Mother-adolescent Attachment Research Articles

Evaluation of a Couple- and Family-Based Intervention: Implications for the Fathering Vulnerability Hypothesis

SYNOPSIS Objective. This study evaluated a preventive intervention to reduce destructive interparental conflict, increase constructive communication, and improve emotional security in interparental, parent-child, and family-wide relationships. Emotional Security Theory provided the theoretical bases for this program. The present focus was on an evaluation of the fathering vulnerability hypothesis, which posits that fathers and their family relationships are particularly susceptible to the effects of destructive interparental conflict. Thus, fathers may benefit especially from an intervention to improve marital and family conflict. Design. Two hundred twenty-five families with an adolescent (112 females; 11 to 17 years old, M = 13.23 years; SD = 1.57) participated, randomly assigned to a parent-adolescent condition (PA; n = 75), a parent-only condition (PO; n = 75), or a control condition (n = 75). Dyadic growth curve modeling evaluated the intervention’s effects on changes in the father-child relationship and fathers’ reports of marital quality over the course of a year. Results. Consistent with the fathering vulnerability hypothesis that fathers would benefit more from couple- and family-focused interventions, positive effects of the intervention on marital quality and attachment were identified for fathers but not mothers. Additionally, further tests directly comparing the strength of each condition’s impact on fathers and mothers revealed that the intervention had stronger positive effects on father-adolescent attachment than mother-adolescent attachment. Conclusions. These results provide a broader understanding of the beneficial effects of the present intervention and offer evidence in the context of a randomized-controlled design in support of the fathering vulnerability hypothesis.

The effect of positive parenting on adolescent life satisfaction: the mediating role of parent-adolescent attachment.

This study explores the impact of positive parenting on adolescents' life satisfaction and the mediating role of parent-adolescent attachment, based on the family systems theory and attachment theory. The sample included 5,047 adolescents (2,353 males, 2,694 females) with a mean age of 16.65 (SD = 1.21) from Henan Province, China. This study used the Positive Parenting Scale, the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment and the Satisfaction with Life Scale to survey 5,047 adolescents. The results showed that: (1) father's positive parenting positively predicted adolescent life satisfaction, while mother's positive parenting did not significantly predict adolescent life satisfaction; (2) Father-adolescent attachment and mother-adolescent attachment play a mediating role in the relationship between fathers' positive parenting, mothers' positive parenting, and adolescent life satisfaction, respectively; (3) Differences in the mechanisms of father's positive parenting and mother's positive parenting on adolescent life satisfaction. Among them, mothers' positive parenting positively predicts mother-adolescent attachment, which in turn affects adolescent life satisfaction. On the other hand, fathers' positive parenting can influence adolescent life satisfaction through two pathways: by positively predicting father-adolescent attachment and by positively predicting mother-adolescent attachment. The research findings indicate that father's and mother's positive parenting have different direct effects on adolescent's life satisfaction, and both can indirectly influence adolescent life satisfaction through the mediating variables of father-adolescent and mother-adolescent attachment. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications for promoting family education and adolescent psychological well-being.

Maternal adult attachment and mother-adolescent attachment: the chain mediating role of marital satisfaction and harsh parenting.

This study explored the relationship between maternal adult attachment and mother-adolescent attachment based on the attachment theory and spillover hypothesis of family systems theory. A survey research was conducted on 992 mothers and adolescents using a convenience sampling method. A survey research was conducted on 992 Chinese mothers and adolescents using a convenience sampling method. The results indicated that (1) maternal adult attachment avoidance and anxiety were significantly negatively related to maternal marital satisfaction and mother-adolescent attachment, and significantly positively related to maternal harsh parenting; maternal adult attachment anxiety was a significant direct predictor of mother-adolescent attachment; (2) Maternal marital satisfaction and maternal harsh parenting mediated the significant effect between maternal adult attachment and mother-adolescent attachment, specifically pathways contained three: a separate mediating effect of maternal marital satisfaction, a separate mediating effect of maternal harsh parenting, and a chain mediating effect of maternal marital satisfaction and maternal harsh parenting. The findings suggest that maternal adult attachment, marital satisfaction, and harsh parenting behaviors can have significant effects on adolescents' mother-adolescent attachment.

Randomized preventive intervention for families: Adolescents' emotional insecurity and attachment to fathers.

The family communication project was a randomized preventive intervention designed to support families by improving interparental conflict behavior and the parent-child relationship, with the ultimate goal of decreasing emotional insecurity in the interparental relationship. Evidence for programs that may benefit father-adolescent attachment and adolescents' emotional insecurity in the marital context is a gap in the literature. According to the fathering vulnerability hypothesis, father-child attachment security might be expected to especially benefit from improvements in interparental conflict behavior. The present study evaluated whether there were any indirect effects of this intervention on emotional insecurity via attachment with each parent, with a particular interest in the role of father-child attachment. Cross-lagged panel models revealed that the parent-adolescent (PA) treatment condition predicted significantly decreased emotional insecurity at 6 months through posttest attachment to fathers, relative to the control and parent-only conditions. Mother-adolescent attachment was improved in the PA condition at posttest but was not a significant mediator of subsequent adolescent emotional insecurity. Thus, the intervention's effects on father-adolescent attachment plays an important role in explaining the long-term effects of the intervention on emotional insecurity about the interparental relationship. Results also call attention to the value of including adolescents in interventions to improve interparental conflict and parent-child relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Factors Influencing Adolescent Anxiety: The Roles of Mothers, Teachers and Peers.

Grounded in social–ecological system theory, the present study tested the mediating effects of maternal psychological flexibility and mother–adolescent attachment on the relationship between maternal adult attachment and adolescent anxiety as well as the moderating effects of teacher support and peer support on the relationship between mother–adolescent attachment and adolescent anxiety. In total, 1139 Chinese mothers and adolescents completed a set of questionnaires, including the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, Parental Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The results revealed that maternal adult attachment had a positive impact on adolescent anxiety. The relationship between maternal adult attachment and adolescent anxiety was chain mediated by maternal psychological flexibility and mother–adolescent attachment. In addition, teacher support and peer support had moderating effects on the relationship between mother–adolescent attachment and adolescent anxiety. These findings support the systematic social ecosystem perspective and highlight the differences in the effects of different maternal adult attachment styles, teacher support, and peer support on adolescent anxiety.

Parents’ Attachment Styles and Adolescents’ Regulatory Emotional Self-efficacy: The Mediating Role of Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents in China

Guided by attachment theory, this longitudinal study examined the mediating role of parent-adolescent attachment on the relation between parents’ attachment styles and adolescents’ regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE, including managing negative affect and expressing positive affect). Five hundred seventy-three Chinese junior high school students (46% male; aged 11–14 years, M = 12.76 years, SD = 0.74) completed measures of RESE at T1, parent-adolescent attachment at T2 (six months later), and RESE at T3 (another six months later), while 573 students’ parents (one student only has a parent, 241 fathers and 332 mothers) completed measures of adult attachment styles (anxiety and avoidance) at T1. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that father-adolescent attachment mediated the association between fathers’ attachment anxiety and adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative affect, while mother-adolescent attachment marginally mediated the relation between mothers’ attachment anxiety and adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative affect and expressing positive affect. These findings suggest that parents’ attachment anxiety could predict their children’s attachment to parents, in turn, impacting their children’s regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

The Predictive Effect of Parental Adult Attachment on Parent-Adolescent Attachment: The Mediating Role of Harsh Parenting.

This study examines the relationship between parental adult attachment and parent–adolescent attachment and investigates the mediating role of harsh parenting from the perspective of family systems theory. The sample included adolescents and their parents from 1,030 families in Henan Province, China. Measures included the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment Scale, and Harsh Parenting Scale. The results showed that paternal avoidance negatively predicts father–adolescent and mother–adolescent attachments, while maternal avoidance and maternal anxiety negatively predict father–adolescent attachment and mother–adolescent attachment, respectively. Paternal harsh parenting not only mediated the relationship between paternal adult and father–adolescent attachment but also between paternal adult and mother–adolescent attachment. However, maternal harsh parenting only plays an intermediary role between maternal adult and mother–adolescent attachment. The results of the study show that compared with the adverse effects of maternal adult attachment and maternal harsh parenting on parent–adolescent attachment, paternal avoidance and paternal harsh parenting more negatively affect parent–adolescent attachment, which is not conducive to familial harmony.

Family relationships and DSM-5 personality domains in adolescence: A person- and variable-based approach

The present study aimed to examine the role of family relationships (i.e., interparental conflict, mother-adolescent and father-adolescent attachment) on adolescents' dysfunctional personality domains at the person- and variable-based level. Adolescents from five middle schools in mainland China were recruited in this sample (N = 644, Range age = 13–17, 40.7% male). Four family relationship profiles, labeled as disengaged, moderate, cohesive, and conflictual families, were reliably identified utilizing multiple dimensions of interparental conflict and parent-adolescent attachment. These profiles simultaneously showed evidence of spillover and compensatory patterns within family relationships. Meanwhile, multiple regression analyses found that the multiple mediating effects of adolescents' appraisals of interparental conflict and father-adolescent attachment were significant. In addition, there was a significant serial mediating role of mother-adolescent attachment and father-adolescent attachment between the associations of interparental conflict properties and adolescents' dysfunctional personality domains. Our findings underscore that both person-based and variable-based approaches for studying family relational dynamics are useful to illuminate spillover and compensatory patterns of family influence in adolescents' dysfunctional personality development.

Coparenting Conflict Behavior, Parent-Adolescent Attachment, and Social Competence with Peers: An Investigation of Developmental Differences.

Coparenting conflict, which refers to the conflict between parents regarding parenting, has played a central role in children's development and adjustment. The perspective of family and peer systems linkage has suggested that coparenting conflict is linked to peer-related development, but this view has yet to be clarified. This study aimed to investigate the relationships among coparenting conflict behavior, parent-adolescent attachment, and social competence with peers as well as the developmental differences of these relationships in early, middle, and late adolescence within Chinese families. Families (N = 808) that included fathers, mothers, and focal adolescents (53% female, Mage = 13.66 ± 2.53) participated in this study. Fathers and mothers reported their coparenting conflict behaviors separately, and the adolescents rated parent-adolescent attachment and social competence with peers. Results showed that fathers' overt coparenting conflict behavior was related to social competence with peers through the indirect effects of father- and mother-adolescent attachments, whereas mothers' covert coparenting conflict behavior was related to social competence with peers through the indirect effect of mother-adolescent attachment in the total sample. The multigroup analysis revealed that these relationships were significant in early and late adolescence. In addition, fathers' covert coparenting conflict behavior was related to mother-adolescent attachment in late adolescence and all the relationships were insignificant in middle adolescence. The findings support the systematic perspective of family-peer system linkage and highlight the gender differences of parents in the effects of coparenting conflict on social competence with peers and the developmental differences during adolescence.

Maternal gatekeeping behavior, mother involvement and mother-adolescent attachment, and differences in their developmental stages

Maternal gatekeeping behavior, mother involvement and mother-adolescent attachment, and differences in their developmental stages

Internal Representations of Interparental Conflict and Withdrawn/Depressed Symptoms: The Moderating Role of Mother–Adolescent Attachment

Internal Representations of Interparental Conflict and Withdrawn/Depressed Symptoms: The Moderating Role of Mother–Adolescent Attachment

Parent–Adolescent Attachment and Academic Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Self-Worth

Within the theoretical framework of attachment theory, this study examined associations between adolescents’ attachment relationships with both mother and father and their academic adjustment, and explored the potential mediation role of self-worth in the associations. Participants were 384 Chinese adolescents (49.6% male, average age = 15.13 years) from public schools in Shanghai, China. They completed self-report measures of mother–adolescent attachment, father–adolescent attachment, general self-worth, academic engagement and school grades. The results indicated that adolescents’ attachments to both parents were associated with higher levels of academic engagement. There was partial support of the mediating role of self-worth, as adolescents who had high levels of parent–adolescent attachment were more likely to have high levels of self-worth, which in turn enhanced their academic engagement and then improved high school grades. The findings highlighted the importance of parental attachment-based intervention strategies to promote and maintain academic adjustment among adolescents.

Prospective Relations among Low-Income African American Adolescents' Maternal Attachment Security, Self-Worth, and Risk Behaviors.

This study examined prospective mediating relations among mother-adolescent attachment security, self-worth, and risk behaviors, including substance use and violence, across ages 13–17 in a sample of 901 low-income African American adolescents. Path analyses revealed that self-worth was a significant mediator between attachment security and risk behaviors, such that earlier attachment security predicted self-worth 1 year later, which in turn, predicted substance use, weapon carrying, and fighting in the 3rd year. Implications for the role of the secure base concept within the context of urban poverty are discussed.

Longitudinal Dynamics of Depressogenic Personality and Attachment Dimensions in Adolescence: An Examination of Associations with Changes in Depressive Symptoms

Depressogenic personality and attachment are two major factors related to the development of adolescents' depressive symptoms. However, no previous longitudinal studies have examined simultaneously both vulnerability factors in relationship to depressive symptoms. The present study examined associations between intra-individual change in adolescents' depressogenic personality orientations (i.e., sociotropy and autonomy), dimensions of mother-adolescent attachment (i.e., anxiety and avoidance), and depressive symptoms. The sample of the present research consisted of 289 high school students (mean age = 12.51 years at Time 1, 66% female) participating in a 3-wave cohort-sequential design. Latent growth curve modeling revealed no significant intra-individual change in depressogenic personality orientations but significant changes in dimensions of attachment and symptoms of depression. Initial levels of sociotropy were not related significantly to changes in attachment dimensions and depressive symptoms. High initial levels of autonomy were associated with increases in attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and depressive symptoms. In addition, results suggested that the association between initial levels of autonomy and increases in depressive symptoms was mediated by increases in attachment anxiety and avoidance. The discussion focuses on the status of depressogenic personality and attachment as risk factors for depression.

Longitudinal Associations Between Perceived Parent-Adolescent Attachment Relationship Quality and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms in Adolescence

This longitudinal study examined the direction of effects between adolescents’ generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms and perceived parent-adolescent attachment relationship quality, as well as the moderating role of gender and age. 1,313 Dutch adolescents (48.5% boys) from two age cohorts of early (n = 923, Mage = 12 at W1) and middle (n = 390, Mage = 16 at W1) adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their attachment relationship to parents and GAD symptoms in four waves. Cross-lagged path analyses demonstrated that adolescents’ GAD symptoms and perceived father-adolescent attachment relationship quality bidirectionally negatively affected each other over time. For mothers, adolescents’ GAD symptoms negatively predicted perceived mother-adolescent attachment relationship quality over time. The within-wave correlated residuals between perceived attachment relationship quality with fathers and GAD symptoms were stronger for boys than for girls and stronger for the cohort of middle adolescents than for the cohort of early adolescents. This study demonstrates that both the parents’ and the adolescents’ gender as well as the adolescents’ age affects the relation between adolescents’ GAD symptoms and perceived parent-adolescent attachment relationship quality.

The Role of Parenting and Mother-Adolescent Attachment in the Intergenerational Similarity of Internalizing Symptoms

Parental depression has been identified as a risk factor for children's and adolescents' internalizing problems. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the role of maternal parenting behaviors (i.e., responsiveness and autonomy-support) and adolescents' representations of attachment to their mother (i.e., anxiety and avoidance) in the intergenerational similarity of internalizing symptoms. The sample was heterogeneous and consisted of referred (42%) and non-referred adolescents (N=238, 31% female) and their mothers. Both adolescents and mothers reported on internalizing symptoms, parenting behaviors and all adolescents reported on mother-child attachment. Results showed that parenting behaviors and mother-adolescent attachment explain at least part of the intergenerational congruence of internalizing symptoms. Moreover, there were meaningful and specific associations between dimensions of parenting and dimensions of attachment. Higher responsiveness was primarily related to lower avoidance and higher autonomy-support was primarily related to lower anxiety. The current study's results suggest that maternal depressive symptoms relate to maladaptive parenting strategies and insecure attachment representations in adolescents. Further, both attachment anxiety and avoidance seem to relate positively to adolescents' internalizing symptoms. Targeting both parenting and attachment may form a fruitful approach to prevent and treat internalizing problems in adolescence.

Parent-Adolescent Processes and Reduced Risk for Delinquency

Using a U.S. sample of 454 adolescents of Mexican descent from two-parent families, this study investigated the roles of parental monitoring and parent-adolescent attachment in reducing the risk for delinquency for Mexican American adolescents and found that these parent-adolescent processes, particularly with regard to the mother and the adolescent, were related to a reduced risk for delinquency. This study also investigated the role of gender as a moderator in the effect of parent-adolescent processes on delinquency. Results indicated that gender moderated the relationship between mother-adolescent attachment and delinquency; further investigation demonstrated that mother-adolescent attachment was related to a reduced risk for delinquency for boys; the relationship between mother-adolescent attachment and delinquency risk was less apparent for girls.

Suicidal Ideation in Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients as Associated With Depression and Attachment Relationships

Examined suicidal ideation in adolescent psychiatric inpatients as associated with depressive symptoms and attachment to mother, father, and peers. Fifty-nine adolescent psychiatric inpatients (25 male, 34 female) completed self-report measures of suicidal ideation, depressive symptoms, and attachment. Attachment to mother accounted for significant variation in levels of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. In addition, attachment to peers accounted for significant variation in suicidal ideation and girls' (but not boys') depressive symptoms. However, after adjusting for depressive symptoms, attachment variables failed to contribute additional variance in suicidal ideation. Self-reported depressive symptomatology remained the strongest predictor of suicidal ideation, regardless of its order in the regression analyses. Prevention and treatment efforts may focus on mother-adolescent attachment and peer attachment (particularly in girls) to reduce risk for depression and suicidal ideation.