1. Does Adolescent Attachment Security Have Long-term Implications for Functioning in Adulthood? Leah Grande, Joseph S. Tan, Joseph P. Allen, & Alison Nagel University of Virginia. For more information, please go to: We would like to thank the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development for funding awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator, (R01 HD & R01-MH58066) for funding to conduct this study as well as for the write-up of this study.
Measures
Security in attachment state of mind was assessed using a modified version of the Adult Attachment Interview and the Kobak Q-sort coding system (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996; Kobak et al., 1993).
Externalizing behavior was assessed via mothers’ ratings of participants’ aggressive, rule-breaking, and intrusive behavior at age 25 and peers’ ratings of the participant at ages on the Adult Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003).
Attitudes toward aggression were assessed via self-report on the Adolescent Attitude Questionnaire at ages (Guerra, 1986). Sample item: “It’s OK to hit someone if you don’t like him or her”
Introduction
Premises
Previous research has found that adolescents with an insecure attachment state of mind display risk for exhibiting externalizing behaviors later (Allen et al., 2007; Dawson et al., 2014; Kobak, Zajac, & Smith, 2009).
However these studies are often limited to short-term periods during adolescence and rely on self-reports of externalizing behavior.
It remains unclear the extent to which attachment security predicts externalizing behavior beyond the period of adolescence, during which some level of deviancy may be normative, and into the non-normative adult realm (Moffitt, 1993).
Hypotheses
Adolescent attachment security will strongly predict externalizing outcomes in adulthood.
This relationship will be mediated by attitudes toward aggression and adult attachment security.
Results
Analyses, conducted using a Full Information Maximum Likelihood approach for handling missing data, suggested that adolescent attachment security was a significant predictor of externalizing behavior in adulthood after accounting for income and gender.
This association was fully mediated by participants’ attitudes toward aggression (see Figure 1).
This relationship was significantly mediated by adult attachment security (see Figure 2).
Conclusions
The results suggest that adolescent attachment security may have an enduring influence on externalizing behavior into adulthood; adolescent security predicted externalizing behavior over and above predictions from adult security.
Adolescent attachment security may be a predictor of adult functioning because it influences key relationships and behavior during the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Future Directions
What qualities of the insecure individuals’ social environment contribute to increased externalizing behavior in adolescence? Are these relational qualities the same or different in adulthood?
Does the degree or type of externalizing behavior exhibited differ among individuals with different insecure classifications?
How can attachment-based interventions help to decrease externalizing behavior?
Methods
Participants
Participants were assessed via the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) at a mean age of and again at age (175 individuals at Time 1, 131 at Time 2).
58% European-American, 29% African-American, and 13% mixed race or other race/ethnicities.
Baseline median family income was in the $40,000 to $59,000 range
Procedure
Time 1 – At ~age 14, participants completed the AAI.
Time 2 – At ~age 23, participants completed the AAI again.
Time 3 – Between ages 24-26, participants reported on their attitudes toward aggression annually. Between ages of 25-27, participants’ mothers and close friends reported on the participants’ externalizing behavior. Composites were created for both measures, averaging across the 3-year timespan.
Thoughts? Questions? Ideas?
Leah Grande