Attachment theory suggests that children's attachment insecurity plays a key role in the development of anxiety. In the present study we evaluated the empirical evidence for the link between insecure attachment and anxiety from early childhood to adolescence. A meta-analysis of 46 studies, from 1984 to 2010, including 8,907 children, was conducted. The results show an overall effect size of r = .30, indicating that attachment is moderately related to anxiety. Moderator analyses indicated that ambivalent attachment showed the strongest association with anxiety. Further, the relation was stronger during adolescence, when attachment and anxiety were measured through questionnaires, when the informant was the child, when attachment was measured as internal working model, in cross-sectional studies, and in studies conducted in Europe. No difference was found between studies that measured anxiety as symptoms or as a disorder, and when different kinds of anxiety were considered.
The aim of the present study was to examine the concept of adolescent autonomy. A conceptual analysis of different theoretical perspectives has resulted in an integrative model of attitudinal, emotional, and functional autonomy. Attitudinal autonomy refers to the cognitive process of choosing and defining a goal. Emotional autonomy refers to the affective process of feeling confident about one's own choices and goals. Functional autonomy refers to the regulatory process of developing a strategy to achieve these goals. The empirical value of this model was tested by developing a questionnaire assessing adolescent autonomy. Subjects were 400 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old. Confirmatory factor analyses (LISREL 8) provided evidence for the 3 hypothesized dimensions.
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