Chinese adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment: The contribution of mothers’ attachment style and adolescents’ attachment to mother

Abstract

Drawing on attachment theory, this study examined the associations among mothers’ self-report attachment styles (i.e., anxiety and avoidance), adolescents’ attachment to mother, and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment (i.e., psychological difficulties, prosocial behavior, and self-control) in 425 Chinese mother–adolescent dyads. The results of path analysis based on the total sample showed that adolescents’ attachment to mother mediated the association between mothers’ avoidant, but not anxious, attachment style and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment. Moreover, the results based on multigroup comparison suggested that while adolescents’ attachment to mother significantly mediated the “avoidant attachment–psychosocial adjustment” link for both early and middle adolescents, it significantly mediated the “anxious attachment–psychosocial adjustment” link only for middle adolescents. In addition, the association between mothers’ anxious attachment and adolescents’ attachment to mother was larger for middle than for early adolescents, while the association between adolescents’ attachment to mother and self-control was larger for early than for middle adolescents. These findings implicate the importance of mothers’ and adolescents’ secure attachment to positive youth development.