has broadened his research interests to include the determinants and consequences of family relations in infancy and early childhood, the effects of day care, the etiology of child maltreatment, and the ecology of human development more generally.

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Belsky, J. Attachment, mating, and parenting. Hum Nat 8, 361–381 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02913039

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