Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the relationship among aggressiveness, parenting practices, and attachment security in adolescents, assessing maternal and paternal effects separately. Two different subsamples of adolescents between 12 and 16 years old participated in the study (n = 157): 67 adopted adolescents (61.2% girls) and 90 non-adopted adolescents (56.7% girls). Partial and full mediation models were analyzed in multi-group structural equation models (using maximum likelihood estimates), allocating non-adoptive and adoptive adolescents into two different groups. Results showed that whereas acceptance/involvement of each parent predicted attachment security towards the corresponding parental figure, only the father’s coercion/imposition predicted aggressiveness, and only attachment security to the mother was a (negative) predictor of adolescent’s aggressiveness. The partial mediation model provided the most parsimonious explanation for the data, showing no differences between adopted and non-adopted subsamples and supporting a good model fit for both boys and girls in a multi-group invariance analysis. The implications of these results are discussed in light of the protective effects of care relationships in early adolescence (vs. late adolescence) as well as the differential role of parent figures.
Highlights
Aggressiveness is a complex, polymorphic and multidimensional phenomenon characterized by individual variability in the intensity of the manifestations in each of its dimensions: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral [1,2,3]
Despite the fact that invariance had been proved, separate values for non-adoptive and adoptive adolescents in the paths of the models are provided in Figure 2, for future possible systematic reviews on adoption research
This study examined the effects of parenting practices and attachment security on aggressiveness, assessing the distinct contribution of mothers and fathers in a sample of adopted and non-adopted early adolescents
Summary
Aggressiveness is a complex, polymorphic and multidimensional phenomenon characterized by individual variability in the intensity of the manifestations in each of its dimensions: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral [1,2,3]. It is known that the quality of family relationships established during childhood and adolescence makes a relevant contribution to the development of aggressiveness [9,10], but different stages of adolescence require adjusted parenting specific to evolving developmental needs [11]. In consonance with such specificity, the effects of parental behaviors on early and late adolescents’ aggressiveness need to be assessed
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