Young adult romantic relationships are particularly well-suited to redirect pathways initiated early in childhood given the close ties between the developmentally-salient psychosocial tasks defining each age (Collins & van Dulmen, 2006). In Eriksonian (1963) terms, the early childhood issue of hope (i.e., trust vs. mistrust) is particularly relevant to the young adult issue of love (i.e., intimacy vs. isolation) and the formation of close relationships in young adulthood. Continuity between these two developmental achievements, wherein early parenting quality initiates pathways toward later romantic quality, provides evidence for this view (Overbeek et al., 2007; Roisman, Collins, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2005; Simpson, Collins, Tran, & Haydon, 2007).
