{
  "abstract": "Introduction. Attachment parenting (AP) became popular for it promotes responsive caregiving, but has been criticized for over-extensively translating attachment research into challenging parenting standards, mirroring detrimental intensive-parenting beliefs that adversely affect parental health. Meanwhile, evidence on AP remains limited and assessments of AP-beliefs and AP-practice are lacking. This study aims to develop and validate an AP-questionnaire and test the associations between AP and parental mental health and explore the mediating role of intensive-parenting beliefs. Methods. In a preregistered cross-sectional online-survey, 1664 parents (98.5% mothers) of children aged up to six years answered an extensive item-list assessing AP-beliefs and AP implementation into practice, an intensive parenting questionnaire, and mental health measures. Confirmatory factor analyses were used for AP-questionnaire validation and correlation- and mediation-analyses for exploring the association between AP and mental health. Results. A 26-item AP-questionnaire was extracted that assesses AP-beliefs and AP- practice, both for the global AP-approach and seven individual core-principles. AP-indicators consistently showed small/minimal correlations with better mental health, whereas mediation analyses revealed parallel, opposing pathways: a positive, direct association from AP to mental health (possibly explained via parental fulfilment) and adverse indirect pathways through intensive-parenting beliefs (challenge-/self-sacrifice and essentialist-beliefs). Conclusion. AP may be neither uniformly beneficial nor harmful. Rather, it can foster parental fulfilment which increases parental well-being, but also instil dysfunctional beliefs about sacrifice and unavoidable strain that increase parental-stress. To improve evidence-based personalized parenting-recommendations, longitudinal research is needed to disentangle when AP fosters positive parental identity and when it reinforces parental vulnerabilities.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Björn Schlier"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hanna Laura Meder"
    },
    {
      "name": "Mira-Pauline Grapentin"
    },
    {
      "name": "Nora Imlau"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2jbbkjshab978.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/8f5wm_v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "2jbbkjshab978",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/8f5wm_v1/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Attachment"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Clinical Psychology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Developmental Psychology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Health Psychology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Mental Health"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Social and Behavioral Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3207|Attachment and Relationship Dynamics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213542640",
  "pdf_url": "https://osf.io/8f5wm/download",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-16",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2jbbkjshab978.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:54Z",
      "native_id": "8f5wm",
      "source": "osf",
      "url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/8f5wm_v1/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "bepress:Clinical Psychology",
      "subfield": "psychiatry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Healthy attachment for the parents? An investigation on the association between attachment parenting and parental mental health.",
  "title_text": "Healthy attachment for the parents? An investigation on the association between attachment parenting and parental mental health.",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:54Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2jbbkjshab978",
  "venue": "PsyArXiv",
  "versions": []
}