Attachment and Language Use in Adolescence: Integrating Research on Parent, Peer, and Romantic Partner Relationships

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

This symposium brings together developmental researchers investigating the context, function, and implications of adolescents' social language use across key attachment relationships: with parents, with close peers, and with romantic partners. Attachment security in adolescence has been identified as a strong predictor of future relational, occupational, and psychological functioning (Szwedo et al., 2017). By implementing two validated tools for linguistic analyses that have yet to be widely leveraged in teenage samples (LIWC and CUDP-A; Tausczik & Pennebaker, 2010; Hill, Claessen, Whitworth, & Boyes, 2020), we aim to uncover linguistic antecedents, drivers, and sequelae of attachment security development across adolescence.

The first presentation examines associations between verbal disfluencies and parental attachment in hospitalized vs. nonhospitalized teens, to understand the influence of hospitalization on attachment narratives

The second presentation describes explicit and implicit linguistic indicators of cohesion between teen peers, attachment states that predict language use, and implications for adjustment over time.

The final presentation seeks to provide context to high impact findings about couples' pronoun use by exploring romantic partners’ language use in conjunction with attachment behaviors.

The discussant is an accomplished scholar with experience analyzing the role of parent, peer, and partner relationships on individuals' functioning and psychological development. They are poised to situate these "research-lab" findings in a "lived experience" context, with a focus on the utility of findings to inform future directions in research and intervention science.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chairs

• Meghan A Costello, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Corey Pettit, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

Discussant

• Hannah Schacter, Wayne State University

Individual Presentations

• Associations Between Attachment and Verbal Fluency in Adolescents - Presenting Author: Abby M Rozenberg, University of California - Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Carla Sharp, University of Houston; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica L Borelli, University of California - Irvine

• Investigating the Function of Implicit and Explicit Linguistic Indicators of Cohesion Among Teen Peer Dyads - Presenting Author: Meghan A Costello, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Corey Pettit, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica Kansky, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Gabrielle Hunt, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Caroline K. Fowler, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Audrey G Alexander, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Joseph P Allen, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Linking Pronoun Use and Attachment Behaviors in Romantic Partner Conflict - Presenting Author: Corey Pettit, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Meghan A Costello, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica Kansky, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Gabrielle Hunt, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Caroline K. Fowler, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Audrey G Alexander, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Joseph P Allen, University of Virginia - Charlottesville