1. Parent-Adolescent Interactions as
Predictors of Adolescents’
Attachment Style and Peer
Relationships
Kindsey Smith, Jordan Charles, Chris Baccile, and J. Kelly McCoy
Brigham Young University - Idaho
2. Purpose of
Our Study
• The purpose of our study was to understand the
relationships between parenting styles and the quality of
adolescents’ peer relations
• In the current study we will explore the idea that
adolescents own attachment styles, or working models,
may be a significant mediator between parenting behavior
and the quality of adolescents’ peer relations.
4. Importance of
Friendships
and Peer
Group
Relations.
•Social relationships, and in particular friendships, play a vital
role in a child's development (Berndt, 1999 and Hartup and
Stevens, 1999). Friendships provide an opportunity to develop
social and cognitive skills such as cooperativeness, sharing,
altruism and conflict management (Newcomb & Bagwell,
1998).
•During adolescence intimacy intensifies, which motivates them
to seek out close friends. If adolescents fail to form those close
relationships they will experience loneliness and reduced
sense of self worth (Sullivan, 1953).
•Although adolescents who experience negative parenting are
at risk for later adjustment problems, positive peer relationships
may attenuate this link (Lansford et al. 2003).
5. Parenting
Affects
Friendship and
Peer Group
Relations
• Parent’s choices of neighborhoods, churches, schools, and their
own friends influence the pool from which their adolescents select
possible friends(Rubin & Sloman, 1984, Parenting Practices and
peer Group Affliation article)
• Parents can model or coach their adolescents in ways of relating
to peers (Mounts, 2010; Ross & Howe, 2009)
• In one study, parents acknowledged that they recommended
specific strategies to their adolescents to help them develop more
positive peer relations (Rubin & Sloman, 1994)
• Family structure, socio-economics, ethnic and marital
arrangements are some of the ways that parents retain some
influence over teens. (Parenting practice and peer group)
• Investigators have found that parental influence on children's
behavior remains extensive in adolescence.
6. Adolescent
Attachment
Style
Avoid
• You are comfortable with not having close emotional
relationships. It is very important to you to feel
independent. You prefer not to depend on others or
have others depend on you.
Ambivalent
• You like to have very close emotional relationships.
Sometimes you find others don’t want to be as close
as you want to be. You sometimes worry that others
don’t care about you as much as you care about them.
Secure
• It is easier for you to become emotionally close to
people. You are comfortable depending on others.
You like having others depend on you. You don’t
worry about being alone or having others not accept
you.
7. Attachment
and Peer
Relations
•Those with secure attachments tend to have emotional
regulation to solve conflict in their friendships. There also seems
to be evidence of low ratings of social anxiety (Zimmerman,
2004; Kobak & Sceery, 1988 ).
•Adolescents associated with dismissed attachment report not
valuing close relationships and describe themselves as
“emotionally independent” (Zimmerman, 2004).
•Adolescents with preoccupied attachment fluctuate between
positive and and negative views in their friendships. They have
expectations in friendship that is not elaborated (Zimmerman,
2004).
•Adolescence will use peers for their attachment needs, while
still forming autonomy with parents. These needs are
“transferred” from caregiver to peers (Cassidy & Shaver, 2006)
8. How family is
Important to
Attachment
• All teaching of right and wrong begins with attachment--the warm, emotional tie
that children have with their parents.
• Children learn from and are influenced most by those persons who are most
meaningful to them, and the most meaningful adults are those to whom the child is
emotionally attached.
• Everything we know about human behavior suggests that the family is the institution
in which most children learn about character and morality.
• Character traits based on respect for authority and social rules, such as honesty,
cooperation, responsibility, and self-reliance, are learned first within the family
sphere. If learned well, these traits are then transferred beyond the family to
dealings with society at large.
• As social psychologist Willard W. Hartup has concluded, "A child's effectiveness in
dealing with the social world emerges largely from experience in close
relationships." (Hartup, Willard W. "Social Relationships and Their Developmental
Significance." American Psychologist 44-2:120-126, 1989)
• Social psychologist William Damon puts the issue forcefully: "the child's respect for
this authority is the single most important moral legacy that comes out of the
child's relationship with the parent." (Damon, William. The Moral Child: Nurturing
Children's Natural Moral Growth (New York: The Free Press, 1988), p. 52)
9. 1. Mother and Father parenting behavior will predict
measures of adolescent friendship quality.
2. Mother and Father parenting behavior will predict
adolescents’ three different attachment styles.
3. Adolescents’ three different attachment styles will predict
measures of adolescent friendship quality.
4. Adolescents’ attachment styles will serve as mediators
between the parenting behavior and the measures of
adolescent friendship quality.
Hypotheses
10. Participants &
Procedures
Participants
• Self-report data was collected by mail from 183 adolescents from two
relatively major cities in the west.
• Adolescents’ ages ranged between 13 and 15 years of age.
• Eighty five percent of the sample were living with both biological parents.
• Seventy-three percent of the sample attended church weekly.
• Ninety percent of the sample were “White or Caucasian”.
Procedures
Adolescents were identified using targeted information from a survey
research center. Questionnaire packets were mailed to adolescents and their
parents with a letter explaining the general purposes of the study and inviting
adolescents to participate in the study. Parents are encouraged in the
introductory letter to review the questionnaires, but are asked to not view it
once their adolescents have completed the questions. Adolescents were
promised that a five-dollar gift certificate would be mailed to them upon their
returning the completed survey.
11. Measurements
Mother/Dad
Warmth and
Control
Mother Warmth: Alpha = 0.811
• Appears to understand my problems
and worries
• Enjoys talking things over with me
• Does not seem to understand what I
need or want
• Makes me feel I’m not wanted
• Doesn’t talk with me very much
Mother Control: Alpha = 0.750
• Tries to control everything I do
• Invades my privacy
• Is overprotective of me
Dad Warmth: Alpha = 0.781
• Appears to understand my
problems and worries
• Does not seem to understand what
I need or want
• Makes me feel I’m not wanted
Dad Control: Alpha = 0.781
• Tries to control everything I do
• Invades my privacy
• Is overprotective of me
12. Measurements
Parent-Teen
Communication
Positive Parent-Teen Communication: Alpha = .827
• I am very satisfied with how my parents and I talk
together.
• I find it easy to discuss problems with my parents.
• My parents try to understand my point of view.
• My parents are always good listeners.
• If I were in trouble I could tell my parents.
• My parents can tell how I’m feeling without asking.
13. Measurements
Parenting Style
Permissive Parenting
My parents leave this up to
me to decide.
Democratic Parenting
My parents as my opinion about this but
they have the final say.
Autocratic Parenting
My Parents tell me exactly what to do.
14. Measurements
Adolescent
Attachment
Style
Avoid Alpha = .573
• You are comfortable with not having close emotional
relationships. . . . .
• I have difficulty depending on other people.
• I am nervous when other get too close to me.
Ambivalent Alpha = .720
• Sometimes you find others don’t want to be as close
as you want to be. . .
• My desire to be very close sometimes scares people
away.
Secure Alpha = .590
• It is easier for you to become emotionally close to
people. . . .
• I feel comfortable sharing my private thoughts and
feelings with my closest relationships.
15. Measurements
Peer Groups
Core Group: Alpha = .575
• I feel very comfortable being with my group of friends.
• I know that I can depend on the other people in my group of
friends.
• Others in my group tend to go along with what I say and do.
Peripheral Group: Alpha = .677
• I sometimes wish that I was closer to the other people in my
group.
• I worry that if I don’t do what my friends are doing, my friends
will no longer accept me as a part of their group.
• I feel like the other people in my group are closer to each other
than they are to me.
No Group
• I don’t see a need to belong to a specific group of friends.
16. Measurements
Friendship
Quality
Deviant Friends: Alpha = .908
• Purposely damage or destroy
property?
• Use alcoholic beverages (beer, wine,
hard liquor)?
• Run away from home?
• Steal or try to steal things worth $20 or
less?
• Hit or threaten to hit people?
• Use hard drugs such as heroin,
cocaine and LSD?
Best Friend Caring: Alpha = .804
• This friend can tell when I’m upset
about something.
• This friend encourages me to talk
about my difficulties.
• I can tell this friend cares about my
problems and troubles.
• If this friend knows something is
bothering me, he/she will ask me
about it.
Best Friend Warmth: Alpha = .808
• I feel that this friend is a good
friend.
• I trust this friend.
• This friend respects my feelings.
Best Friend Conflict: Alpha = .677
• This friend doesn’t understand what
I’m going through these days
• It seems as if this friend is irritated
with me for no reason.
• I often argue with this friend about
his/her opinions.
• There are many things that this
friend does that I have a hard time
accepting.
17. Correlation
Matrix of
Latent
Constructs
Parenting
and Teen
Friendship
Quality
Variable Mom Warm / Mom Control / Dad Warm / Dad Control / Pos. Parent-
Teen Comm.
Deviant Friends -.332** .198** -.082 .169* - 298**
Best Friend Cares -.026 -.041 .047 .120 .052
Best Friend Warmth .038 -.075 .165* .021 .218**
Best Friend Conflict -.143 .222** -.078 .132 -.118
Core Group .073 -.083 .054 .035 .171*
Peripheral Group -.152* .115 -.017 .045 -.157*
No Group -.133 .168* -.156* .130 -.218**
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
18. Correlation
Matrix of
Latent
Constructs
Parenting
and
Attachment
Styles
Variable Avoidant Ambivalent Secure
Mother Warmth -.249 -.197** .258**
Mother Control .313** .304** -.163*
Father Warmth -.258** -.146* .186*
Father Control .166* .164* .072
Autocratic Style .084 .176* -.022
Democratic Style -.040 -.056 .009
Permissive Style -.044 -.116 .008
Pos. Parent/Teen Comm. -.302** -.298** .389**
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
19. Correlation
Matrix of
Latent
Constructs
Best Friend
Quality and
Attachment
Styles
Variable Avoidant Ambivalent Secure
Deviant friends .219** .055 - .220**
Best Friend Cares - .251** -.052 .429**
Best Friend Warmth -.259 ** -.122 .361**
Best Friend Conflict .285** .127 -.307**
Core Group -.221** -.129 .375**
Peripheral Group .263** .416** -.202**
No Group .073 .105 -.016
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
20. Correlation
Matrix of
Latent
Constructs
Friendship
Quality and
Parenting
Styles
Variable Autocratic Democratic Permissive
Deviant Friends -.011 -.091 .102
Best Friend Cares -.002 .016 -.009
Best Friend Warmth -.065 -.017 .074
Best Friend Conflict .051 .095 -.127
Core Group -.014 .077 -.045
Peripheral -.033 .032 -.001
No Group .123 -.139 .000
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
25. Summary of
Findings
Summary
• The correlation matrices revealed moderate associations
between the parenting measures and friendship quality.
• These same parenting measures showed strong
associations with adolescents’ attachment styles.
• Adolescent secure and avoidant attachment styles also
demonstrated strong associations with all of the measures
of friendship quality.
• The structural equation models revealed that:
• secure attachment served as a significant mediator
between parenting and adolescent friendship for all
models except the two models with adolescent
peripheral peer status as the final dependent variable.
• For both mother and father models of adolescent
peripheral peer status, ambivalent attachment served
as a more significant mediator.
26. Conclusions
• We were amazed at the number of significant correlational
links between the measures of parenting, adolescent
attachment, and adolescent friendship quality.
• We were also surprised by how many of these links
disappeared when examined within the structural equation
models.
• Our study demonstrated strong potential value for
considering adolescent attachment style as a mediating
link between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting and measures
of adolescent friendship quality.
