The Association Between Parent–Child Attachment and Academic Adjustment: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Academic adjustment is an important task for students, traditionally encompassing three major constructs: academic motivation (e.g., academic self-efficacy), engagement (e.g., persistence with schoolwork), and achievement (e.g., grade point average). Although theoretical links between parent–child attachment and academic adjustment have been proposed, comprehensive meta-analyses investigating this relationship are lacking. To achieve a more thorough understanding, we incorporated data from children and adolescents, considering both categorical and continuous attachment measures. Through a series of multilevel meta-analyses, we examined the magnitude of the relationship between parent–child attachment and academic achievement, motivation, and engagement. We retrieved 178 effect sizes from 45 studies assessing 47 independent samples (53,619 students) through a systematic literature search. The key findings are as follows: attachment security was positively related to academic achievement (r = .132), while attachment insecurity, whether avoidant (r = − .154) or anxious (r = − .081) attachment, was negatively associated with academic achievement. Moreover, attachment security was positively related to motivation (r = .161) and engagement (r = .229). Notably, the type of attachment measures moderated the association between attachment security and academic achievement. In addition, gender was found to moderate the association between attachment security and academic motivation. Our findings are crucial for understanding the association between parent–child attachment and academic adjustment.