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Cited by 44Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPsychometric Methodologies and TestingAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Parental bonding: psychometric properties and association with lifetime depression and anxiety disorders

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Kullberg, Marie-Louise, Maciejewski, Dominique, van Schie, Charlotte C., Penninx, Brenda W. J. H., Elzinga, Bernet M.·2020·Psychological Assessment
DOI 10.1037/pas0000864
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Abstract

In epidemiology and psychiatry research, the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) is commonly used to assess offspring's perception on maternal and paternal behavior during childhood. We tested the 2- versus 3-factor structure of the 16-item version and assessed measurement invariance across sex and across lifetime depressed, anxious, comorbid affected, and healthy participants. Subsequently, we investigated PBI dimensions across sex and psychopathology groups using structural equation modeling. Participants were 2,069 adults with a lifetime affective disorder and healthy controls, ages 26-75, from the Netherlands. Our findings support the 3-factor solution of the distinct mother and father scales, distinguishing care, overprotection, and autonomy (previously "authoritarianism"). Moreover, measurement of the PBI appeared to be invariant across groups, indicating that means and relations can be reliably compared across sex and psychopathology groups. Men reported more maternal overprotection and paternal lack of care, whereas females reported higher paternal and maternal lack of autonomy and maternal lack of care levels compared with males. Lack of care and lack of autonomy levels were elevated in all affected groups, with the comorbid group showing highest levels of all 3 PBI dimensions. Adults with anxiety disorders reported heightened maternal lack of autonomy levels compared with the depression group and healthy controls. Adults with a depressive disorder reported heightened paternal lack of care levels as compared with the anxiety group and healthy controls. We advocate to use the 3-factor structure and conclude that suboptimal parental bonding, mainly lack of care and lack of autonomy, is associated with lifetime anxiety and depression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

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  • No direct relationship between control and depression.

    “No direct relationship between control and depression.”

    From A Systematic Review of “Helicopter Parenting” and Its Relationship With Anxiety and Depression (2022) · cites this paper as Kullberg et al. (2020)

    In “Lack of Care, Overprotection, and Autonomy: Differences Across Psychopathology Groups” (page unavailable), the paper reports that lack of autonomy—a restrictive aspect of parental control—was elevated in the lifetime-depression group relative to unaffected participants. It does report no elevated overprotection among participants with depression alone, but that narrower finding does not support a blanket claim of no relationship between control and depression. The cross-sectional study does not establish whether the association is causal. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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  • The remaining 2 studies did not find a relationship between parental control and depression.

    “The remaining 2 studies did not find a relationship (Finkelstein et al., 2001; Kullberg et al., 2020).”

    From A Systematic Review of “Helicopter Parenting” and Its Relationship With Anxiety and Depression (2022) · cites this paper as Kullberg et al., 2020

    In “Lack of Care, Overprotection, and Autonomy: Differences Across Psychopathology Groups” (page unavailable), the paper reports that people with depression alone did not report higher parental overprotection than healthy controls. But it also reports elevated lack of autonomy in the depression group and higher overprotection in the group with both depression and anxiety. The claim is therefore too broad if “parental control” includes those forms of parenting. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • Adults with anxiety disorder reported heightened maternal control.

    “Adults with anxiety disorder reported heighten maternal control.”

    From A Systematic Review of “Helicopter Parenting” and Its Relationship With Anxiety and Depression (2022) · cites this paper as Kullberg et al. (2020)

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Blatt, S. J., & Homann, E. (1992). Parent-child interaction in the etiology of dependent and self-critical depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 12, 47-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0272-7358(92)90091-L Bowlby, J. (1997). Attachment and loss: Attachment (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Random House. · DOI
  2. Burbach, D. J., & Borduin, C. M. (1986). Parent-child relations and the etiology of depression: A review of methods and findings. Clinical Psychology Review, 6, 133-153.
  3. Oakley-Browne, M. A., Joyce, P. R., Wells, J. E., Bushnell, J. A., & Hornblow, A. R. (1995). Adverse parenting and other childhood expe- rience as risk factors for depression in women aged 18 -44 years. Journal of Affective Disorders, 34, 13-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ 0165-0327(94)00099-U This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. · DOI
  4. Rosseel, Y. (2012). "lavaan: An R package for structural equation model- ing." Journal of Statistical Software, 48, 1-36. Retrieved from http:// www.jstatsoft.org/v48/i02/
  5. Spence, J. T. (1993). Gender-related traits, gender ideology: Evidence for a multifactorial theory. Journal of Personality-Social Psychology, 64, 624 -635.
  6. Wittchen, H. U. (1994). Reliability and validity studies of the WHO- Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI): A critical review. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 28, 57-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ 0022-3956(94)90036-1 · DOI · Paper page

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Authors
Kullberg, M.-L., Maciejewski, D., van Schie, C. C., Penninx, B. W. J. H., & Elzinga, B. M.
Affiliations
  • Leiden University (NL)
  • Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
  • Amsterdam Public Health (NL)
ORCID
Venue
Psychological Assessment
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2020-08
Volume
32
Issue
8
Pages
780-795
ISSN
  • 1040-3590 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-134X
DOI
10.1037/pas0000864
OpenAlex
W3030239650
Cited by
44
References
84
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1
FWCI
2.20
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychological Assessment (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (10-000-1002)
  • Leiden University
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Keywords
Parental Bonding Instrument, parental bonding, maternal care, paternal care, overprotection, lack of autonomy, lack of care, factor structure, measurement invariance, sex differences, lifetime depression, anxiety disorders, comorbidities
MeSH terms
Adult, Aged, Anxiety Disorders, Child, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Depressive Disorder, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Netherlands, Object Attachment, Parent-Child Relations, Psychological Tests, Psychometrics, Case-Control Studies, Parenting

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