Adolescent Attachment and Social Acceptance: The Mediating Role of Expectations

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A key tenet of attachment theory is that people with negative experiences in close relationships develop insecure attachment styles, and that attachment styles shape experiences in other relationships. Indeed, a large body of research demonstrates that insecure attachment is associated with negative peer relations in children (Pallini et al., 2014) and adolescents (Allen et al., 2007). Evidence indicates that biased social information processing (SIP) could be a mechanism explaining these links (e.g., Rah & Parke, 2008; Simons et al., 2001). Much of this evidence examines adolescents’ SIP of peers’ intentions; research examining the SIP process of expectations as a mechanism between adolescent attachment style and peer relations has been more limited (yet see Rudolph and colleagues (1995) for research with children). Given longitudinal evidence that peer rejection generates risk for problems such as psychopathology and delinquent behavior (Kim & Cicchetti, 2010), it is crucial to further examine processes that could drive negative peer relations.
STUDY AIMS: The purpose of this study is to examine the role of negative expectations of peers’ behaviors in explaining links between adolescent attachment style and negative peer relations by testing two sets of hypotheses: 1) Attachment anxiety (fear of rejection and abandonment) and attachment avoidance (discomfort with closeness) will predict adolescents’ negative expectations for peers’ behaviors. 2) Negative expectations will mediate links between attachment style (avoidance and anxiety) and low peer acceptance.
METHOD: Participants were 2100 eleventh graders part of a study about attachment and social relations (Dykas et al., 2008). Adolescents completed questionnaires about their attachment style (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998) and their expectations of peers’ behaviors (Children's Expectations of Social Behavior Questionnaire - Peer; CESBQ-P; Rudolph & Hammen, 1995; adapted by Cassidy & Woodhouse, 1997). Social acceptance scores were derived using a sociometric instrument (Asher & Dodge, 1986) wherein participants’ classmates reported (5-pt scale) how much they like being in activities with the participant.
RESULTS: Fixed effects multiple regression analyses conducted in Mplus revealed that adolescent attachment anxiety (ß = 0.24, p < .001) and avoidance (ß = 0.17, p <.001) were both associated with negative expectations for peers’ behaviors(R2 = 0.20, p < .001). Two bias-corrected bootstrapped mediation models were tested using the Model Indirect Mplus Procedure (Stride et al., 2015).There were significant negative indirect effects of anxiety 95% CI [-0.06 – -0.02] and avoidance 95% CI [-0.05 – -0.02] on social acceptance, mediated by negative expectations.
DISCUSSION: Results indicate that adolescents’ insecure attachment is associated with expectations that peers will behave in negative ways, and that these expectations explain an indirect association between attachment and social acceptance. Findings are consistent with previous work on SIP, attachment, and peer relations, and expand on this work by illustrating the role of expectations. Results may reflect adolescents’ negative expectations predicting their own negative behaviors, eliciting negative reactions, therefore reducing peer acceptance and reinforcing negative expectations.

Authors

• Megan Haley Fitter, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Martha Davis Straske, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paige Whittenburg, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Knoll, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jude A. Cassidy, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author