Conference Agenda

Despite extensive research on temperament, attachment, and coregulation, studies that systematically integrate these factors and their transactional dynamics into a unified developmental framework remain limited. Existing work is largely fragmented, with separate research traditions focusing on one or two factors in isolation, while the mechanisms through which these factors influence one another during infancy have rarely been articulated. This fragmentation highlights the need for an overarching conceptual framework that synthesizes insights from these traditions.

In this talk, we review key theoretical perspectives and empirical findings from the literature on temperament, attachment, and coregulation and integrate them within a novel conceptual transactional framework, proposed as the GENTLE-model.

Within the GENTLE-model, coregulation is conceptualized as a shared, relational process that emerges from ongoing interactions between child and caregiver. Temperament shapes how children engage with and respond to regulatory support, whereas parental characteristics influence the sensitivity, structure, and consistency of these exchanges. Through repeated experiences of adaptive coregulation, children gradually develop relatively stable expectations about caregiver availability and responsiveness, which in turn give rise to secure attachment-patterns.

From this perspective, temperament and attachment are understood as complementary and dynamically interacting systems. Attachment provides the relational context in which temperament is expressed and shaped, while temperament modulates children’s sensitivity to relational experiences and their impact over time. Crucially, parental factors, including parental well-being, shape caregivers’ sensitivity to children’s individual needs, thereby influencing the quality of coregulatory interactions. By integrating these processes into a single developmental model, GENTLE offers a coherent conceptual framework for understanding individual differences in attachment and highlights coregulation as a key mechanism linking child and caregiver characteristics to attachment-outcomes. Moreover, it provides a foundation for future research on early risk markers of transdiagnostic maladaptive outcomes in children by encouraging a more integrative approach across traditions in clinical, developmental, and personality psychology.

Research has extensively documented the benefits of self-compassion in adults and increasingly highlights its value in younger populations. Despite this, the developmental factors shaping self-compassion remain less well understood. Drawing on theoretical frameworks that locate its roots in early relational experiences, this study examines intergenerational similarity in self-compassion between mothers and children and explores whether child attachment quality mediates this association. Additionally, we investigate the role of early temperamental negative affectivity in shaping child self-compassion, directly and indirectly through attachment. The sample consisted of 104 mother-child dyads. Self-compassion in children and mothers, as well as child attachment, were assessed when children were aged 10–11, while early negative affectivity was measured via parent-report at age 2. Structural equation modeling indicated that higher maternal self-compassion was indirectly linked to greater child self-compassion, specifically through lower levels of child anxious attachment. Early negative affectivity (measured at age 2) prospectively predicted lower self-compassion 8 years later but showed no association with attachment. These findings provide initial evidence that self-compassion may be intergenerationally transmitted through attachment processes. Beyond caregiving influences, the results also suggest a role for early temperament in the development of child self-compassion, offering insights into pathways that may foster children’s emotional resilience.

Parental burnout (PB) is a chronic stress syndrome related to one’s parental role that affects around 10% of parents in Belgium. PB also has harmful consequences for parents and children (e.g., suicide ideation or violent parenting behaviors). Despite evidence that family relational factors play a substantial role in PB, attachment has received little attention in this literature. To date, few studies have examined PB associations with parents' attachment, and none, to our knowledge, have considered child attachment. Yet parental psychopathology has been shown to affect child attachment security and to play a role in the intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns.

This talk will present preliminary findings from a study that aimed to (a) examine the associations between PB and the anxiety and avoidance dimensions of romantic attachment, (b) explore the link between PB and child attachment, and (c) investigate whether PB accounts for part of the association between parents' romantic attachment and child attachment.

French-speaking parents (N=310) completed online self-report measures of PB (the Parental Burnout Assessment) and romantic attachment (the Experience in Close Relationships-Revised). A subsample of parents of children aged 2 to 5 (N=152) also completed a measure of child disorganization, avoidance and ambivalence (the Attachment Insecurity Screening Inventory). Correlations analysis and prediction models were conducted to achieve our objectives.

Our results suggest that not all dimensions of insecure attachment are equally associated with PB. Specifically, romantic attachment anxiety, and child avoidance and disorganization appear particularly relevant. Moreover, PB appears to partially account for the association between romantic attachment and child attachment.

These findings suggest that attachment may be a relevant factor in both understanding and treating PB. They also call for further investigation of PB as a possible intervening factor in the intergenerational transmission of attachment.

Objective. The aim of the current preregistered cross-sectional study was to examine whether in parents with high anxious (characterized with a negative model of self), dismissing (characterized with a negative model of others), and fearful attachment styles (characterized with a negative model of self and of others), the link between parental burnout and violence toward the offspring is stronger. Background. Past research has shown that parental burnout exacerbates violence toward the offspring, but the correlation is not perfect (r = .49), which suggests that not all parents in burnout out are violent, and that moderators might therefore be at play. Method. Participants (N = 794) answered an online questionnaires one time, through Prolific. Parental burnout, violence, and attachment styles were measured through the Parental Burnout Assessment, the Parental Violence Scale, and the Relationship Questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses were performed to test the moderating role of anxious, dismissing, and fearful attachment styles. Results. Parental burnout and all attachment styles are significantly related to violence. However, only fearful attachment style significantly potentiated the relation between parental burnout and violence. Conclusion. In parents with high fearful attachment style, the link between parental burnout and violence toward the offspring is stronger. Results are discussed in light of the role of internal models of self and others. Implications. Anxious, dismissing, and fearful attachment styles should systematically be investigated when dealing with burnt out parents, as some may be associated with a higher risk of violence toward the offspring.