Parent-Adolescent Relationship Quality, Ethnic Identity, and Romantic Attachment in Asian American Emerging Adults

Given increasing diversity in the U.S., ethnocultural differences in identity formation need exploration. We use attachment theory to understand the associations among ethnic identity, parent-adolescent relationship quality, and romantic attachment quality. We examined emerging adults’ perceived relationship quality with parents during their adolescence in relation to current ethnic identity strength and romantic attachment avoidance and anxiety along with gender and ethnicity among East Asians, Southeast Asians, and South Asians (N = 358 undergraduate students). While bivariate correlations only found a positive relation to maternal connection and romantic avoidance for the overall sample, the path analyses provided some support for the main hypotheses. Emerging adults’ perceived maternal connection during adolescence was negatively associated with current romantic attachment avoidance among emerging-adult men, and perceived paternal connection during adolescence was negatively related to current romantic attachment anxiety among emerging-adult women. Ethnic identity moderated the relation between maternal connection and anxiety for women and men.