Insecure Attachment to Parents and PTSD among Adolescents: The Roles of Parent–Child Communication, Perceived Parental Depression, and Intrusive Rumination

Abstract

Based on attachment theory and a social-cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this study examined the roles of parent–child communication, perceived parental depression, and intrusive rumination in the association between insecure attachment to parents and PTSD among adolescents following the Jiuzhaigou earthquake. In this study, 620 adolescents were recruited to complete self-report questionnaires. The results showed that the direct association between anxious attachment and PTSD was significant, but that between avoidant attachment and PTSD was non-significant. In addition, both anxious and avoidant attachment had indirect associations with PTSD via the mediating effects of parent–child communication openness and problems, perceived parental depression, and intrusive rumination. However, the specific paths between anxious and avoidant attachment and PTSD were different. The findings indicated that insecure attachment among adolescents following the earthquake was predictive for their PTSD, and the mechanisms underlying the association between anxious attachment and PTSD and the association between avoidant attachment and PTSD were distinct. To alleviate PTSD, more attention should be paid to improving the quality of parent–child communication for adolescents with avoidant attachment to parents, and to reducing negative cognition in adolescents with anxious attachment.

Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Mobile Phone Dependence among Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Parent–Child Communication Patterns

“…Items were rated on a five-point Likert scale (1 = "completely disagree" to 5 = "completely agree"). This scale has previously shown good reliability and validity with adolescents (Zhou et al, 2020) and also showed good reliability in the present study for both open parent-child communication (Cronbach's alpha = 0.91) and problematic parent-child communication (Cronbach's alpha = 0.79).…”

“…Barnes and Olson's (1985) circumplex model suggests that parent-child communication can be viewed as a continuum from open to problematic communication. In this model, open parent-child communication is characterized by the positive disclosure of information between parent and child (Barnes & Olson, 1985;Metcalfe et al, 2008;Zhou et al, 2020); furthermore, parents are responsive to and affectively involved with their adolescents, who then perceive more positive parental attitudes and behaviors (Fang & Fang, 2003). Thus, open parent-child communication may help adolescents in home quarantine or social isolation during the pandemic perceive more support and meet their relationship needs, thus relieving their sense of loneliness and reducing their use of mobile phones for engaging in interpersonal interactions.…”

A Parental Competence Scale: Dimensions and Their Association With Adolescent Outcomes

“…It has also been studied from different points of view: from parents' perception of their own performance (Stattin et al, 2015;Hsieh et al, 2019;Windhorst et al, 2019), from the child's perspective experiencing parental competence (De Los Reyes and Ohannessian, 2016), or from both perspectives (Janssens et al, 2015). Finally, this construct has mainly produced proposals from a palliative point of view (Gagnon et al, 2020;Zhou et al, 2020), and not so much from a preventive one. That is to say, proposals seek to empower families from a perspective of deficit rather than from a position of proactivity (Rodrigo et al, 2015).…”

Dinámica familiar en tiempos de pandemia (COVID -19): comunicación entre padres e hijos adolescentes universitarios

“…Es necesaria una respuesta al estrés del momento, en la cual surgen diversos temas, por un lado, el confinamiento, el temor al contagio, la situación económica, y otras, que podrían producir ansiedad y pánico en algunos casos. Sin embargo, está fuera de toda duda que la comunicación entre los padres y sus hijos adolescentes está muy relacionada con diversos indicadores de salud mental en (Zhou, et al 2020b).…”