Parental behaviors, romantic attachment, and mental health in Latino emerging adults

The purposes were to examine: (a) the relationship between perceived parenting (support, psychological control), secure romantic attachment, and generalized anxiety, happiness, and quality of life in Latino emerging adults, and (b) whether perceived parental behaviors indirectly predicted generalized anxiety, happiness, and quality of life through secure romantic attachment. Self-report data were collected from 1,142 Latino emerging adults (M = 19.27 years) at a university in southern California. Findings from the current study showed that perceived support, and psychological control were significantly correlated to secure romantic attachment, generalized anxiety, happiness, and quality of life in the expected directions. Furthermore, secure romantic attachment was significantly and negatively correlated with generalized anxiety and significantly and positively correlated with happiness and quality of life. Path analyses showed partial support for secure romantic attachment mediating the relationship between parental behaviors and mental health. Specifically, secure romantic attachment mediated the relationships between (1) parental psychological control and all three indicators of mental health, and (2) parental support and happiness. These results may be beneficial to parents, family life educators, and mental health practitioners working with emerging adults.