1. The Role of Adolescent Relationships in Predicting Withdrawal in Emerging Adulthood J. Claire Stephenson, Amanda L. Hare, Nell N. Manning & Joseph P. Allen The University of Virginia We would like to thank the National Institute of Mental Health for funding awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator, (R01-MH58066) for the conduct and write-up of this study.
Low Dismissing
Introduction
Measures continued:
The target adolescents completed the Childhood Report of Parenting Behavior (Schaefer, 1965) at ages 14 and 17. This study uses the maternal acceptance vs. rejection scale to measure the adolescent’s perception of his or her mother as being affectionate and emotionally supportive, or neglecting and rejecting. This scale included items such as:
My mother figure is a person who. . .
Is able to make me feel better when I am upset
Gives me a lot of care and attention
Believes in showing her love for me
When the target adolescents were age 17, a close peer completed The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1989). This study uses the “total attachment” scale as a measure of friendship quality which includes items such as:
My friend can tell when I’m upset about something
I feel he/she is a good friend
I trust my friend
I can count on him/her when I need to get something off my chest
When the target adolescents were age 20, a close friend completed Adult Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003). This study uses the withdrawal scale to measure the extent to which the close peer sees the target adolescent as withdrawn from relationships, which includes items such as:
He/she would rather be alone than with others
He/she is secretive, keeps things to self
He/she is withdrawn, doesn’t get involved with others
There is very little that he/she enjoys
Table 1. Hierarchical regression predicting close peer’s report of adolescent withdrawal at age 20
β Entry β Final ΔR Total R2
Step 1. Gender
Income
Statistics from step
Step 2. Close peer’s report of friendship ** ** *
quality with adolescent (age 17)
Step 3. Adolescent’s report of maternal ** ** **
acceptance (age 17)
Step 4. Adolescent's dismissing score **
(age 14)
Step 5. Interaction: Dismissing score X *** *** *** ***
Maternal acceptance at age 17
Note. *** p < **p < *p < p < 0.1
Background:
Adolescence is a time of transition during which peer relationships become increasingly salient while the mother’s role as the central figure in the adolescent’s life is altered. Therefore, adolescents must work to incorporate both their mothers and their peers into their lives in new ways. By late adolescence, well-adjusted individuals will have successfully formed stable peer relationships, while simultaneously renegotiating their relationship with their mother in a constructive way. However, others will reach late adolescence having accomplished only one of these development tasks, or perhaps neither. Dismissing adolescents in particular may face difficulties negotiating this task due to their tendency to remain detached from close relationships. This tendency for being emotionally disconnected combined with their perception of caregivers as unreliable predisposes dismissing adolescents for withdrawing if they struggle to maintain relatedness with their mothers in the face of the challenges that arise during adolescence. However, the changes of adolescence also provide dismissing adolescents with the opportunity to form new significant relationships with peers that could have a positive impact.
The current study examines dismissing adolescents and their relationships with their mothers and close peers with the goal of better understanding the implications these two important relationships have for adolescent withdrawal in emerging adulthood.
Hypotheses:
The nature of close friendships and maternal relationships during adolescence will be predictors of withdrawal in emerging adulthood.
The adolescent’s relationship with his or her mother will be particularly important in predicting withdrawal for dismissing individuals.
Results
Hierarchical regression analyses predicting adolescent withdrawal at age 20 were conducted (see Table 1). After demographic factors were entered, close peer report of friendship quality at age 17 was entered and was found negatively related to adolescent withdrawal at age 20
Adolescent report of maternal acceptance at age 17 was entered next and was also found to be negatively related to adolescent withdrawal. However, once adolescents’ report of maternal acceptance at age 17 was entered, friendship quality was no longer a significant predictor of adolescent withdrawal
Next, adolescent’s dismissing attachment score was entered and was found to be positively related to adolescent withdrawal at age 20, although this finding was only at a trend level
Finally, the interaction of dismissing attachment and perception of maternal acceptance was examined, and the relationship between adolescent perception of maternal acceptance at age 17 and their withdrawal at age 20 was significantly different for adolescents depending on their level of dismissing attachment (see Figure 1). As expected, highly dismissing adolescents who perceived there mother as more accepting were less withdrawn age 20; however this relationship was not significant for those who scored low on dismissing attachment
Method
Figure 1. The interaction between adolescent’s dismissing attachment score at age 14 and their report of maternal acceptance at age 17
Participants
Adolescents and their close friends were assessed at ages 14 (mean=
14.27, sd=.77) and 17 (mean=17.32, sd=.88)
Target adolescent demographics
97 females and 87 males
Socio-economically diverse (median family income= $40-60,000/yr)
31% African American; 69% Caucasian
Measures
The Adult Attachment Interview (Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985) was administered to target adolescents at age 14. This semi-structured interview probes individuals’ memories about their childhood experiences with primary caregivers. The Attachment Q-sort procedure (Kobak et al., 1993) was used to determine a continuous dismissing attachment score for each adolescent.
Conclusions
These findings highlight the significant impact that maternal relationships have beyond adolescence. Clearly, close friendships play a role in adolescent outcomes; however, how an adolescent perceives his or her relationship with his mother appears to be even more salient. The trend that adolescents who were more dismissing were also more withdrawn suggests that their tendency to remain distant in adolescent relationships may set the stage for internalizing symptoms in young adulthood. Finally, the significant interaction between adolescent dismissing score and their report of maternal acceptance suggests that adolescents who are both highly dismissing and see their mother as more rejecting are particularly vulnerable to withdrawal. This suggests that maternal acceptance can serve as a buffer for dismissing adolescents who may be otherwise prone to withdrawal. Overall these findings highlight the significant impact maternal relationships during adolescence have on psychosocial well-being in emerging adulthood.