Effect of a parenting intervention on decreasing adolescents’ behavioral problems via reduction in attachment insecurity: A longitudinal, multicenter, randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Introduction: Secure attachment in adolescence, related to caregiving quality, is a robust predictor of positive behavioral adjustment in early adulthood and beyond. Nevertheless, few attempts have been made to develop treatments to promote parent-adolescent attachment security. Methods: Using a longitudinal, multicenter, randomized controlled trial design, two questionnaire-based studies were run in Italy (Study 1: n = 100 mothers of adolescents, 60% boys, M age = 14.89, SD = 1.58; Study 2: n = 40 mothers and 40 adolescents, 60% boys, M age = 14.90, SD = 1.91) to test the effectiveness of an attachment-based parenting intervention (i.e., Connect) in reducing adolescents' behavioral problems and attachment insecurity 2 weeks postintervention (t2) and at a 4-month follow-up (t3). It was further investigated whether a decrease in avoidant and anxious attachment at t2 would account for changes in externalizing and internalizing problems, respectively, at t3. All adolescents belonged to two-parent intact families. Results: Mothers who completed Connect reported signiicantly fewer adolescent behavioral problems and lower adolescent attachment insecurity, compared to mothers in the waitlist group, at both t2 and t3 (Study 1). These indings were conirmed in a second subsample (Study 2), considering both mothers' and adolescents' reports. Controlling for pre-intervention behavioral problems, reductions in internalizing and externalizing problems were observed in both studies at t3 via a decrease in anxious and avoidant attachment, respectively, at t2. Conclusions: The indings point to the malleability of attachment security in adolescence and highlight the importance of targeting parenting quality to promote adolescent behavioral adjustment.

eCONNECT Parent Group: An Online Attachment-Based Intervention to Reduce Attachment Insecurity, Behavioral Problems, and Emotional Dysregulation in Adolescence

“…More specifically, the CONNECT intervention focuses on improving parenting behaviors that are related to attachment security; indeed, it promotes sensitive parenting behaviors that are characterized by responsive, supportive, and attuned interactions with adolescents that can help create a secure attachment relationship. Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown that CONNECT effectively reduces adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems and attachment insecurity [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no contribution provided preliminary data on the CONNECT program about improving dyadic affect regulation strategies.…”

Secure Attachment Relationships With Mothers, But Not Fathers, Moderate the Relation Between Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Symptoms and Delinquency in Adolescents

“…Grade 9 ADHD symptoms predicted G12 delinquency only when adolescents self-reported low levels of secure maternal attachment (high levels of dismissive attachment). These findings are novel and support screening for maternal attachment relationship quality in adolescents with ADHD and intervening among adolescents who self-report these risk factors to reduce the risk of later delinquency (e.g., Barone et al, 2021).…”

“…Maternal attachment relationships were found to uniquely moderate the longitudinal relation between attention problems and delinquent behaviors, such that high levels of attachment security served as a buffer against the development of delinquency in the twelfth grade for those youth who, in the ninth grade, had high symptoms of ADHD. The findings also suggest that clinical prevention efforts to reduce the risk of delinquency among adolescents with attention problems should include interventions targeting the development of secure attachment relationships (e.g., Barone et al, 2021). Given that a secure attachment relationship with a parent is associated with emotion socialization behavior (Eisenberg et al, 1998) that aids in the child's development of emotion regulation skills and self-control (Eisenberg et al, 2010), such interventions may not only help to foster secure attachment relationships, but may also work to address some of the mediational mechanisms that explain the linkages between ADHD symptoms and delinquency.…”

Destructive interparental conflict affects Chinese children’s emotional and behavioral problems: Indirect pathways via parent–child attachment and emotional insecurity

“…Therefore, parents' neglect of adolescents' emotions caused by destructive IPC has indirect and inverse effects in predicting safe child-father attachment (Schudlich et al, 2019). Parents' participation reduces adolescents' anxiety and attachment (Barone et al, 2021). Attachment plays an important role in the development of adolescents' emotional skills.…”

“…Parents’ participation reduces adolescents’ anxiety and attachment ( Barone et al, 2021 ). Attachment plays an important role in the development of adolescents’ emotional skills.…”