Under Which Conditions Do Early Adolescents Need Maternal Support?

Abstract

Maternal support is known as a protective factor during infancy, childhood and adolescence. However, less is known about the conditions leading to support-seeking behaviors towards mothers in early adolescence. In comparison with younger children, it is assumed that the specific nature of these conditions changes with continuing cognitive maturation. To shed a light on the normative development of attachment-related behaviors beyond infancy and, more specifically, on the activating conditions for support seeking, 98 early adolescents were instructed to write about a distressing situation during which they needed their mother. Seven situational conditions could be derived from the data. Two not previously described age-relevant conditions, academic failure and social conflict, were identified. Notably, 60% of the reported conditions referred to situations Bowlby (1969/1982) originally proposed, empirically confirming the maintained importance of the same conditions as in early childhood.

From trust in caregivers’ support to exploration: The role of openness to negative affect and self‐regulation

“…The current paper demonstrated in two preadolescent samples that trust in caregivers' support was linked with exploration through a serial indirect effect involving openness to negative affect and self-regulation. This finding is in line with theory and research showing that openness to negative affect develops in the context of a secure attachment relationship (e.g., Bowlby, 1988;Vandevivere, Braet & Bosmans, 2014a). Furthermore the results support the theoretical model of Inzlicht and Legault (2014) postulating that people who are more open to negative affect will be more sensitive to when their intended and actual behavior is in conflict, which will instigate them to regulate their attention and behavior (e.g., Wenk-Sormaz, 2005).…”

Attachment and emotion regulation in middle childhood: changes in affect and vagal tone during a social stress task

“…The mother, who does not see who enters the house, calls the child’s name and asks, “is that you (child’s name)?”. These story themes were chosen because some themes used with younger children did not work as well with older children (See Kerns et al, 2011), and interviews with children suggest that performance failures and social conflict are salient concerns that lead children in middle childhood to seek out the attachment figure (Kerns & Seibert, in press; Vandevivere, Braet, & Bosmans, 2015). After telling each story stem, the experimenter prompts the child to tell and show what happens next.…”

Attachment in Middle Childhood: Progress and Prospects

“…Moreover, research also suggests that some of the conditions that elicit support‐seeking behavior (e.g., pain and illness, separation, and anxiety) remain largely the same as in infancy. Interestingly, academic failure and social conflict become important, suggesting that adolescent themes are gradually emerging in this age group (Vandevivere, Braet, & Bosmans, ).…”