Stability of Attachment Style in Adolescence: An Empirical Test of Alternative Developmental Processes.

Few studies have examined stability and change in attachment during adolescence. This 5-year longitudinal study (a) examined whether prototype or revisionist developmental dynamics better characterized patterns of stability and change in adolescent attachment (at T1, N = 176; Mage  = 14.0 years, SD = 0.9), (b) tested potential moderators of prototype-like attachment stability, and (c) compared attachment stability in adolescence to stability in adulthood. The results supported the prototype model, which assumes that there is a stable, enduring factor underlying stability and change in attachment. Exploratory moderation analyses revealed that family conflict, parental separation or divorce, minority status, and male sex might undermine the prototype-like stability of adolescent attachment. Stability of attachment was lower in adolescence relative to adulthood.

[1]  C. K. Kamp Dush,et al.  Trajectories of Marital Conflict Across the Life Course , 2012, Journal of family issues.

[2]  E. Waters,et al.  The prototype hypothesis and the origins of attachment working models: adult relationships with parents and romantic partners. , 1995, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[3]  Marco Del Giudice,et al.  Sex Differences in Romantic Attachment: A Meta-Analysis , 2011 .

[4]  D. Vogel,et al.  The Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR)-Short Form: Reliability, Validity, and Factor Structure , 2007, Journal of personality assessment.

[5]  Robin S. Edelstein,et al.  Maternal nurturance predicts decreases in attachment avoidance in emerging adulthood , 2014 .

[6]  A. Fuligni.  Authority, autonomy, and parent-adolescent conflict and cohesion: a study of adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, and European backgrounds. , 1998, Developmental psychology.

[7]  Kelly A. Brennan,et al.  Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview. , 1998 .

[8]  S. Counce.  The Strategy of the Genes , 1958, The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.

[9]  Glenn I. Roisman,et al.  IV. Stability of attachment security from infancy to late adolescence. , 2014, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[10]  G. W. Rever.  Attachment and Loss. Vol. 1. Attachment , 1972 .

[11]  B. Roberts,et al.  Patterns of continuity: a dynamic model for conceptualizing the stability of individual differences in psychological constructs across the life course. , 2005, Psychological review.

[12]  Glenn I. Roisman,et al.  Patterns of stability in adult attachment: an empirical test of two models of continuity and change. , 2011, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[13]  Amy B. Dickson.  Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications , 2004 .

[14]  Glenn I. Roisman,et al.  The Adult Attachment Interview and self-reports of attachment style: an empirical rapprochement. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[15]  P. Shaver,et al.  Attachment in Adulthood: Structure, Dynamics, and Change , 2007 .

[16]  J. Allen,et al.  Stability and change in attachment security across adolescence. , 2004, Child development.

[17]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Trait–state models for longitudinal data. , 2001 .

[18]  C. Hazan,et al.  Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  A. Petersen,et al.  A self-report measure of pubertal status: Reliability, validity, and initial norms , 1988, Journal of youth and adolescence.

[20]  C. Wrzus,et al.  Social network changes and life events across the life span: a meta-analysis. , 2013, Psychological bulletin.

[21]  R. C. Fraley,et al.  A Dynamical Systems Approach to Conceptualizing and Studying Stability and Change in Attachment Security. , 2004 .

[22]  Michael Lewis,et al.  Altering Fate: Why the Past Does Not Predict the Future , 1997 .

[23]  J. Cassidy,et al.  Child-Parent Attachment and Response to Threat: A Move from the Level of Representation , 2012 .

[24]  P. Sable,et al.  What is Adult Attachment? , 2008 .

[25]  R. Chris Fraley,et al.  Attachment Stability From Infancy to Adulthood: Meta-Analysis and Dynamic Modeling of Developmental Mechanisms , 2002 .

[26]  John Bowlby,et al.  Separation: Anxiety and Anger , 1973 .

[27]  M. Ainsworth.  Attachments beyond infancy. , 1989, The American psychologist.

[28]  M. Pinquart,et al.  Meta-analytic evidence for stability in attachments from infancy to early adulthood , 2013, Attachment & human development.