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Parenting, Temperament, and Attachment Security as Antecedents of Political Orientation: Longitudinal Evidence From Early Childhood to Age 26

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Abstract

This article examines early childhood antecedents of adults' political orientation. Using longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we investigate associations between parenting beliefs and behaviors, child temperament, and attachment security during early childhood in relation to adult political ideology and party affiliation at age 26 years (N = 1,364). Young children's fearful temperament and anxious attachment security, as well as mothers' authoritarian parenting beliefs in early childhood, predicted conservative political orientations at age 26. Children's abilities to focus attention and avoidant attachment security predicted liberal orientations. These findings provide evidence that multiple aspects of early developmental experience-temperament, parenting, and infant-mother attachment-are associated with later political orientations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
BRIEF REPORT
Parenting, Temperament, and Attachment Security as Antecedents of Political
Orientation: Longitudinal Evidence From Early Childhood to Age 26
Christopher M. Wegemer and Deborah Lowe Vandell
University of California, Irvine
This article examines early childhood antecedents of adults’ political orientation. Using longitudinal data
from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and
Youth Development, we investigate associations between parenting beliefs and behaviors, child temper-
ament, and attachment security during early childhood in relation to adult political ideology and party
affiliation at age 26 years (N1,364). Young children’s fearful temperament and anxious attachment
security, as well as mothers’ authoritarian parenting beliefs in early childhood, predicted conservative
political orientations at age 26. Children’s abilities to focus attention and avoidant attachment security
predicted liberal orientations. These findings provide evidence that multiple aspects of early develop-
mental experience—temperament, parenting, and infant–mother attachment—are associated with later
political orientations.
Keywords: political development, parenting, temperament, attachment, conservativism
Historically, studies have found that developmental experiences
prior to adulthood have enduring effects on political orientation
across the life span (Sears & Brown, 2013). Questions regarding
the nature and persistence of childhood influences on political
orientation have resurfaced (Astuto & Ruck, 2010;Holbein, 2017;
Patterson et al., 2019;Torney-Purta, 2017). Recent work in polit-
ical psychology has conceptualized ideology as motivated social
cognition, reframing individual political differences in terms of
personality, needs, attitudes, and beliefs (Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski,
& Sulloway, 2003;Jost, 2017). Clarifying the developmental
mechanisms that underlie differences in political orientation re-
mains an important task for developmental psychology. The pres-
ent study advances research by linking parenting, temperament,
and attachment in early childhood to three aspects of political
orientation in adulthood: ideological conservatism, Republican
Party affiliation, and Democratic Party affiliation.
In a series of seminal studies, Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik,
Levinson, and Sanford (1950) used retrospective questionnaires
and interviews to explore the relationship between authoritarian-
ism and parenting (particularly in early childhood), concluding that
conservatives were more likely than liberals to report that their
parents used harsh and punitive parenting practices. A large body
of literature subsequently investigated the relationship between
parenting practices and beliefs and the political orientation of their
offspring (Altemeyer, 1981;Duckitt, 2001;Rokeach, 1960). Con-
ceptual frameworks regarding the enduring effects of parenting
have typically relied on personality theory to understand differ-
ences in the development of ideologies (Adorno et al., 1950;
This article was published Online First May 7, 2020.
XChristopher M. Wegemer and XDeborah Lowe Vandell, School of
Education, University of California, Irvine.
A cooperative agreement (5 U10 HD027040) between the study inves-
tigators that included Deborah Lowe Vandell and the Eunice Kennedy
Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development sup-
ported the design and data collection of the Study of Early Child Care and
Youth Development (SECCYD) from birth through age 15 years. The age
26 study design, data collection, and analyses were supported by a grant
from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (G-2017-00786) to Deborah
Lowe Vandell. We are grateful to SECCYD site coordinators (Susan Dell,
Wendy Wagner Robeson, Carol Rangel, and Janet Gouge Johns) and the
research team at UC Irvine (Andrea Karsh, Stephanie Soto-Lara, Khamia
Powell, Olaitan Jimoh, Lea Ibalio, and Michael Mayfield) for their tireless
efforts to locate study participants and to coordinate data collection for the
age 26 follow-up. Christopher M. Wegemer developed the study concept.
Deborah Lowe Vandell was one of the principal investigators of the
NICHD SECCYD since its inception and oversaw the age 26 follow-up.
Christopher M. Wegemer participated in the design of the age 26 survey
and data collection. Both authors contributed to the design of the current
study. Christopher M. Wegemer performed the data analysis and interpre-
tation under the supervision of Deborah Lowe Vandell. Christopher M.
Wegemer drafted the manuscript and Deborah Lowe Vandell provided
feedback. Both authors approved the final version of the manuscript for
submission. Finally, we thank the study participants for their willingness to
be a part of this longitudinal follow-up of a project that began shortly after
their birth.
Survey instruments and data sets for the current study are available from
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/series/00233.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Christo-
pher M. Wegemer, School of Education, University of California, Irvine,
217 Verano Place, Irvine, CA 92617. E-mail: cwegemer@uci.edu
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.
Developmental Psychology
© 2020 American Psychological Association 2020, Vol. 56, No. 7, 1360–1371
ISSN: 0012-1649 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000965
1360
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