Dr. Wang’s interpretation:
Type 1: Affectionate constraint = high care and high control
Also known as: “Helicopter parents” — They tend to a young plant with deep love—but keeping it inside a protective glass case.
You may have grown up with parents whose love was steady and deeply involved. Their care came with warmth and protection, but also a level of control that limited your autonomy. Decisions were often made for you, challenges intercepted before you could face them. This style—often called helicopter parenting—is high in care but restricts opportunities for independence.
You likely felt emotionally supported and developed a strong sense of loyalty to family, sensitivity to expectations, and a drive to be responsible and “good.” But over time, that closeness may have carried hidden costs.
You might hesitate when making independent choices, fear disappointing others, or struggle to set emotional boundaries. The internalized belief that love must be earned through perfection can shape how you relate to family, to partners, to work, and to yourself.
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Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) Parker, G., Tupling, H., & Brown, L. B. (1979). A parental bonding instrument. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 52(1), 1–10.
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Wilhelm, K., Niven, H., Parker, G., & Hadzi-Pavlovic, D. (2005). The stability of the Parental Bonding Instrument over a 20-year period. Psychological Medicine, 35(3), 387–393.
Kitamura, T., Suzuki, T., Sugawara, M., & Tanaka, T. (2009). Predicting neuroticism and extroversion from the parental bonding instrument in a Japanese sample: A structural equation modeling approach. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 50(1), 86–92.
Choi, K. R., Hwang, M., & Smith, J. A. (2016). Psychiatric symptoms associated with parental bonding styles in young adulthood. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1193
Hussain, M., Iqbal, S., Khan, S., Hamdani, A. R., & Sindhu, Z. M. (2023). Examining the long-term effects of authoritative parenting on the development of adolescents’ self-esteem and emotional regulation. Journal of Population Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology, 30(18), 1015–1031.
Parental bonding and adult attachment style: The relationship between perceptions of parenting and adult attachment style in a Japanese sample. (2016). International Journal of Women’s Health and Wellness, 2(016).