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Unique and interactive associations between maternal and paternal attachment predicting depressive symptoms in Iranian female adolescents
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Unique and interactive associations between maternal and paternal attachment predicting depressive symptoms in Iranian female adolescents

Minoo Pouravari, Alannah Shelby Rivers, Guy Diamond and Guy Bosmans
Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), v 45(6), p562
01 Mar 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08968-5
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Abstract

Psychology Psychology, Multidisciplinary Social Sciences
Although adolescent attachment to both mothers and fathers should be considered conjointly to fully understand adolescents' emotional problems, more research is needed to examine their associations. This study aimed to extend the recent study by Rivers et al.'s (2022), which conducted response surface analyses in a clinical sample of adolescents, by applying the same methodology to an Iranian sample of female adolescents. The results of Rivers et al.'s (2022) study demonstrated that for attachment anxiety, attachment to the mother is a stronger predictor of depressive symptoms than attachment to the father. For attachment avoidance, they found that attachment toward mothers and fathers more equally explained and interacted in the explanation of depressive symptoms. The current study further extended that prior study by conducting similar analyses in a community sample and within a different cultural context (Iran). Analyses were conducted on a sample of 586 female adolescents aged between 15 and 18 years (M = 16.35, SD = 0.77). The findings of the current study closely align with those of Rivers et al. (2022), indicating that, regarding anxious attachment, the association between adolescents' depressive symptoms and attachment anxiety toward mothers was weaker when attachment anxiety toward fathers was high (and vice versa). For avoidant attachment, the association between adolescents' depressive symptoms and attachment avoidance toward fathers was weaker when attachment avoidance toward mothers was high (and vice versa). These patterns of results appear comparable across at least two different cultures, suggesting potential cross-cultural similarities, though further research with more diverse samples is needed.

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