Collaborators : Maryfrances Porter, Ph.D. Penny Marsh Kathleen McElhaney, Ph.D.

1. Portrait of the Secure Teen as a Young Adult:Predictions from Attachment to Family, Peer, and Romantic Relationship FunctioningJoseph P. AllenUniversity of Virginia Farah Williams Dave Szwedo Katie Little Meredyth Evans Jill Antonishak, Ph.D. Katy Higgins Claire Stephenson Mindy Schmidt, Ph.D. Glenda Insabella, Ph.D. Megan Schad Joanna Chango Erin Miga Collaborators: Maryfrances Porter, Ph.D. Penny Marsh Kathleen McElhaney, Ph.D. F. Christy McFarland Jessica Meyer, Ph.D. Amanda Hare Copies of this and related papers are available at:WWW.TEENRESEARCH.ORG

2. Understanding the Meaning of Attachment Beyond Infancy • Long-term Correlates of Adolescent Attachment Security • Romantic Relationships • Peer Relationships • Job Competence • Problem Behaviors • Sleeper Effects/Reverse Sleeper Effects • Are Correlates Always Positive? • Just what is the AAI really capturing in adolescence?

3. Sample • 184 Adolescents, their Parents, Best Friends, and Other Friends • Intensive Interviews and Observations with all parties (Total N over first 10 years ~ 1600). • Equal numbers of Males and Females • Assessed Annually, Ages 13 to 22 • Socio-economically Diverse (Median Family Income= $40- $60K) • 31% African American; 69% European American • Very Low Attrition (< 1%)

4. Understanding the Meaning of Attachment Beyond Infancy • Long-term Correlates of Adolescent Attachment Security • Romantic Relationships • Peer Relationships • Job Competence • Problem Behaviors • Sleeper Effects/Reverse Sleeper Effects • Are Correlates Always Positive? • Just what is the AAI really capturing in adolescence?

5. Measures: Romantic Relationship Qualities • Currently in an Exclusive Relationship – Self-reported • Discomfort with Intimacy and Sexuality (reverse-coded) • Behavioral Systems Questionnaire (Furman &Wehner,, 1994) • Sexually active in past year – Self-reported

6. Predicting Romantic Relationship Qualities Age 14 Age 21 Exclusive relationship .25** Attachment Security (AAI) Comfort w/ Intimacy .29** Sexually Active .24** Gender Income Adolescent Security Predicts Future Romantic Behavior

7. Measures: Peer and Parent Relationship Quality • Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1989) • A measure of relationship quality more than of attachment • Modified to allow others to report about our target adolescent. • Quality of Relationship with Peers – Peer-reported (close-friend report) • Quality of Relationship with Mother & Father Parental-report

8. Predicting Peer & Parent Relationship Quality Age 14 Age 18 Quality of Relshipw/ Peers .28*** Attachment Security (AAI) Quality of Relshipw/Mother .29*** Quality of Relshipw/Father .21* Gender Income Adolescent Security Robustly Predicts Future Relationship Quality

9. Measures: Career/Financial Competence • Job Competence – Self-Perception Profile for Young Adults (Harter, 1988) Peer-reported (close-friend report) • Financial Dependence Degree to which young adult is financially self-sufficient vs. dependent on parents.

10. Predicting Career/Financial Competence Age 14 Age 18-22 Job Competence (18) .28*** Financial Dependence on Parents (22) Attachment Security (AAI) -.22** Gender Income Adolescent Security Robustly Predicts Career/Financial Competence

11. Measures: Violent Behavior • Violent Criminal Behavior – Youth Self-report (Elliott &Ageteon, 1989) • Number of reported violent acts in prior six months.

12. Predicting Violent Behavior Age 14 Age 18 -.25** Attachment Security (AAI) Violent Crim. Beh. Gender Income Adolescent Security Predicts Lower Levels of Future Violent Behavior

13. Summary (so far): • Security in Adolescence (age 14) linked to wide array of outcomes: • Parent, Peer, and Romantic Relationships • Financial/career Competence • Violent Behavior

14. Understanding the Meaning of Attachment Beyond Infancy • Long-term Correlates of Adolescent Attachment Security • Romantic Relationships • Peer Relationships • Job Competence • Problem Behaviors • Sleeper Effects/Reverse Sleeper Effects • Are Correlates Always Positive? • Just what is the AAI really capturing in adolescence?

15. Attachment & Development: Sleeper and Reverse-Sleeper Effects • Working Hypothesis: • Links to security can help us learn about developmental salience of behaviors. • Help identify behaviors that are most salient at a given stage. • Some behaviors won’t be ‘ripe’ at certain ages and won’t be linked to security at those ages

16. Financial Independence Coming Online Age 14 Age 18 Age 20 Age 21 Financially Dependent Financially Dependent Financially Dependent -.05 -.01 -.21* Attachment Security (AAI) Gender Income The link between prior security and financial independence from parents only emerges at age 21

17. Sexual Intercourse in Past Year Age 14 Age 19 Age 20 Age 21 Sex in Past Year Sex in Past Year Sex in Past Year .26** -.02 .03 Attachment Security (AAI) Gender Income The link between security and sexual intercourse only appears at age 21

18. Violent Criminal Behavior in Past Year Age 14 Age 18 Age 19 Age 20 Violent Behavior Violent Behavior Violent Behavior -.03 -.26** -.09 Attachment Security (AAI) Gender Income The Negative Relation Between Security and Violence Fades Over Time

19. Summary (Part 2) • Security is closely and developmentally linked to very wide array of behaviors • These broad linkages raise basic questions about the meaning of security in adolescence. • Is the AAI capturing attachment vs. a broader capacity for social functioning (i.e., emotion regulation in social interactions)?

20. Summary (Part 2) • Is the AAI capturing attachment vs. a broader capacity for social functioning (i.e., emotion regulation in social interactions). • Evidence from AAI Scoring • Coherence vs. Content of models or relationships • Evidence from AAI correlates:

21. Social Correlates Within Adolescence(Simple Correlations) Age 14 Age 13-17 Obs’d Peer Engagement .43*** Attachment Security (AAI) Social Self-Efficacy .27*** Sociometric Popularity .39***

22. Social Correlates Within Adolescence(Regression Weights) Age 14 Age 13-17 Obs’d Peer Engagement .31*** Attachment Security (AAI) Social Self-Efficacy .16* Sociometric Popularity .27*** Multiple R = .54*** Security is tightly linked to social functioning (even outside of an attachment context)

23. Understanding the Meaning of Attachment Beyond Infancy • Long-term Correlates of Adolescent Attachment Security • Romantic Relationships • Peer Relationships • Job Competence • Problem Behaviors • Sleeper Effects/Reverse Sleeper Effects • Are Correlates Always Positive? • Just what is the AAI really capturing in adolescence?

24. Percentage of Youths Recently Using Alcohol/Marijuana (Allen et al., (2005). Child Development) Popularity at 13 Predicts Long-term increased Alcohol/Marijuana Use.

25. Predicting Binge Drinking Age 14 Age 21 .19* Attachment Security (AAI) Binge Drinking Gender Income Adolescent Security also predicts long-term drinking problems.

26. Understanding the Meaning of Attachment Beyond Infancy • Long-term Correlates of Adolescent Attachment Security • Romantic Relationships • Peer Relationships • Job Competence • Problem Behaviors • Sleeper Effects/Reverse Sleeper Effects • Are Correlates Always Positive? • Just what is the AAI really capturing in adolescence?

27. The Meaning of Security/Autonomy in Adolescence • Key Question: • Is AAI security more than just a marker of social competence in adolescence? • What does it predict after removing effects of broader social competence?

29. Over and above teen social competence: Security is NOT linked to general dating behavior or affect.

30. Over and above teen social competence: Security IS linked to sexual activity.

31. Over and above teen social competence: Security is NOT linked to Quality of Peer Relationships

32. Over and above teen social competence: Security IS linked to Ongoing Parental Relationships.

33. Over and above teen social competence: Security is NOT linked to Career Behaviors or Binge Drinking

34. Over and above teen social competence: Security IS related to Violent Criminal Behavior.

35. Two-Roles for AAI Security • A Marker of Broad Social Adaptation

36. Security as Part of a Social Cascade Age 14 Age 18 Age 20 Age 21 Exclusive Dating Relationship Attachment Security Attachment to Peers Financial Independence .30*** .28** .23**

37. Two-Roles for AAI Security • A Marker of Broad Social Adaptation • Direct Long-term Links to Particularly Affectively Intense Experiences

38. Security as Direct Predictor of Quality of Parental Relationships Age 14 Age 18 .33*** Attachment Security Rel. w/ Mother .54*** Social Competence

39. Limitations • Non-experimental nature of data • Reliance on self-report for many measures • NOT following teens all the way into adulthood (yet).

40. Conclusions • Attachment Security/Autonomy at Age 14 as a Remarkably Broad Predictor of Young Adult: • Relationship Competence • Financial/Career Competence • Problematic Behaviors • Tight Linkage to Developmental Progression of Competencies • And in some cases to developmentally-linked problems (e.g., drinking) Copies of this and related papers are available at:www.TeenResearch.org

41. Conclusions • Can Adolescent Security be viewed as primarily a marker of Social Competence? • Perhaps, for Broad Social Behaviors • Peer relationships & Job competence • Probably Not, for understanding affectively intense behaviors • Sex, violence & relationships with parents Copies of this and related papers are available at:www.TeenResearch.org