Parental attachment style, but not environmental quality, is associated with use of opposite-sex parents as a template for relationship partners

Animal and human studies have suggested that some individuals use sexual imprinting, in which a template is created based on traits of one's opposite-sex parent (OSP), to assist in choosing potential mates. The current study investigates the role of parental attachment and early environment in the variance of using a sexual imprinted template. Two hundred twenty-nine undergraduate students from a Midwestern university completed the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (Rohner, 1990), answered questions on early environment, and rated traits of their opposite-sex parent, ideal partner, and acceptable partner. Results show varying evidence for sexual imprinting. In particular, there are correlations between secure attachment and stricter adherence to an opposite-sex parent template, especially for women, but no association between early environment and template variance.