On the Links Between Attachment Style, Parental Rearing Behaviors, and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Non-Clinical Children

  We sought to investigate the relationships between negative family factors such as insecure attachment and adverse parental rearing, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a large sample of non-clinical children (N = 237) aged 9 to 12 years. All children completed a set of self-report questionnaires including a single-item measure of attachment style towards the mother and the father as well as an index of perceived parental rearing behaviors. Further, measures of internalizing symptoms (e.g., anxiety and depression) and externalizing symptoms (e.g., aggression) were completed. Results showed that perceived rearing behaviors of both mother and father (in particular rejection and anxious rearing) consistently accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Attachment style was found to play a less prominent role. Some support for gender-specific relationships was found, indicating that the presence of negative family factors in fathers had more impact on symptoms in boys, whereas the presence of such factors in the mothers had more influence on symptoms in girls. Altogether, these results suggest that in addition to common pathways by which both parents promote psychopathological symptoms in children, there may also be separate pathways by which the father or the mother may have a unique impact on the development of such symptoms in boys or girls respectively.     

听障青少年父母依恋、人格特质与孤独感的相关研究

通过对120名听障青少年施测艾森克人格问卷（EPQ）、儿童孤独量表（CLS）和父母同伴依恋问卷（IPPA）,探讨听障青少年父母依恋、人格特质与孤独感之间的关系.研究结果表明,父亲依恋沟通、信任、疏离均与孤独感呈显著负相关,而母亲依恋仅沟通维度与孤独感呈负相关,信任和疏离与孤独感相关不显著.在人格特质上,仅内外向维度与孤独感呈显著负相关.另外,内外向分别与父亲沟通和母亲沟通呈显著正相关.中介效应检验发现,内外向在父母沟通与孤独感之间存在部分中介效应作用,说明父母沟通能直接影响听障青少年孤独感的形成,同时也可通过内外向间接影响孤独感.     

Attachment relationships and physical activity in adolescents: The mediation role of physical self-concept

ObjectivesBased on the integration of attachment and physical self-perception perspectives, the present study examined links between adolescents' engagement in physical activity and their attachment relationships with mothers, fathers, and friends, respectively, and assessed the potential mediation role of physical self-perception in this link.Design and methodsUsing a cross-sectional design, questionnaire data was obtained from 767 adolescents (49% boys, M_age = 12.92, SD = .86) and structural equation modeling was used to examine relationships among variables.ResultsAttachment security with parents and friend was associated with higher levels of physical activity. There was partial support of the mediation role of physical self-perception, as adolescents who were securely attached to mother and friend perceived themselves as having better physical condition, which in turn predicted greater engagement in physical activity. The mediation role of physical self-perception between mother attachment and PA was stronger for female adolescents. Secure attachment to father had a direct positive effect on physical activity. The direct effect was strongest for male adolescents.ConclusionsOur findings highlight the importance of relationship-based intervention strategies to enhance and maintain healthy regular physical activity among adolescents.     

亲子依恋与农村留守青少年焦虑的关系:教师支持的保护作用

本研究以306名父外留守、147名双留守和288名非留守青少年为被试,以亲子依恋问卷、领悟社会支持量表和儿童焦虑量表为研究工具,考察了亲子依恋与留守青少年焦虑的关系以及教师支持的保护作用。结果发现：（1）双留守青少年的母子依恋、父子依恋安全性显著低于,焦虑水平显著高于父外留守和非留守青少年,后两组青少年之间差异不显著;（2）安全性母子依恋能降低父外留守青少年的焦虑水平,安全性父子依恋能降低非留守和双留守青少年的焦虑水平;（3）安全性母子依恋能补偿不安全父子依恋对父外留守青少年焦虑的影响;（4）教师支持既能降低非留守和双留守青少年的焦虑水平,也能增强安全性父子依恋对父外留守青少年焦虑的保护作用。     

Is early attachment security carried forward into relationships with preschool peers?

The association between early parent‐child attachment security and peer rejection among preschool children was examined. Children in three preschool classrooms (N = 37) participated. Mothers rated their children's attachment security at age 3 years on the Attachment Q‐Set (Waters, 1987). Sociometric ratings were collected from classmates at age 4 years through individual picture interviews. Teachers rated externalizing and internalizing behaviour exhibited at preschool. Lower attachment security was associated with greater subsequent peer rejection and higher externalizing and internalizing behaviour scores. An exploratory path model suggested that the linkage between early insecure attachment and later peer rejection may be mediated by externalizing behaviour.     

Experiences in Close Relationships Revised Child version (ECR-RC): Psychometric evidence in support of a Security factor

Attachment refers to the innate tendency to form strong and close interpersonal bonds, from infancy through adulthood. Many different ways to assess attachment have been developed, one of them being the use of self-report questionnaires. The Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised is one of the most commonly used instruments to assess adult and late adolescent attachment. Recently, a new and brief child version of this instrument has been published, the 12-item ECR-RC short form. The purpose of the current study was threefold: (1) to test the factorial structure of this form in a sample of Italian adolescents, (2) to test the loadings overlap between the mother and the father forms, and (3) to investigate factors reliability. Using a sample of 961 adolescents (M_age = 14.25, SD_age = 1.57), a series of Confirmatory Factor Analyses were performed. The Avoidance – Anxiety structure was not supported, whereas a factor structure including Anxiety, Avoidance, and Security, had a very good fit. Item loadings on these factors were largely equal across mother and father, and internal reliability was high. The results of this study show that the ECR-RC short form is a quick and reliable way to assess attachment in early adolescents. This study also initiates the proposal of an ECR-RC Security factor, to be further validated in future studies.     

小学高年级儿童亲子依恋的发展及其与同伴交往的关系

以武汉市三所普通小学四、五、六年级的505名学生为被试,用问卷调查、团体施测的方式,探讨亲子依恋与其同伴交往的关系,结果发现:儿童的母—子依恋安全性得分和对父母的信赖有显著年级差异,表现为随着年级的增长而下降,同时母—子依恋安全性得分显著高于父—子依恋;在儿童友谊质量、社交焦虑方面,父、母均有影响,在社会交往行为表现及好朋友提名分方面母亲的作用也是显见的;与双亲建立了双重安全依恋型的儿童获益最大,双重非安全依恋型的儿童损失最惨重。     

Differences in Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among Early Adolescent Subtypes Based on Attachment Security

The study examined the influence of adolescents’ secure attachment to both versus one parent on their psychosocial adjustment in terms of self and parent evaluations of internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems. The sample consisting of 8th grade adolescents (n?=?406; 178 girls) aged 12–14 years were classified into four subgroups based on their attachment security to their father and mother. The study aimed to test the differences in internalizing and externalizing problems among the four subgroups- of adolescents with secure attachment to both parents, to only mother, to only father and insecure attachment to father and mother. The results showed that more number of adolescents were classified as securely attached to mothers than to fathers. The group of adolescents who felt securely attached to both parents was psychosocially most well adjusted, while those with insecure attachment to both parents were most vulnerable to maladjustment. In addition, secure attachment only to one’s mother and not to one’s father was a protective factor against maladjustment, while secure attachment to father alone was not. The study helps to understand how parent-adolescent secure attachment contributed to differences in psychosocial adjustment among these subgroups of normal adolescents.     

Experiences of peer aggression and parental attachment are correlated in adolescents

Whether levels of parental attachment differentiate how individuals are peer victimised was studied in 13, 14 and 15 year olds (N = 204), who completed a modified version of the Direct and Indirect Aggression Scales (DIAS) and the parent sections of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA). Results showed a moderate negative correlation between Total Victimisation scores and Total Attachment scores (r = −.254, p = .001, CI₉₅ = [−.38, −.12]); the magnitude of correlations was similar for subscale scores and for data on both mother and father considered separately; data did not differ by gender of the respondent. Attachment to mother significantly exceeded attachment to father. The factor structure of the self-report DIAS was explored and a hierarchical solution suggested that it measures general experience of victimisation along with two lower order factors defined by experiences of either direct or indirect aggression.     

父母教养投入对青少年亲社会行为的影响:亲子依恋的中介作用

在北京、广东、河南、辽宁等省市的20所中小学中选取小学五年级、初中二年级和高中二年级学生共2370名,采用父母教养投入问卷（青少年版）、亲子依恋问卷和亲社会行为问卷,通过结构方程模型探讨青少年感知的父母教养投入行为对其亲社会行为的影响及其作用机制。结果表明：（1）青少年感知的父母教养投入显著正向预测青少年的亲社会行为,母亲的影响显著大于父亲;（2）亲子依恋在父母教养投入对青少年亲社会行为的影响中具有中介作用;（3）父亲和母亲教养投入影响青少年亲社会行为的作用机制存在差异,其中父亲教养投入通过父子依恋的完全中介作用对亲社会行为产生正向影响;母亲教养投入对亲社会行为的影响既会通过母子依恋的部分中介作用发挥积极作用,也会通过父子依恋的遮掩效应产生负向削弱作用。     

青少年父母、同伴依恋与社会适应性的关系

对519个初、高中生施测青少年父母同伴依恋量表(IPPA)、自尊(SES)、中学生社会适应性量表,以探讨青少年父母、同伴依恋的现状,以及它们和自尊、社会适应之间的关系.结果表明:(1)青少年总体依恋质量较高.同伴的依恋质量高于父母依恋质量.(2)青少年的父母依恋在性别上没有差异;女生的同伴依恋得分显著高于男生.父母依恋的发展呈先降后升的趋势,初一年级最高,初三年级最低;同伴依恋呈先升后降再升趋势,但未见显著差异.(3)父亲依恋对青少年的心理弹性预测力最强,母亲依恋对心理优势感预测力最强,同伴依恋对人际适应性预测力最强.这种影响通过自尊的部分中介作用而实现.     

Exploration of the links among fathers' unresolved states of mind with respect to attachment,atypical paternal behavior,and disorganized infant–father attachment

Atypical maternal behavior has consistently been identified as a precursor of disorganized infant–mother attachment, but to date, no research has examined the role of atypical paternal behavior in the development of disorganized infant–father attachment. This study aims to enhance our understanding and conceptualization of infant–father attachment by examining the role of fathers' unresolved states of mind and the display of atypical paternal behavior in the development of disorganized infant–father attachment. Thirty‐one middle‐class couples participated in this study. Maternal and paternal Adult Attachment Interviews (C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1996 ) were completed prenatally and at infant age 6 months, respectively. Infant–mother and infant–father dyads participated in the Strange Situation paradigm (M. Ainsworth, M. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978 ) when the infants were 12 and 18 months of age, respectively. The Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (E. Bronfman, E. Parsons, & K. Lyons‐Ruth, 1999 ) was used to assess maternal and paternal behavior during the Strange Situation. Maternal states of mind regarding attachment predicted infant–mother attachment relationships, and paternal states of mind predicted infant–father attachment relationships. Atypical maternal behavior was associated with infant–mother disorganized attachment; however, atypical paternal behavior did not predict infant–father disorganized attachment. Thus, it is possible that other factors, yet to be uncovered, might contribute to the development of infant–father disorganized attachment.     

Relationship Between Mother,Father, and Peer Attachment and Empathy With Moral Authority

We explored the relationship between mother, father, and peer attachment security, empathy, and moral authority in order to clarify certain problems of previous empirical research on such relationships. A sample of 202 Persian-speaking undergraduate students completed questionnaires pertaining to these constructs. The results revealed that mother and father attachment were significantly correlated with family, society welfare, and equality sources of moral authority, whereas peer attachment security was related only to society welfare and equality sources of moral authority. Out of the empathy subscales, only empathic concern was associated with moral authority sources. Empathic concern was also related to mother, father, and peer attachment, whereas perspective taking was correlated with mother and peer attachment. The combination of empathic concern and mother, father, and peer attachment predicted significant amount of variance of “principle source of moral authority” (including society welfare and equality sources). Findings support existence of a strong relationship between attachment security and the content of moral thought of adolescents, and findings redress an empirical imbalance in research literature on the relation of attachment and morality.     

The Communities That Care (CTC) Family Attachment Scale: Measurement Invariance Across Family Structures

Familial protective factors are an integral part of prevention approaches aimed at problematic behaviour in adolescents. However, there is scarce evidence on the role of familial protective factors in families deviating from the two-parent family configuration. For evaluating targeted (preventive) interventions, a reliable and valid measurement of familial protective factors is crucial. We investigated the factor structure of the Communities That Care (CTC) Family Attachment Scale and tested its measurement invariance in different family structures. Adolescents (n?=?2.459, grades 6–11) from Lower Saxony, Germany filled in the German version of the CTC Youth Survey. Our analyses focused on the CTC Family Attachment Scale measuring the adolescent’s attachment to the mother and the father with six items. We evaluated the postulated unidimensional structure of the scale by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and tested the measurement invariance using multigroup factor analyses across different family structures (two-parent family/single-parent family). We used SPSS V.23 and the R packages lavaan and semTools. The two-factor solution for the CTC Family Attachment Scale with one factor representing attachment to the mother and one indicating attachment to the father had an adequate model fit in the total sample (χ²(5)?=?29.938; p?<?.001; CFI?=?.996; TLI?=?.988; RMSEA?=?.050, SRMR?=?.019). This two-factor solution of the CTC Family Attachment Scale showed strong measurement invariance regarding adolescents living in a two-parent family vs. those living with a single parent. The two-factor CTC Family Attachment Scale appears to be a suitable measure to assess family attachment in both two-parent and single-parent families with German adolescents.     

Four‐model approach to adolescent–parent attachment relationships and adolescents' loneliness,school belonging,and teacher appraisal

This study tested monotropy, hierarchy, independence, and integration conceptual models of adolescent–mother and adolescent–father attachment to explain adolescents' perceived social interrelationships with extrafamilial attachment figures (peers, teachers). Participants included 356 Israeli adolescents (12–15 years). More adolescents were significantly classified as securely attached to mothers than to fathers, but high concordances emerged. Results supported two of the attachment models, hierarchy and integration, as explaining variation in adolescents' perceived extrafamilial interrelationships. As per the hierarchy attachment model, adolescent–mother attachment outweighed adolescent–father attachment to some extent in predicting adolescents' perceived social interrelationship measures. As per the integration attachment model, significant differences emerged on most social interrelationship measures between the 4 distinct subgroups: secure attachment to both parents, neither, only father, only mother. The Discussion section focuses on the unique importance of attachment to each parent for typically developing junior high students.     

Perceived Attachment Security to Father, Academic Self-Concept and School Performance in Language Mastery

This study examined the relations between 8–12-year-olds’ perceived attachment security to father, academic self-concept and school performance in language mastery. One hundred and twenty two French students’ perceptions of attachment to mother and to father were explored with the Security Scale and their academic self-concept was assessed with the French adaptation of the Self Perception Profile. Students’ grade point average in language mastery was obtained from teachers and their reading performances were evaluated with a written word identification test. Attachment to father was found to be the only significant predictor, among attachment variables, of children’s grade point average in language mastery even after controling for sex, age and cognitive performance. Finally, results confirmed the mediating role of academic self-concept in the relation between attachment to father and grade point average in language mastery.     

The factor structure of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA): A survey of Italian adolescents

Despite the intensive use of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), a measure of attachment which centres on individual differences in adolescents and their ability to evaluate their relationships with parents and peers, the factor structure of the inventory requires further investigation. This study of 1059 Italian adolescents compared the three models which are discussed in the literature: the one-factor model (attachment security), the two-factor model (trust-communication and alienation) and the three-factor model (trust, communication and alienation), and examined the influences of age and gender on the IPPA’s scores. Our findings provide support for the reliability of the latest and longer version of the IPPA (75-item). Factor analysis showed that the three-factor model had the best fit, although the three dimensions are strongly interrelated. Sixteen year olds had lower attachment security to their fathers than the results of the other adolescent age groups. Males reported lower alienation scores than females in the paternal form, while females had higher attachment security, trust and communication scores than males in the peers form.     

The contribution of social rank and attachment theory to depression in a non clinical sample of adolescents

This study explores the relative contribution of the overall quality of attachment to the mother, to the father and to peers (Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment scales), the style of attachment towards peers (Attachment Questionnaire for Children scale), the social rank variables (submissive behavior and social comparison), and sex and age variables in predicting the depression score (Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) on a non-psychiatric sample of 13-18 year old adolescents (n = 225). Results of our integrated model (adjusted R-Square of .50) show that attachment variables (overall quality of attachment to the father and to the mother), social rank variables (social comparison and submissive behavior), age and sex are important in predicting depressive symptoms during adolescence. Moreover, the attachment to peers variables (quality of attachment to peers, secure and ambivalent style of attachment) and sex are mediated by the social rank variables (social comparison and submissive behavior).     

Rejection and Acceptance Across Contexts: Parents and Peers as Risks and Buffers for Early Adolescent Psychopathology. The TRAILS Study

In a large sample of early adolescents (T2: n = 1023; M age = 13.51; 55.5% girls) it was investigated whether the effects of parental and peer acceptance and rejection on psychopathology (externalizing and internalizing problems) remain when taking into account both contexts simultaneously. Moreover, we examined whether acceptance in one context can buffer rejection in the other. It was found that when analyzing peer and parent effects simultaneously (1) the protective effect of parental acceptance and the risk effect of peer rejection were diminished; (2) the protective effect of peer acceptance and the risk-effect of parental rejection remained strong; and (3) peer acceptance buffered parental rejection but parental acceptance did not buffer peer rejection. The results imply that the parent and peer contexts are interdependent. Implications and directions for future research are given.