This study examined whether emerging adults' attachment preference for their romantic partner is complementary to their attachment preferences for their mother, father, and friends using a cross-sectional research design. Participants were 1,021 emerging adults recruited in the Czech Republic (mean age ¼ 21.46, SD ¼ 1.55) who filled out questionnaires. The attachment preference for the romantic partner correlated inversely with the attachment preference for friends but not with the preference for the mother or for the father. Our regression analyses revealed that emerging adults who were currently in a romantic relationship and had a longer romantic relationship were more likely to prefer their partner and less likely to prefer their friends. However, those emerging adults were not necessarily less likely to prefer their parents. For females, the length of romantic relationship was positively linked to their preferences for their mother. Hence, the results of this study accord with the claim that emerging adults' attachment preferences are shifted to the romantic partner only from friends and not from the parents.

Only a few studies have longitudinally explored to whom emerging adults prefer to turn to seek closeness, comfort, and security (called “attachment preferences”), and previous studies on attachment preferences in emerging adults have focused only on the beginning of romantic relationships but not on the end of relationships. Czech emerging adults ( M = 21.47; SD = 1.48) completed the questionnaire of attachment preferences at two time points, Wave 1 (Summer 2013) and Wave 2 (Summer 2014). Latent difference score analyses revealed that emerging adults who were not in a romantic relationship in Wave 1 but started a romantic relationship between the two waves ( n = 97) and those who had a romantic partner in both waves ( n = 379) were both more likely to increase their attachment preference for the romantic partner and decrease their preference for friends, whereas those who did not start a relationship ( n = 185) were not. Emerging adults who were in a romantic relationship in Wave 1 but were not in Wave 2 ( n = 69) decreased their preference for the partner and increased their preference for friends. In all the groups, attachment preferences for the mother, for the father, or for the family did not change. Multiple regression analyses further revealed that for those who had a romantic partner in both waves, their length of romantic relationship was associated with changes in attachment preferences for romantic partners and for friends.

This study examines whether attachment preferences and attachment styles with different figures (mother, father, romantic partner, and friends) change over the course of a romantic relationship. Study 1 employed a three-wave longitudinal sample of Czech young adults who were currently in a romantic relationship (N = 870; mean age = 21.57; SD = 1.51; 81% females). Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that, as romantic relationships progressed, attachment preferences for romantic partners increased and preferences for friends decreased. However, preferences for the mother or for the father did not change over time. The parallel pattern was found for attachment avoidance; as romantic relationships progressed, attachment avoidance with romantic partners decreased and avoidance with the best friend increased. Avoidance with mother or with father, however, did not change over time. Study 2 employed a cross-sectional international sample (n = 2,593; mean age = 31.99; SD = 12.13; 79% females). Multiple regression analyses replicated the findings of attachment avoidance in the longitudinal data.

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The study examined the relation between adolescents’ interparental conflict perceptions and their political efficacy regarding local issues. Longitudinal data (age 15 and 17) from 444 adolescents were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that young people experiencing frequent interparental conflict reported an increase in depressive mood during late adolescence, which was associated with lower level of political efficacy. Moreover, adolescents who felt more efficacious when dealing with fighting parents felt more efficacious in local politics, even when controlling for personality traits and depressive mood. One possible explanation is that family perceptions generalize to politics because both contexts share certain similar features. Our results underscore that also seemingly nonpolitical experiences can matter in adolescents’ civic and political development.