Adolescence, relationships, and psychological health : an attachment perspective

Abstract

Adolescence is a rapidly changing relational and emotional landscape where the foundations for future healthy adjustment are established. The importance of interpersonal relationships for promoting positive development during adolescence has seen adolescent developmental processes increasingly re-conceptualized in relational terms. Attachment theory proposes that emotional and psychological wellbeing are intimately linked with attachment figures that provide support and security, and provides an ideal framework from which to explore the influences of interpersonal relationships on the normative developmental processes in adolescence. However, the relative importance of interpersonal relationships for adolescent psychological health has seldom been investigated collectively as an attachment network. Thus, the aims of the present dissertation were to examine developmental differences in the utility of attachment figures in a sample of early and late Australian adolescents, to investigate the changes that occur to these adolescent attachment relationships over twelve months, and to investigate the influence of these relationships for adolescent adjustment. Five hundred and twenty-two high school students from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) participated in the initial study examining developmental differences in attachment reorganization and the effects of attachment figures on psychological health. Cross-sectional results demonstrated that adolescents differentially used attachment figures for various needs depending on their age, gender, romantic status, and attachment expectancies. Romantic partners were incorporated into attachment networks rather than supplanting existing network members. Higher attachment strength reported to attachment figures did not necessarily indicate greater influence on adolescent wellbeing, with the influences of attachment figures more nuanced and moderated by age and choice of attachment target. Global, dimensional attachment expectancies (Anxiety and Avoidance) were most indicative of adolescent adjustment. Contrary to Hazan and Zeifman's (1994) proposed sequential model of attachment formation, attachment relationships were not found to evolve consistently over twelve months for a subsample of 156 adolescents who re-participated in the longitudinal study. A significant minority reverted back to mothers from friends and romantic partners for attachment needs even though normative trends to specific attachment figures were demonstrated longitudinally. The normative reorganization of attachment needs was not shown to influence adolescent wellbeing longitudinally with one exception. Older adolescents with pre-existing positive school attitudes and who had reoriented towards their peers reported increased positive attitudes towards the school environment. Similar to the cross-sectional analysis, attachment expectancies were more predictive of adolescent adjustment. Although suggesting that changes in attachment relationships have few implications for psychological health, the relative volatility in attachment relationships apparent during adolescence may instead be reflective of other behavioral systems such as the affiliative, sexual or exploratory systems. These findings highlight the methodological limitations of current measures of attachment strength and need for markers exclusive to adolescent attachment. Attachment formation in adolescence appears unique compared with infancy or adulthood, and has implications for the application of attachment theory towards understanding the normative development of interpersonal relationships during adolescence. The importance of accounting for both normative changes in attachment relationships and individual differences in attachment expectancies when predicting adolescent adjustment is also discussed.