During the past decade, researchers have emphasized the contribution of parent-teen relationships to adolescent adjustment and development. A general finding is that the quality of relationship with parents serves to support rather than obstruct the adolescent's growing independence and autonomy. While this finding points to the importance of parent-teen relationships, new questions have emerged. For instance, how is the quality of parent-adolescent relationships best conceptualized and assessed? What are the specific mechanisms that link the quality of the parent-teen relationship to the adolescent's adjustment and ability to function outside the home? How is the teenager's understanding of the parent-teen relationship influenced by his or her cognitive development and how does the teenager's growing cognitive understanding of the relationship influence his or her adjustment and well-being? The proposed project addresses these questions by viewing the parent-teen relationship from the perspective of attachment theory and emotion regulation. First, the study will attempt to further validate the Attachment Interview as an assessment of adolescent attachment security. More specifically, the validity of the Attachment Interview as a measure of individual differences in """"""""styles of affect regulation"""""""" will be evaluated. Concurrent psychophysiological correlates of the different regulatory strategies identified in the interview will be examined as measures of inhibition and somatic activity. Second, measures of emotion regulation and attachment in the mother-teen relationship will be developed and the extent to which the ability to regulate negative affect in the Attachment interview generalizes to successful emotion modulation during parent-ten interaction will be tested. It is proposed that teenagers who are secure or who have the ability to modulate negative affect in the context of the Attachment interview will demonstrate more optimal patterns of interactions with parents in problem-solving and confiding tasks. Finally, the implications of attachment and emotion regulation for adolescents' ego-resiliency and well-being will be considered.
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| Kobak, R R; Cole, H E; Ferenz-Gillies, R et al. (1993) Attachment and emotion regulation during mother-teen problem solving: a control theory analysis. Child Dev 64:231-45 |
