Attachment relationships serve as contexts within which children develop emotional capacities. This meta-analytic review assessed the strength of associations of parent-child attachment patterns with the experience and regulation of emotion in children under age 18 years. In a series of meta-analyses (k ϭ 72 studies, N's ranged from 87 to 9,167), we examined children's positive and negative affective experiences (assessed either globally or elicited in specific contexts), emotion regulation ability, and coping strategies. More securely attached children experienced more global positive affect and less global negative affect, expressed less elicited negative affect, were better able to regulate emotions, and more often used cognitive and social support coping strategies. More avoidantly attached children experienced less global positive affect, were less able to regulate emotions, and were less likely to use cognitive or social support coping strategies. By contrast, more ambivalently attached children experienced more global and more elicited negative affect, and were less able to regulate emotions. More disorganized children experienced less global positive affect and more global negative affect. These robust findings provide evidence that attachments to parents have implications for children's emotional development, although more research is needed on whether insecure attachment patterns are associated with distinct emotion profiles.

Relationships with parents and friends are important contexts for developing romantic relationship skills. Parents and friends may influence both the timing of involvement and the quality of romantic relationships. Three models of the joint influence of parents and friends (direct effects model, mediation model, and moderator model) have been proposed. The present study uses data from a longitudinal study (n = 1012; 49.8% female; 81.1% Caucasian) to examine how attachment and friendship quality at age 10 years predict romantic relationship involvement and quality at ages 12 and 15 years. The results supported the direct effects model, with attachment and friendship quality uniquely predicting different romantic relationship outcomes. The findings provide further support for the important influence of family and friends on early romantic relationships.

This systematic review examined how anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders relate to academic achievement, school dropout, and academic self-concept. Studies with children or adult samples were included in seven meta-analyses (ks for number of samples ranged from 5 to 156; N’s for participants ranged from 780 to 37, 203). Results revealed significant but very small effect sizes for the relations between anxiety and overall academic achievement (r = −.06), language achievement (r = −.07), and math achievement (r = −.09), and a nonsignificant effect size for science achievement (r = −.01). Participants with greater anxiety were also significantly more likely to not complete high school (r = .11). They also had a poorer overall academic self-concept (r = −.25) and mathematics self-concept (r = −.30). Few methodological moderators (e.g., study design, age) were significant. Results show that anxiety does not strongly hinder academic achievement, but it is an important correlate of dropout and academic self-concept, which in turn could contribute to poorer life outcomes. Interventions and preventive programs need to consider ways to ameliorate the relations of anxiety with academic outcomes, especially school continuation and academic self-concept. Future studies should identify risk factors that may amplify these relations.

Romantic relationships are one of the most significant interpersonal ties in adolescence, thus understanding factors that may contribute to their formation and quality are important. The current meta‐analysis focuses on links between friendship quality and romantic relationship outcomes for adolescents up to 18 years. In a series of meta‐analyses (k = 28 studies, N's = 946–4,040), friendship qualities were not related to romantic involvement. However, we did find robust evidence of continuity between friendship qualities and romantic relationship qualities. Additionally, adolescents experienced more negative quality in their romantic relationships than in their friendships. These findings suggest that friendships have implications for adolescents’ romantic relationships, although more research is needed on specific quality associations, and the mediators of these relations.

How parents approach and teach their children about emotions are key determinants of children's healthy adjustment (Denham, 2019). Parental emotion socialization has been mostly studied in parents of young children. Our study identified emotion socialization (ES) strategies used by parents of early adolescents (Study 1) and then examined the relations of ES strategies with early adolescent adjustment, parent-child attachment, and maternal depression (Study 2). Study 1 included 171 parents of 9-to 14-year-old children who completed an open-ended questionnaire about their reactions to their children's negative emotions, which was content coded for ES strategies. We found that parents do use the 6 traditional ES strategies (problem solving, emotion focused/comforting, encouragement, minimizing, punitive, and distress) with early adolescents, while also using 3 approaches not identified in studies of parents of younger children (self-regulation, parent seeking information, parent explaining). We also found that some ES strategies are context and gender specific. Study 2 included 218 mother and child dyads (children aged 9-to 14-years). Mothers completed the Revised Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale, adapted to include items assessing the 3 new strategies, and measures of child adjustment, attachment, and maternal depression. The ES strategies loaded on 3 factors: Collaborative Coping, Negative Reactions to Child's Distress, and Low Expectation for Child's Self-Regulation. Negative Reactions to Child's Distress showed associations with children's internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behavior, and child attachment, while Collaborative Coping was related to prosocial behavior. Our results point to the importance of investigating additional ES strategies in early adolescence.