Poster #129 - Adolescent Psychosocial Adjustment: The Contribution of Mothers’ Romantic Attachment and Adolescents’ Maternal Attachment

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Adolescence is a developmental period marked with enormous changes and these changes impose substantial challenges for adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Compared to people of other ages, adolescents are more likely to display a wide range of adjustment problems, such as using substances, engaging in unprotected sex, committing juvenile violence, experiencing emotional turmoil, and so forth (Collins & Steinberg, 2008; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). Attachment has been identified as a crucial factor affecting youth psychosocial adjustment (e.g., Li, Delvecchio, Lis, Nie, & Di Riso, 2015; Sümer & Harma, 2015). In the family context, not only adolescents’ parental attachment but also parents’ romantic attachment plays a significant role in youth psychosocial adjustment. However, scant research has examined how parents’ romantic attachment and adolescents’ parental attachment go hand in hand to influence youth psychosocial adjustment. We assumed that parents with attachment problems are likely to have unhealthy marital relationship and increased parenting stress, both of which would hinder adolescents’ secure attachment to parents, which in turn lowers psychosocial adjustment. This research aimed to address this assumption.

A convince sample of 425 mother-adolescent dyads (42.1% boys; M adolescent age=13.97 years, SD=1.67; M mother age=41.15 years, SD=3.41) were recruited from secondary schools in Guangzhou, an economically developed metropolitan located in Southern China. Mothers answered the Experience in Close Relationship scale (ECR) to assess their avoidant and anxious attachment, and the parent-report Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-P) to assess their adolescent children’s psychological difficulties. Adolescents provided their ratings on the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment-Revised (only attachment to mother subscale was used), the self-report version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Self-Restraint subscale of the Adolescent Self-Consciousness Questionnaire which assessed their self-control ability.

Data were collected at different time points. Specifically, at the parents’ meeting held in the middle of the fall semester, mothers who attended the meeting were solicited to participate in the current project. At this time, mothers who wished to undertake the project provided their consent and filled in questionnaires (including the ECR and demographic variables). One week later, their adolescent children were asked to fill in a battery of questionnaires (including the IPPA-R and the RSES) for the first time. Another week later, adolescents were asked to answer self-report questionnaires (including the SDQ and the Self-Restraint subscale) for the second time assessing other adjustment outcomes. After that, mothers were asked to fill in the SDQ-P at home, brought by their children from school.

Results of path analysis conducted in Mplus 7.0 showed that mothers’ avoidant and anxious attachment predicted increased adolescent psychological difficulties (composite score averaging mother- and self-report SDQ). Moreover, mothers’ avoidant attachment also predicted adolescents’ reduced self-esteem and adolescents’ maternal attachment. Importantly, adolescents’ maternal attachment mediated the association between mothers’ avoidant attachment and all the three adjustment outcomes.

In conclusion, this research suggests that mothers’ avoidant rather than anxious attachment may be a core reason of adolescents’ insecure attachment towards mothers, which further affects youth psychosocial adjustment.

Author

• Jianbin Li, The Education University of Hong Kong
  Presenting Author