Mental Health and Well-Being in Adolescence: The Role of Child Attachment and Parental Reflective Functioning

Abstract

Adolescence is a sensitive developmental period, with important changes occurring at biological, cognitive, emotional and social levels. As evidenced by several studies, adolescence is also a vulnerable period for the onset of serious mental disorders, which then tend to persist into adulthood. While there is ample evidence concerning risk factors of mental disorders in adolescence, a lot less is known about protective factors: however, one important protective factor to have emerged from recent research concerns attachment security. The aim of the current paper is to explore the effects of attachment on emotion regulation (in terms of physiological reactivity), autonomy and relatedness, and behavioral problems in adolescence, and how attachment is in turn influenced by parental reflective functioning (PRF), parenting behaviors (operationalized in terms of behaviors promoting and undermining autonomy relatedness) and parenting stress (in terms of cortisol reactivity). The findings point to the potential utility of interventions aimed at enhancing attachment security, thus allowing a better psychological adjustment, and at improving PRF, especially in divorced families, given its protective effect on parenting stress and parenting behaviors.

Attachment and alexithymia predict emotional–behavioural problems of institutionalized, late‐adopted and community adolescents: An explorative multi‐informant mixed‐method study

“…In this regard, one can also hypothesize more complex pathways of relationships among these constructs, which may be part of a broad framework where adolescents' symptomatology and difficulties in the area of emotional regulation co‐occur as sides of the same vulnerability coin (Aldao et al, 2016). The analysis of other possible related variables can foster a deeper comprehension, for instance, adolescents' emotional–behavioural problems and emotion regulation can both be influenced by exposure to childhood adversities (Miu et al, 2022), adolescents' executive functioning (Berthelsen et al, 2017) or current caregivers' features such as attachment states of mind, parental stress or reflective functioning (Decarli et al, 2022; Ozturk et al, 2019; Pace et al, 2019).…”

The inclusion of children in divorce mediation: A continental ‘non‐directive’ approach

“…The first is stress and trauma theory (Bailey et al, 2020; Cummings & Davies, 2002; McIntosh, 2003; Peterson et al, 1984), which assumes that despite the natural occurrence of conflict in relationships, there is a critical threshold of relationship disruption—attachment. Maintaining or regaining reflective capacities of parents toward their child (Berry et al, 2010; Decarli et al, 2022; Slade, 2005) and avoiding reactive states of mind (Fonagy et al, 1991; Luyten & Fonagy, 2015; Miller & Cohen, 2003; Pozzi‐Monzo et al, 2012) can ensure the well‐being of their children even in situations where there are significant conflicts.…”

Fremdplatzierte Kinder und Jugendliche in luxemburgischen Institutionen: Befinden und Erleben von Betroffenen

“…Weitere Studien zum Bindungsverhalten weisen darauf hin, dass Säuglinge und Kleinkinder, die in der Interaktion mit ihren primären Bezugspersonen ein sicheres Bindungsmuster aufbauen, bessere soziale, emotionale, motivationale und kognitive Fähigkeiten entwickeln und ein höheres Selbstwertgefühl aufweisen als Kinder mit unsicheren Bindungsmustern (Bretherton 1985;Decarli 2019;George und Main 1979;Sroufe 1983;Zimmermann 2004). Des Weiteren wurde in zahlreichen Publikationen der Einfluss der Qualität, der aus den frühkindlichen Interaktionen resultierenden Bindung des Säuglings zu seiner primären Bezugsperson auf die Fähigkeit zur affektiven Selbstregulation beschrieben (Ainsworth 1985;Crittenden 1995;Dornes 1993;Papousek et al 2004).…”