Yet, some individuals grow up feeling that love from their caregivers is conditional upon living up to certain expectations, and thus gaining love from their parents may come at a steep price. That is, throughout life (Bowlby, 1973), humans desire to be loved for who they are by their caregivers. Moreover, the need to form positive attachments to caregivers may be a driving force from birth because it serves as an adaptive mechanism aiding in the child's cognitive and emotional development (Bowlby, 1969/1982). In other words, people innately crave and require frequent positive interactions and enduring positive attachments with significant others. In their seminal paper, Baumeister and Leary ( 1995) contended that all humans possess a strong need to belong. These results highlight the importance of parenting practices, specifically a positive family environment, for the development of schemas of the self as WOL from others. Overall, perceptions of parental conditional regard were associated with feeling WOL less often, and this association was due to the lack of a positive family environment and the presence of negative conditions. In Study 2, 211 individuals completed Likert-type scales assessing their perceptions of parental conditional regard, family environment and feelings of love worthiness. In Study 1, 91 individuals were asked to respond to open-ended questions about their feelings of parental conditional regard, as well as complete Likert-type questions about their family environment and feelings of love worthiness. Across two studies, undergraduate students were asked to report on perceptions of parental conditional regard, aspects of the family life growing up and how often they felt worthy of love (WOL). Furthermore, certain conditions within the family environment may exacerbate this effect. Yet, no research has examined whether feelings of love worthiness may be dependent upon conditional parental regard. Parental conditional regard is a parenting practice which may lead to negative outcomes for the child.

Unconditional love vs conditional love