Developmental patterns in security of attachment to mother and father in late childhood and early adolescence: associations with peer relations

Fathers' contributions to attachment in adolescence and adulthood: the moderating role of race, gender, income, and residential status

Fathers play a critical yet underappreciated role in adolescent development. To examine contributions of fathers' parenting to attachment in adolescence and adulthood, this longitudinal study followed 184 adolescents from ages 13-24. At age 13, adolescents reported on their fathers' parenting behavior and were observed in a father-teen conflict task; at ages 14 and 24, they completed the Adult Attachment Interview. Adolescents who lived with their father showed higher attachment security at age 14 (Cohen's d = .72), compared to those with non-residential fathers. Fathers' positive relatedness and support for teens' psychological autonomy predicted attachment security at age 14. Fathers' physical aggression predicted attachment insecurity in adolescence, whereas fathers' verbal aggression predicted insecurity in adulthood, illuminating developmental shifts. Pathways to security were moderated by father residential status, adolescent gender, and race. Findings underscore the importance of fathers' presence, autonomy support, and non-aggression in predicting adolescents' state of mind in close relationships.

A Latent Transition Analysis of Aggression Victimization Patterns During the Transition from Primary to Middle School

School transitions provide contexts for adolescents to reconstruct peer relationships and re-establish social positions. Scarce research has captured the transition of aggressor and victim roles during this period and examined associated factors. To investigate the stability and shifts of aggressor and victim roles following the transition to middle school, this study conducted latent transition analysis with 1261 Chinese adolescents (32.6% female, Mage in Grade 6 = 12.1 years, SD = 0.7). Three subgroups were identified across Grades 5 to 8: aggressive-victims, victims and uninvolved. Adolescents were more likely to transition from aggressive-victim and victim roles to the uninvolved group during the transition to middle school compared to the transitions within the same educational phase. Males and those with insecure parental attachment were at higher risk of being and remaining in the involved groups. The findings underscore the dynamic nature of adolescent aggression and victimization and highlight the transition to middle school as a critical window for interventions aimed at helping adolescents disengage from aggression and victimization.

The efficacy of an evidence-based parenting program in preventing child maltreatment in mainland China

BACKGROUND

There is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of online parenting programs for preventing child maltreatment in low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the online Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children (PLH-YC) program in preventing child maltreatment among Chinese families specifically.

METHODS

A quasi-experiment was conducted, wherein 274 parents with children aged 2-9 years were assigned to either the online PLH-YC group (n = 135) or a waitlist control group (n = 139). Data were collected at baseline and one week after intervention. A difference-in-differences (DiD) design with propensity score weighting was used to estimate the between-group difference for child maltreatment as well as the associated risk and protective factors.

RESULTS

Compared to the parents in the control group, parents in the online PLH-YC intervention reported a significant reduction in the occurrence of corporal punishment (b = -1.21; 95 % CI [-2.37, -0.03]), emotional abuse (b = -3.09; 95 % CI [-5.36, -0.82]), and general maltreatment (b = -4.94; 95 % CI [-8.86, -1.02]) as well as an increased frequency of positive parenting strategies (b = 6.46; 95 % CI [2.21, 10.72]). Additionally, parents with high levels of depressive symptoms were significantly more likely to drop out of the program, and those with lower education levels engaged in fewer sessions.

CONCLUSION

The online PLH-YC program can benefit families with young children by reducing the incidence of child maltreatment through improved positive parenting strategies. More randomized controlled trials with long-term follow-ups are required to further verify the accuracy of the results obtained in this study.

Student Burnout in Children and Adolescents: The Role of Attachment and Emotion Regulation

In an effort to explain the factors contributing to the development of student burnout, a construct that has received attention in relation to academic outcomes, including burnout, is emotion regulation. Further, attachment theory has been used to explore the variations in the use of particular emotion regulation strategies, and attachment has received support as a contributing factor. The aim of the study is to explore the role of attachment security and emotion regulation strategies associated with student burnout symptoms in a sample of 602 Romanian children and adolescents (55% female) aged 8-16 (M = 10.45) from 18 schools. A secondary objective was to explore the gender differences in burnout symptoms. The results show that attachment security negatively predicts student burnout symptoms. Further, a higher attachment security positively predicts the use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies, which, in turn, are negatively related to student burnout. Emotion regulation strategies mediate the relationship between attachment and burnout symptoms. No gender differences have been identified. The study has practical implications for both parents and specialists, bringing to attention the importance of secure attachment in children, which could further encourage the use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies.

Continuity of psychopathology v. resilience across the transition to adolescence: role of hair cortisol and sensitive caregiving

BACKGROUND

The transition to adolescence implicates heightened vulnerability alongside increased opportunities for resilience. Contexts of early life stress (ELS) exacerbate risk; still, little research addressed biobehavioral mediators of risk and resilience across the adolescent transition following ELS. Utilizing a unique cohort, we tested biosocial moderators of chronicity in adolescents' internalizing disorders v. resilience.

METHOD

Families exposed to chronic war-related trauma, v. controls, were followed. We utilized data from three time-points framing the adolescent transition: late childhood (N = 177, Mage = 9.3 years ± 1.41), early adolescence (N = 111, Mage = 11 0.66 years ± 1.23), and late adolescence (N = 138, Mage = 15.65 years ± 1.31). In late childhood and late adolescence children's internalizing disorders were diagnosed. At early adolescence maternal and child's hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), maternal sensitivity, and mothers' post-traumatic symptoms evaluated.

RESULTS

War-exposed children exhibited more internalizing disorders of chronic trajectory and mothers were less sensitive and more symptomatic. Three pathways elucidated the continuity of psychopathology: (a) maternal sensitivity moderated the risk of chronic psychopathology, (b) maternal post-traumatic symptoms mediated continuity of risk, (c) trauma exposure moderated the association between child internalizing disorders at late childhood and maternal HCC, which linked with child HCC. Child HCC linked with maternal post-traumatic symptoms, which were associated with child disorders in late adolescence.

CONCLUSION

Results demonstrate the complex interplay of maternal and child's biosocial factors as mediators and moderators of risk chronicity across the adolescent transition following trauma. Findings are first to utilize maternal and child's HCC as biomarkers of chronic stress v. resilience during adolescence, a period of neural reorganization and personal growth that shapes the individual's lifetime adaptation.

Exogenous testosterone administration is associated with differential neural response to unfamiliar peer's and own caregiver's voice in transgender adolescents

Changes in gonadal hormones during puberty are thought to potentiate adolescents' social re-orientation away from caregivers and towards peers. This study investigated the effect of testosterone on neural processing of emotional (vocal) stimuli by unfamiliar peers vs. parents, in transgender boys receiving exogenous testosterone as a gender-affirming hormone (GAH+) or not (GAH-). During fMRI, youth heard angry and happy vocal expressions spoken by their caregiver and an unfamiliar teenager. Youth also self-reported on closeness with friends and parents. Whole-brain analyses (controlling for age) revealed that GAH+ youth showed blunted neural response to caregivers' angry voices-and heightened response to unfamiliar teenage angry voices-in the anterior cingulate cortex. This pattern was reversed in GAH- youth, who also showed greater response to happy unfamiliar teenager vs. happy caregiver voices in this region. Blunted ACC response to angry caregiver voices-a pattern characteristic of GAH+ youth-was associated with greater relative closeness with friends over parents, which could index more "advanced" social re-orientation. Consistent with models of adolescent neurodevelopment, increases in testosterone during adolescence may shift the valuation of caregiver vs. peer emotional cues in a brain region associated with processing affective information.

Parental Emotional Availability and Family Functioning in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa Subtypes

Emotional availability (EA) is a complex construct describing the emotional bond between parents and child, and it refers to support, sensitivity, warmth and closeness. Few studies have investigated the perception of parental EA and its association with dysfunctional eating pattern. The aim of the study is to explore the perception of mothers' and fathers' EA of adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) and any differences between the two subtypes of binge-purge (B/P) or restrictive (R) AN. Furthermore, it investigates the association of parental EA with AN symptomatology and with patients' perception of family functioning, which is identified as a maintenance factor for AN. A total of 60 adolescents between 12 and 18 years and their parents (n = 120) were recruited in two eating disorder (ED) specialized care centers. Patients completed the LEAP and the FACES IV questionnaires evaluating parental EA and family functioning, respectively. Results showed no difference between AN subtypes, but a greater perception of mother when compared to father EA was found. Moreover, the EA construct was found not to be associated with ED symptomatology but with a greater positive family functioning. Our study is the first that explores EA in AN, and results suggest the importance of considering parents' emotional engagement as part of the treatment core, together with the eating symptomatology management.

Social anxiety mediates the effect of attachment to parents on friendships and loneliness during the college transition

The main goal of this study was to investigate direct and indirect effects of attachment to parents on the formation of friendships, satisfaction with friends, and loneliness over the transition to college. Social anxiety and gender were tested as a possible mediator and moderator respectively. A total of 210 college freshmen at a large university in Spain participated in at a baseline assessment and a six-month follow-up assessment. Results demonstrated indirect effects of attachment to parents on ease forming friendships, satisfaction with friends, and loneliness through social anxiety, and a direct effect of attachment to loneliness. Gender did not play a moderating role. Taken together, these results suggest that programs to support the development of healthy social relationships across the college transition may be particularly beneficial for youth with challenges in familial relationships, and that screening for social anxiety may identify those students who would particularly benefit from support.

Parents can't see me, can peers see me? Parental phubbing and adolescents' peer alienation via the mediating role of parental rejection

BACKGROUND

Parental neglect has been shown to be associated with adolescents' peer alienation. However, few previous studies have considered parental phubbing as a new form of social neglect during parent-child interactions related to adolescents' peer alienation, and much less is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship.

OBJECTIVE

The present study explored the relationship between father phubbing (Fphubbing) and mother phubbing (Mphubbing) and adolescents' peer alienation. Moreover, it examined whether adolescents' perceived paternal and maternal rejection mediate these associations.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

A sample of 1140 students (M_age = 12.18 years, SD = 0.90) completed the measures of parental phubbing, parental rejection, and peer alienation.

METHODS

Structural equation modeling was used to assess the direct effects of Fphubbing and Mphubbing on adolescents' peer alienation and their indirect effects through adolescents' perceived paternal and maternal rejection as mediators.

RESULTS

The results indicated that Fphubbing and Mphubbing were positively related to adolescents' peer alienation. Perceived maternal rejection mediated the relationship between Mphubbing and adolescents' peer alienation. The relationship between Mphubbing and maternal rejection was stronger for adolescent girls.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study offers a preliminary understanding of how parental phubbing associates with adolescents' peer alienation through the mediating role of adolescents' perceived parental rejection, which has certain theoretical and practical implications for comprehending adolescents' peer alienation in the mobile age.

Parental Bonding and Relationships with Friends and Siblings in Adolescents with Depression

According to attachment theory, the quality of the early child-parent bond determines the child's interpersonal relationships later in life. Utilising data from The First Experimental Study of Transference Work-In Teenagers (FEST-IT), the current paper investigated the connection between the self-reported quality of bonding with mother and father and the self-reported importance of relationships with friends and siblings in adolescents with depression. The scales employed were the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the Adolescent Relationship scale (ARS). A Pearson's correlation tested the relationship between the reported levels of maternal and paternal care and control, and the reported importance of friendship and relationship with siblings. Results revealed a statistically significant negative correlation between high levels of maternal control and importance of friendship, and a statistically significant positive correlation between high levels of paternal care and importance of relationships with siblings. The results are in line with Bowlby's theory of attachment.

Adolescents' executive functions: Links to inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, trait mindfulness, and attachment relationships with fathers and mothers

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Considering the important role of executive functions (EF) for adjustment across the lifespan, this study aimed to deepen understanding of protective/risk factors for EF in a potentially vulnerable population: adolescents with ADHD. This study compared adolescents with versus without ADHD for differences in EF, attachment relationships with fathers/mothers, and trait mindfulness and investigated these possible protective/risk factors' contributions to EF in both adolescent groups.

METHODS

Ninth graders (N = 91; 49 boys, 42 girls) ages 14-15 years (M = 14.50, SD = 0.50) comprised 45 with ADHD and 46 with typical development (TD). Adolescents completed three self-reports (trait mindfulness, attachment to mother/father). Mothers rated their adolescents' ADHD symptoms and EF.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Significantly more maladaptive outcomes emerged for adolescents with ADHD than TD in their EF, attachment with mothers, and mindfulness. Regression analyses demonstrated the significant risk posed by ADHD symptoms and the protection offered by trait mindfulness and attachment with fathers in explaining EF. Discussion focused on understanding these protective/risk factors' possibly unique and complementary roles, suggesting interventions for adolescents with ADHD in family and school settings.

Affiliative interactions and body and eating-related difficulties in adolescent girls: The effects of fears of compassion and feelings of social safeness

The need to examine the associations between emotion regulation and mental health and well-being among adolescents is increasingly recognized. Adolescence is a critical time characterized by increased vulnerability towards emotional struggles and difficulties, especially related with body image and eating behaviours. Thus, it seems particularly important to analyse the processes and mechanisms underlying the relationships between several risk factors (such as the lack of early affiliative memories) and body and eating-related difficulties, in this specific developmental phase. The current study intended to examine whether early affiliative memories are significantly associated with body and eating-related difficulties (i.e., body image shame and eating psychopathology severity), and whether this association is mediated by lower feelings of social safeness and increased levels of fears of receiving compassion from others. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 231 adolescent girls from the community, aged between 12 and 18, who completed self-report measures. Data were examined through descriptive and correlational statistics, and the adequacy of the model was performed via path analysis. Path analysis results revealed that fears of receiving compassion from others and low feelings of social safeness mediated the relationship between early affiliative memories and body and eating-related difficulties. The path model accounted for the variances in the following way: 27% of feelings of social safeness; 23% of fears of receiving compassion from others; 28% of body-image shame; and 54% of eating psychopathology severity, revealing a very good fit. These findings emphasize the relevance of assessing and working on potential processes underlying the adoption of disordered body and eating attitudes and behaviours, not only but especially in female adolescents with scarce recall of early affiliative experiences with close ones.

The Influence of Father-Adolescent Attachment on Adolescents’ Internalizing Behavior Problems Within the Mongolian Family Context and the Analysis of Moderation Effects of Adolescents’ Gender

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of father-adolescent attachment on adolescents’ internalizing behavior problems within the Mongolian family context. Additionally, the moderation effect of adolescents’ gender was also examined.Methods: One hundred seventy four Mongolian adolescents who lived in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia participated in this study. The participants was 13 to 15 years old, and 69 out of 174 participants were boys. Consent was taken from participants and their parents. Instructions, consent forms, and questionnaires written in English were translated into Mongolian language. Participants responded to questionnaires that measured attachment to fathers, adolescents’ depression, and anxiety. Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression.Results: Results of this study showed that there was a significant difference between sons and daughters in the attachment to their fathers. Attachment security between sons and fathers was higher than that between daughters and fathers. Gender differences were also found in adolescents’ depression and anxiety. Levels of depression and anxiety in girls were significantly higher than in boys. In addition, attachment to fathers negatively predicted adolescents’ internalizing behavior problems including depression and anxiety. In particular, the moderation effect of adolescents’ gender was also significant. Specificially, girls’ attachment to fathers negatively predicted girls’ internalizing behavior problems, but no significant finding was reported in the relationship between fathers and boys.Conclusion: Findings suggested a protective role of adolescents’ attachment to fathers against adolescents’ internalizing behavior problems, and were discussed in terms of characteristics of parent-child relationship in Mongolian culture. The role of attachment on adolescents’ mental health was suggested.

Early Attachment to Mothers and Fathers: Contributions to Preschoolers' Emotional Regulation

Children acquire and develop emotional regulatory skills in the context of parent-child attachment relationships, nonetheless empirical studies have focused mainly on mother and less information is available regarding the role of both parent-child attachment relationships. Furthermore, despite its importance, there is no information regarding preschool years. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the potential influences of both mother-child and father-child attachments on preschooler's later emotion regulation observed in the peer group. Fifty-three Portuguese nuclear families (mother, father and focal child) participated in the study; 47% of the children were boys and 53% were girls. Attachment Security was assessed at home using the Attachment Behavior Q-set when children were 3 years of age, and emotion regulation was observed in the preschool classrooms attended by the children at age 5, using the California child Q-sort to derive an Emotion Regulation Q-Scale. Results showed that the combined influence of both parent-child attachment security predicted better emotion regulation results, than did the specific contributions of each parent per se. Findings are consistent with integrative approaches that highlight the value of including both mother- and father-child attachment relationships, as well as their combined effect, when studying emotion regulation.

Ego-Resiliency and Perceived Social Support in Late Childhood: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach

This study explored the change trajectory of schoolchildren’s ego-resiliency and perceived social support and investigated the effect of perceived social support on ego-resiliency across four time points. A sample of 437 children aged 8–13 years (M = 10.99, SD = 0.70, 51.5% boys) completed assessments at four time points. The results indicated that ego-resiliency showed an increasing linear trend and perceived social support showed a declining linear trend. Perceived social support had a positive effect on ego-resiliency over time. In addition, the initial status of perceived social support negatively predicted the growth trend of ego-resiliency, and the initial status of ego-resiliency negatively predicted the declining trend of perceived social support. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

"I'll Try My Best to be a Dad": The Experiences of Japanese Fathers with Cancer

This study explored the experiences of Japanese fathers with cancer. Twenty-four adult men undergoing cancer treatment and raising minor children (aged ≤ 19 years) participated. Data gathered using semi-structured interviews were analyzed using the grounded theory approach. One main theme— “transformed identity: cancer made me into a father”—and eight additional sub-themes were identified from the analysis. Fathers with cancer experienced changes in work and income; weakening of their bodies and minds; and a transformation from the protector of their children to the protected, which severely challenging their identities. Through interaction with their children and self-reflection, fathers started to examine fatherhood for the first time, heightening their self-awareness as fathers. Nurses can support fathers by facilitating interactions with their children while receiving treatment and by understanding and respecting the range of emotions identified in this study.

Parent socialization of emotion in a high-risk sample

The Socialization of Emotion (Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998; Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Cumberland, 1998) model creates a theoretical framework for understanding parents' direct and indirect influences on children's emotional development, including the influence of parent characteristics on subsequent emotion specific parenting. Large numbers of children live in families with fathers who have alcohol problems, setting the stage for cascading risk across development. For instance, fathers' alcohol problems are a marker of risk for higher family conflict, increased parental depression and antisociality, and less sensitive parenting, leading to dysregulated child emotion and behavior. We examined a conceptual model for emotion socialization in a community sample of alcoholic and nonalcoholic father families (N = 227) recruited in infancy (i.e., 12 months) with follow-ups to adolescence (i.e., 15-19 years), and examined if hypothesized paths differed by child sex or group status (alcoholic vs. nonalcoholic families). Results indicated significant indirect effects between parent psychopathology and sensitivity in early childhood to both adaptive (e.g., emotion regulation) and maladaptive (e.g., aggression and peer delinquency) outcomes in middle childhood to adolescence via child negative emotionality and supportive emotion socialization. There were significant differences by child sex and alcohol group status. Implications for intervention and prevention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Fuel to the fire: The escalating interplay of attachment and maltreatment in the transgenerational transmission of psychopathology in families living in refugee camps

Maltreatment by parents can be conceptualized as pathogenic escalations of a disturbed parent–child relationship that have devastating consequences for children's development and mental health. Although parental psychopathology has been shown to be a risk factor both for maltreatment and insecure attachment representations, these factors` joint contribution to child psychopathology has not been investigated. In a sample of Burundian refugee families living in refugee camps in Western Tanzania, the associations between attachment representations, maltreatment, and psychopathology were examined by conducting structured interviews with 226 children aged 7 to 15 and both their parents. Structural equation modeling revealed that children's insecure attachment representations and maltreatment by mothers fully mediated the relation between maternal and child psychopathology [model fit: comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.96; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.05]. A direct association between paternal and child psychopathology was observed (model fit: CFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.05). The findings suggest a vicious cycle, wherein an insecure attachment to a mother suffering from psychopathology may be linked to children's risk to be maltreated, which may reinforce insecure representations and perpetuate the pathogenic relational experience. Interventions targeting the attachment relationship and parental mental health may prevent negative child outcomes.

Attachment and Images of Parents and of the Romantic Partner of Russian Young Men and Women

The study investigated young adults’ perceptions of their parents and romantic partners with respect to the quality of attachment to the loved ones. The sample consisted of 78 young Russian men and women aged 19–25 involved in a romantic relationship for at least for 12 months. The employed instruments were the Attachment to Close People Questionnaire (ACOQ), based on the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) questionnaire, the Adolescents’ Report of Parental Behavior Inventory, and Leary’s Interpersonal Behavior Measure. Regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that the attachment to the mother contributed to attachment to the romantic partner more than the attachment to the father. The attachment security with the partner was associated with the image of the partner.

Measurement invariance across mother/child and father/child attachment relationships

We examine the factorial structure of the Security Scale Questionnaire (SSQ), exploring measurement invariance across mother-father-child attachment relationships, child sex, and country. We used the new 21-item SSQ version that integrates both safe haven and secure base behaviors in a two factors structure. Participants were 457 children (224 girls and 233 boys), ranging from 9 to 14 years old (M = 10.84, SD = 1.02) from Portuguese and USA samples. We confirmed the SSQ's two-factor structure, although four items were unrelated to the latent structure and excluded from the final model. Results showed that SSQ can be used to study both mother/child and father/child attachment relationships. Multi-group analyses suggested measurement invariance between boys and girls and between Portuguese and USA samples. Our findings suggest that the SSQ can be considered a valid and cost-effective tool to measure perceived attachment security in middle childhood for both mother/child and father/child relationships.

Adverse childhood experiences lead to trans-generational transmission of early maladaptive schemas

BACKGROUND

According to schema theory, early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) are formed due to unsatisfied core emotional needs in childhood. However, there is limited research about the association between parent's EMS and the child's EMS.

OBJECTIVE

The current study investigated the mechanisms underlying the relationship between the parent's disconnection and rejection schemas and the child's disconnection and rejection schemas.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

One hundred seventy-nine mother-late adolescent dyads participated in the study. Mothers filled out the forms at home, and adolescents completed the forms in the classroom.

METHODS

The adolescents completed the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form-3 (YSQ-SF3), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Father Involvement Scale, and Resilience Scale. The mothers completed only the YSQ-SF3.

RESULTS

Mothers' EMSs related to the disconnection and rejection domain predicted their children's EMS in the same domain. Adverse childhood experiences also significantly mediated this relationship only when father involvement was low (β = .08, SE = .04, 95% CI [.01, .18]).

CONCLUSIONS

The current study provides evidence that EMSs are passed on from one generation to the next through adverse childhood experiences especially when fathers do not provide enough support in childrearing.

Attachment to mothers and fathers during middle childhood: an evidence from Polish sample

Background

Middle childhood is a significant period of change both for a child’s cognition and social functioning. Considering that the primary developmental theme of attachment in middle childhood is the balance between child’s growing autonomy and the constant need of relatedness, cultural differences in developmental trends in the attachment might be considered as a function of individualism and collectivism orientations. However, little is known about whether the findings on predictors of individual differences in the attachment in middle childhood found in Western cultures, hold within the non-Western ones. Moreover, still little is known about differences between attachment to mothers and fathers in middle childhood. Hence, one goal of the present study was to investigate the role of a child’s age, sex, and emotionality in a middle-childhood attachment to mothers and fathers in the Polish sample. The second aim was to compare obtained results to the attachment research that focused on Western cultures.

Methods

The sample consisted of 132 children aged 8–12 years (51% boys). They completed the Kern’s Security Scale and the Coping Strategies Questionnaire. Mothers completed a child’s EAS-C and short sociodemographic questionnaire. Pearson’s correlations were conducted to test relationships between a child’s age, sex, emotionality, SES, and attachment-related variables. A paired-samples t-test was used to compare the intensity of preoccupied and avoidant coping strategies with parents in the whole sample. The effects of a child’s age, sex, temperament, and attachment figure were tested with separate repeated-measures ANOVA.

Results

Some of the results replicated prior studies conducted in Western cultures. Similarly to the individualistic cultures, older Polish children reported less preoccupied and more avoidant coping strategies with their parents than younger children. Second, older girls reported higher felt-security with their fathers than with mothers, which suggests some significant changes in attachment relationships regarding the child’s sex. However, as opposed to Western cultures, there were no links between the child’s sex and preoccupied and avoidant coping. Polish children also reported higher rates of preoccupied coping than the avoidant one. Finally, children with relatively lower emotionality reported higher attachment security with both parents than children with relatively higher emotionality.

Conclusions

The current study extends previous work on attachment in middle childhood, the area of rather sparse research, as compared to other developmental periods. The findings reveal the existence of both some specificity in the middle-child attachment in the Polish sample, as well as some culture-universal developmental trends. However, as many questions remain unanswered, they also highlight the strong need for future cross-cultural and comparative studies.

Early father-child and mother-child attachment relationships: contributions to preschoolers' social competence

The main goal of this study was to explore the contributions of early father-child and mother-child attachment relationships to children's later social competence with their preschool peers; possible unique and shared contributions were tested. Using a multi-method design and focusing on direct observation, attachment was assessed at home at age 3 with the Attachment Behavior Q-sort (AQS) and two years later social competence was assessed at classrooms of 5-year-olds using a set of seven measurement indicators that are part of the Hierarchical Model of Social Competence. Results show that attachment to each parent made unique and significant contributions to children's social competence and suggested the possibility that each caregiver may have somewhat different patterns of influence on the different indicators of children's social competence. Findings also suggest the possibility that a secure attachment with one parent may buffer the impact of having an insecure relationship with the other. Due to sample size, these results should be seen as a starting point to generate new and larger studies.

Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire for latency age: Psychometrics properties of Argentine Sample

The purpose of this article was to perform a psychometric study of the Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire (ASCQ) in Spanish language. This paper included three studies. The objectives of study 1 were to analyze the discriminative power of items, to carry out an EFA to determine the structure of the questionnaire, and to calculate the internal consistency of factors. The objectives of study 2 were to test the questionnaire structure through a CFA, and to determine if the model obtained was invariant between sex and age. The objective of Study 3 was to study the convergent validity. The three studies were carried out with three different samples of 180, 200, and 425 Argentinian children, aged 9 to 12 years, respectively. The results confirm the three factor structure of the adapted questionnaire, showing good psychometric properties (satisfactory internal consistency and adequate validity).

The modulation of facial mimicry by attachment tendencies and their underlying affiliation motives in 3-year-olds: An EMG study

From early in life, facial mimicry represents an important example of implicit non-verbal communication. Facial mimicry is conceived of as the automatic tendency to mimic another person's facial expressions and is thought to serve as a social glue among interaction partners. Although in adults mimicry has been shown to be moderated by the social context and one's needs to affiliate with others, evidence from behavioural mimicry studies suggest that 3-year-olds do not yet show sensitivity to social dynamics. Here, we examined whether attachment tendencies, as a proxy for interindividual differences in affiliation motivation, modulates facial mimicry in 3-year-olds. Resistant and avoidant insecure attachment tendencies are characterized by high and low affiliation motivation, respectively, and these were hypothesized to lead to either enhancement or suppression of mimicry. Additionally, we hypothesized that these effects will be moderated by inhibitory control skills. Facial mimicry of happy and sad expressions was recorded with electromyography (EMG), attachment tendencies were assessed with a parent-report questionnaire and inhibitory control with the gift delay task. The final sample consisted of 42 children, with overall scores suggesting secure attachment. Our findings revealed that 3-year-olds mimicked happy and sad facial expressions. Moreover, resistant tendencies predicted enhanced sad but not happy facial mimicry, whereas avoidant tendencies were not significantly related to mimicry. These effects were not moderated by inhibitory control skills. In conclusion, these findings provide the first evidence for the modulation of mimicry by attachment tendencies and their underlying motivation for affiliation in young children, specifically for negatively-valenced emotional expressions.

Associations Between Adolescents' Social Re-orientation Toward Peers Over Caregivers and Neural Response to Teenage Faces

Adolescence is a period of intensive development in body, brain, and behavior. Potentiated by changes in hormones and neural response to social stimuli, teenagers undergo a process of social re-orientation away from their caregivers and toward expanding peer networks. The current study examines how relative relational closeness to peers (compared to parents) during adolescence is linked to neural response to the facial emotional expressions of other teenagers. Self-reported closeness with friends (same- and opposite-sex) and parents (mother and father), and neural response to facial stimuli during fMRI, were assessed in 8- to 19-year-old typically developing youth (n = 40, mean age = 13.90 years old, SD = 3.36; 25 female). Youth who reported greater relative closeness with peers than with parents showed decreased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during stimulus presentation, which may reflect lessened inhibitory control or regulatory response to peer-aged faces. Functional connectivity between the dlPFC and dorsal striatum was greatest in older youth who were closer to peers; in contrast, negative coupling between these regions was noted for both younger participants who were closer to peers and older participants who were closer to their parents. In addition, the association between relative closeness to peers and neural activation in regions of the social brain varied by emotion type and age. Results suggest that the re-orientation toward peers that occurs during adolescence is accompanied by changes in neural response to peer-aged social signals in social cognitive, prefrontal, and subcortical networks.

Perceived Quality of the Mother-Adolescent and Father-Adolescent Attachment Relationship and Adolescents' Self-Esteem

There is consensus in the literature that self-esteem stems from relationships with others. In particular, it is assumed that parents play an important role in the development of children's self-esteem, also in adolescence. Despite the importance of parent-child attachment relationships for adolescents' self-esteem, we know very little about the extent to which fathers and mothers uniquely contribute to adolescents' self-esteem. The current study aims to contribute to acquiring knowledge in this research area in three ways. First, by separating the potential influences of father-child and mother-child attachment relationships on sons' and daughters' self-esteem, the current study is able to investigate the individual contribution of the father-child and mother-child attachment relationship to female and male adolescent's self-esteem. Second, by controlling for changes in the quality of the parental relationship and peer relationships the current study is able to isolate linkages between changes in adolescents' perceived quality of the parent-child attachment relationships and changes in adolescents' self-esteem. Third, by using longitudinal data and solely analyzing within-person variation, the current study is able to rule out stable confounding factors as alternative explanations. Self-reports of 542 adolescents (mean age at T1 = 13.6 years, percentage female = 0.51) from all three waves of the Dutch cohort study Social Development of Adolescents were used. The longitudinal fixed effects models showed that, for both sons and daughters, changes in the perceived quality of the mother-adolescent attachment relationship and changes in the perceived quality of the relationship between adolescents' parents were positively linked with changes in self-esteem. Changes in the perceived quality of the attachment relationship with father were only significantly linked to changes in daughters' self-esteem, not in that of sons. Contrary to the expectations, changes in peer relationships were not associated with changes in adolescents' self-esteem. These findings suggest that even though adolescents may be increasing their time spent with friends and romantic partners, perceived changes in the attachment relationships with fathers and mothers and in the wider family system are highly important for how adolescents think of and judge themselves.

Anorexia Nervosa and a Lost Emotional Self: A Psychological Formulation of the Development, Maintenance, and Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa

In this paper, we argue that Anorexia Nervosa (AN) can be explained as arising from a 'lost sense of emotional self.' We begin by briefly reviewing evidence accumulated to date supporting the consensus that a complex range of genetic, biological, psychological, and socio-environmental risk and maintenance factors contribute to the development and maintenance of AN. We consider how current interventions seek to tackle these factors in psychotherapy and potential limitations. We then propose our theory that many risk and maintenance factors may be unified by an underpinning explanation of emotional processing difficulties leading to a lost sense of 'emotional self.' Further, we discuss how, once established, AN becomes 'self-perpetuating' and the 'lost sense of emotional self' relentlessly deepens. We outline these arguments in detail, drawing on empirical and neuroscientific data, before discussing the implications of this model for understanding AN and informing clinical intervention. We argue that experiential models of therapy (e.g., emotion-focused therapy; schema therapy) be employed to achieve emergence and integration of an 'emotional self' which can be flexibly and adaptively used to direct an individual's needs and relationships. Furthermore, we assert that this should be a primary goal of therapy for adults with established AN.

Maternal- versus paternal-perpetrated maltreatment and risk for sexual and peer bullying revictimization in young women with depression

BACKGROUND

Childhood maltreatment is one of the strongest predictors of sexual and peer bullying re-victimization. However, it is not clear which types of maltreatment are associated with the greatest risk.

OBJECTIVE

The current study examined the differential relations of maternal- versus paternal-perpetrated emotional maltreatment, neglect, and physical maltreatment, as well as sexual maltreatment, to sexual victimization and peer bullying victimization outside the home. It was hypothesized that paternal-perpetrated emotional maltreatment would be the strongest predictor of later sexual and peer bullying victimization, and that sexual maltreatment would predict sexual re-victimization.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Participants included data from 263 adolescent and young adult women who had previously taken part in one of three larger studies conducted in an academic research setting investigating the relation between stress and depression. All participants had been recruited from the wider community or clinician referral and met criteria for a unipolar depressive disorder.

METHODS

Psychiatric diagnoses were assessed with a structured diagnostic interview. Childhood maltreatment and victimization were assessed retrospectively with a semi-structured contextual interview that includes standardized ratings.

RESULTS

Paternal-perpetrated emotional abuse was the only maltreatment type that was independently associated with sexual (OR = 3.09, p =  .004) and peer bullying (OR = 1.41, p =  .05) re-victimization over other forms of maltreatment and indicators of depression severity.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide an important foundation for future research examining the mechanisms driving the relation between father's hostility, criticism, and rejection and daughters' revictimization that can ultimately provide targets for prevention in girls at highest risk.

Attachment and problematic Facebook use in adolescents: The mediating role of metacognitions

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Recent research used attachment theory and the metacognitive tenet as frameworks to explain problematic Facebook use (PFU). This study aims to test, in a single model, the role of different attachment styles and metacognitions in PFU among adolescents.

METHODS

Two separate studies were conducted in order to establish the link between security (Study 1) and insecurity (Study 2), metacognitions, and PFU. A total of 369 and 442 Italian adolescents (age: 14-20 years old) participated in Study 1 and Study 2, respectively.

RESULTS

Path analyses revealed the relative importance of different attachment dimensions with mother and father in predicting PFU and the mediating role of metacognitions between attachment styles and PFU.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In conclusion, since attachment styles and PFU may significantly affect adolescents' development and well-being, the results of this study may provide some practical indications for researchers and practitioners.

Nurturant-involved parenting and adolescent substance use: Examining an internalizing pathway through adolescent social anxiety symptoms and substance refusal efficacy

Research has clearly established the important role of parents in preventing substance use among early adolescents. Much of this work has focused on deviance (e.g., antisocial behavior, delinquency, and oppositional behavior) as a central pathway linking parenting behaviors and early adolescent substance use. This study proposed an alternative pathway; using a four-wave longitudinal design, we examined whether nurturant-involved parenting (Fall sixth grade) was inversely associated with adolescent drunkenness, marijuana use, and cigarette use (eighth grade) through social anxiety symptoms (Spring sixth grade) and subsequent decreases in substance refusal efficacy (seventh grade). Nurturant-involved parenting is characterized by warmth, supportiveness, low hostility, and low rejection. Analyses were conducted with a sample of 687 two-parent families. Results indicated that adolescents who were in families where fathers exhibited lower levels of nurturant-involved parenting experienced subsequent increases in social anxiety symptoms and decreased efficacy to refuse substances, which in turn was related to more frequent drunkenness, cigarette use, and marijuana use. Indirect effects are discussed. Findings were not substantiated for mothers' parenting. Adolescent gender did not moderate associations. The results highlight an additional pathway through which parenting influences youth substance use and links social anxiety symptoms to reduced substance refusal efficacy.

The direct and indirect effect of attachment insecurity and negative parental behavior on anxiety in clinically anxious children: it's down to dad

BACKGROUND

Theoretically, insecure attachment and negative parental behaviors are risk factors for childhood anxiety. However, few empirical studies have examined their relative contribution including differences between mothers and fathers. To date, only one study has examined a mediational model including these factors, albeit in a nonclinical sample.

METHOD

This study ameliorates this limitation by investigating direct and indirect relations between maternal and paternal attachment and behaviors, and clinical anxiety in children (mean age 9.6 years). The study recruited 54 families. Anxiety symptoms were measured by the Spielberger State-trait Inventory for Children, attachment relationships by the Security Scale, and parental behaviors using the Rearing Behavior Questionnaire.

RESULTS

Neither insecure attachment relationship with mother nor maternal negative behavior was a significant predictor of anxiety in children. However, insecure attachment to father accounted for a significant proportion of variance in anxiety, and also fully mediated the relationship between paternal rejection and anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight the importance of assessing the relative contribution of risk factors and the importance of including fathers when investigating the development and maintenance of childhood anxiety.

Attachment figures in a middle childhood Romanian sample: Does parental migration for employment matter?

This study assessed how children's choices of attachment figures are related to the quality of the parent-child relationship and parental economic migration in a Romanian sample. Two hundred and twenty-two children (n girls =130) 10-13 years of age completed the Attachment Figure Interview and a parental migration interview, and reported their attachment security with mother and father. Approximately 35.6% (n = 79) of children had mothers with a migration history and 48.7% (n = 104) of children had fathers with a migration history. Mothers, and to some extent fathers, serve as primary attachment figures. Grandparents, peers, siblings and relatives serve as secondary attachment figures in some situations. Further, children are less likely to choose mothers as primary attachment figures and show lower attachment security when their mothers rather than their fathers have a history of migration. Overall, this study provides empirical grounds to conceptualize parental migration as an attachment disruption.

Children's emotion understanding in relation to attachment to mother and father

Although attachment plays a key role in children's socio-emotional development, little attention has been paid to the role of children's attachment to their father. This study examined whether insecure attachment to each parent was associated with reduced emotion understanding in children and whether children showed consistent attachments to their mother and father. We measured children's attachment to each parent using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task and child emotion understanding using the Test of Emotion Comprehension (children's M_age  = 5.64 years, SD = 0.84). The results indicated that insecure father-child attachment and insecure mother-child attachment were each associated with lower emotion understanding in children after controlling for parent's depressive symptoms and children's age. There was significant concordance of child attachment to mother and father. The findings provide support for convergence of children's attachment across parents and suggest that father-child attachment is an important factor to consider when examining children's emotion understanding. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject Secure mother-child attachment is positively associated with children's emotional competence. Children form similar representations of attachment to their mother and father. What the present study adds Both mother-child and father-child attachment are associated with children's emotion understanding. The study's findings highlight the importance of father-child attachment in their children's emotion understanding. The study provides support for concordance of children's attachment across parents.

Inhibitory Control Mediates the Association between Perceived Stress and Secure Relationship Quality

Past research has demonstrated negative associations between exposure to stressors and quality of interpersonal relationships among children and adolescents. Nevertheless, underlying mechanisms of this association remain unclear. Chronic stress has been shown to disrupt prefrontal functioning in the brain, including inhibitory control abilities, and evidence is accumulating that inhibitory control may play an important role in secure interpersonal relationship quality, including peer problems and social competence. In this prospective longitudinal study, we examine whether changes in inhibitory control, measured at both behavioral and neural levels, mediate the association between stress and changes in secure relationship quality with parents and peers. The sample included 167 adolescents (53% males) who were first recruited at age 13 or 14 years and assessed annually three times. Adolescents' inhibitory control was measured by their behavioral performance and brain activities, and adolescents self-reported perceived stress levels and relationship quality with mothers, fathers, and peers. Results suggest that behavioral inhibitory control mediates the association between perceived stress and adolescent's secure relationship quality with their mothers and fathers, but not their peers. In contrast, given that stress was not significantly correlated with neural inhibitory control, we did not further test the mediation path. Our results highlight the role of inhibitory control as a process through which stressful life experiences are related to impaired secure relationship quality between adolescents and their mothers and fathers.

Mothers' and Fathers' Worry and Over-Control: One Step Closer to Understanding Early Adolescent Social Anxiety

This study investigated the links between parental worry, parental over-control and adolescent social anxiety in parent-adolescent dyads. Using a longitudinal sample of adolescents (M_age = 14.28) and their parents (224 mother-daughter, 234 mother-son, 51 father-daughter, and 47 father-son dyads), comparisons were conducted using cross-lagged path models across two time points. We used adolescent reports of social anxiety and feelings of being overly controlled by parents, and mother and father self-reports of worries. Our results show that boys' social anxiety predicted higher perceived parental overcontrol, whereas girls' social anxiety predicted higher paternal worry over time. In addition, girls' reports of feeling overly controlled by parents predicted higher maternal worry but lower paternal worry over time. For boys, feeling overly controlled predicted less social anxiety instead. The study illustrates how mothers and fathers might differ in their behaviors and concerns regarding their children's social anxiety and feelings of overcontrol.

Exploration of Factors Predictive of At-risk Fathers' Participation in a Pilot Study of an Augmented Evidence-Based Parent Training Program: A Mixed Methods Approach

There has been burgeoning parenting intervention research specifically addressing fathers in recent decades. Corresponding research examining their participation and engagement in evidence-based parent training programs, which have almost exclusively targeted mothers, is just emerging. The current study used mixed methods to examine factors that influenced completion of an augmented version of an evidence-based child maltreatment prevention program developed for male caregivers called SafeCare Dad to Kids (Dad2K) in a pilot study. The current sample comprised 50 male caregivers (Mage = 29.42 years, SD = 8.18) of a child between the ages of 2 and 5 years. Fathers participated in a baseline assessment and were considered program completers (n = 27) if they participated in the program's six home visiting sessions. A subsample of completers (n = 11) was recruited to participate in qualitative interviews that provided in-depth information about fathers' experiences in Dad2K. Logistic regression indicated that, in the context of other demographic predictors, fathers with an education beyond high school were over 5 times more likely to complete Dad2K program compared to fathers with a high school education or less. Qualitative analyses revealed that interviewed father completers were motivated to enroll and participate in a fathering program because of an interest to learn and obtain skills to make them a better parent. Fathers with a high school education or less may require additional engagement strategies to help proactively encourage their enrollment and completion of parent training programs.

Delta-beta coupling is associated with paternal caregiving behaviors during preschool

Neural systems that index self-regulation have been associated with mental health outcomes, including risk for anxiety problems, from early in life. Yet, little is known about the environmental factors that may impact the development of neural systems of regulation. Behavioral work suggests that sensitive parenting, or parents' ability to correctly interpret and respond to children's signals, supports the development of regulation. Conversely, harsh parenting, or uninvolved or punitive parent behaviors, is thought to compromise developing regulatory systems. We recorded preschoolers' baseline electroencephalography (EEG) and tested whether individual differences in delta-beta coupling were linked to sensitive or harsh parenting behaviors in mothers and fathers. Using Fisher's r-to-z transform, we found that preschoolers whose fathers were low (vs. high) in harsh parenting showed greater coupling at parietal electrode sites (z=2.66, p=0.00); preschoolers whose fathers were high (vs. low) in harsh parenting showed greater coupling at frontal electrode sites (z=-2.14, p=0.02). Heightened coupling at frontal electrodes was also visible for children who showed high (vs. low) levels of social fear (z=-2.11, p=0.02), suggesting that enhanced frontal coupling may be associated with increased risk for anxiety problems. No differences in coupling were seen based on levels of sensitive parenting behaviors in mothers or fathers. Results provide initial evidence that harsh parenting behaviors in fathers are associated with differences in a general index of neural regulation in preschoolers, which may have implications for the development of social fear in early life.

Perceived Close Relationships With Parents, Teachers, and Peers: Predictors of Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Features in Adolescents With LD or Comorbid LD and ADHD

This study examined the role of adolescents' perceived close relationships with significant others (attachment relationships with mothers/fathers, appraisal of homeroom teacher as secure base, and quality of peer friendship) in explaining differences in their socioemotional and behavioral functioning (peer-network/peer-dyadic loneliness, positive/negative affect, and externalizing/internalizing problems), among adolescents with learning disabilities (LD), with comorbid LD and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or with typical development (TD). Participants were 280 adolescents in Grades 10 through 11 in three groups: LD (n = 90), comorbid LD and ADHD (n = 91), and TD (n = 98). Preliminary analyses yielded significant group differences on most socioemotional and behavioral measures. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicated high fit between the theoretical model and empirical findings and partially different patterns of relationships among the model's components for the three populations. The discussion focuses on the possible unique value of close relationships with each significant attachment figure for adolescents with LD, comorbid LD-ADHD, and TD.