The Influence of Fathers-to-be’s Attachment Experience to Parents of Origin in Childhood on Their Fetal Attachment: Examining the Mediating Effect of Romantic Attachment
AUTHOR : 우현경,채진영
INFORMATION : page. 39~54 / 2016 Vol.23 No.4
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of fathers-to-be’s attachment experience to parents of
origin in childhood on their fetal attachment, with their romantic attachment to their partner as a
mediating factor. The subjects consisted of 182 men in J province in Korea who completed measures on
three attachment scales during the third trimester of their partner’ pregnancies. Data were analyzed by
means of frequency, percentages, Cronbach’s reliability coefficient, and structural equation modeling through
AMOS 20.0. The findings were as follows. First, the degrees of fathers-to-be’s attachment experience to
parents of origin in childhood, romantic attachment and fetal attachment were all above the corresponding
median scores. Second, the model proposed by this research demonstrated the effectiveness of using
structural equation modelling as an analysis tool, showing that a romantic attachment had a partial
mediating effect on a fathers-to-be’s attachment experience to parents of origin in childhood and fetal
attachment, which was further shown by means of bootstrapping to be statistically significant. These
findings suggest that there is a need for fathers-to-be to feel securely attached to their wives in order to
form a strong fetal attachment.