The development, maintenance, and change of attachment relationships in adolescence in Taiwan

Adolescence in particular is a crucial time to repair old attachment styles with main caregivers and form new attachment relationships with peers (He et al, 2018; Kobak et al, 2014 ). Physiological maturity, development of conceptual abilities, hoping to be independent, and looking for peer groups mark adolescents’ transitions from passive receivers to initiating new relationships with others. From these relationships potential new attachment representations could be formed. Unlike infancy or childhood, adolescents own more control over their relationships with main caregivers as this is an important stage of their life to develop autonomy. Whether the same can be said for the parent–adolescent attachment style is an object of ongoing research and potentially a fertile area to explore. Attachment happens in relationships. Not only are adolescents able to initiate new attachment orientations, they are able to interact in their existing relationships in a new way. By bringing awareness to their existing relationships, the dyads have the possibility to learn to improve their relationship quality, re-gain trust, co-construct their emotion communication, and utilize effective interventions to foster change. Based on this background I propose three main research areas focusing on a little studied population, the Taiwanese population, which bears similarities to Western populations in being a democratic nation, but has important cultural and family-dynamic differences that may influence attachment styles and related characteristics.