| Attachment parenting is a parenting style that emphasizes parental empathic responsiveness to the emotional, physical, and intellectual needs of the child. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which the domain of attachment parenting is present, and if so to define the parenting factors necessary for the identification of attachment parenting. For this, the Attachment Parenting Scale (APS) that focuses on the parental role and that establishes a standardized attachment parenting score was developed. The scale allows for a comparison of attachment parenting with conventional Western parenting.;Attachment parenting, for the purpose of this research endeavor, was operationally defined as a total score that is within one standard deviation above or below the mean total APS score, which is comprised of the scores of eight subscales that represent different domains of attachment parenting practices and beliefs. The subscales include responsive caregiving, breastfeeding, positive discipline, cosleeping, holding and touching, parental confidence, proactive parental attitudes, and attitudes towards conventional and non-conventional education. The last three domains were not considered fundamental to attachment parenting, but it was assumed that in combination with the other domains, they are often representative of this parenting style.;The research findings indicated that mothers who strongly identify with attachment parenting are more confident in their parenting roles, feel more in tune with their children, and trust their mothering instincts more than mothers who do not strongly identify or do not identify at all with the attachment parenting style. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between identification with the attachment parenting style and the number of attachment parenting practices and philosophies endorsed by respondents. It is possible to ascertain from the results that the factor domains that comprise APS are internally consistent. In conclusion, as determined by the results of the study, the APS is an effective tool for identifying and differentiated between attachment-oriented mothers and age-matched mothers with a generalized or unspecified parenting style. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
