Maternal Avoidant and Anxious/Ambivalent Attachment and Children's Anxiety-Withdrawal: The Serial Indirect Associations of Parental Technoference and Prosocial Behavior

Family-related factors play an important role in children's socio-emotional adjustment during early childhood. Although maternal insecure attachment has been consistently associated with parenting processes and children's socio-emotional development, the mechanisms through which these attachment styles are associated with children's anxiety-withdrawal remain insufficiently understood. Parental technoference and children's prosocial behavior have been identified as potential mechanisms underlying this association; however, studies examining these variables within an integrated model are limited. This study was conducted to examine the significant serial indirect association of parental technoference and prosocial behavior in the associations between maternal avoidant and anxious/ambivalent attachment and anxiety-withdrawal among preschool children. To test the proposed associations, a mediation model based on structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed. The study sample comprised 608 preschool children attending independent public preschools in the central districts of Denizli, Türkiye, and their parents. Of the participating children, 356 (58.6%) were girls and 252 (41.4%) were boys, ranging in age from 60 to 72 months. The findings indicated that parental technoference and children's prosocial behavior serially mediated the associations between maternal avoidant and anxious/ambivalent attachment and children's anxiety-withdrawal. The findings further suggest that reducing parental technoference and fostering children's prosocial behavior may be relevant to understanding the association between maternal avoidant and anxious/ambivalent attachment and children's anxiety-withdrawal.