Attachment and the capacity for self-regulation in preadolescence

Through the years, research has focused increasingly on attachment relationships as a context in which children develop a repertoire of responses by which they regulate their emotions. Considerably less attention has been given to the role of attachment in the simultaneous development of self-regulation, which reflects the capacity to regulate attention and behavior. In the current project we aimed to fill the gaps in the present understanding of this attachment-self-regulation link. Therefore, three research objectives were put forward. The first research objective was to investigate self-regulation development within the context of attachment relationships in preadolescence. The second research objective focused on the relevance of the attachment-self-regulation association for preadolescents’ (mal)adaptive development. The third research objective concentrated on how attachment can foster the capacity for self-regulation in preadolescence by examining whether an open and accepting stance towards negative affect indirectly linked attachment with self-regulation. Six studies were conducted to address these objectives using multiple methods to operationalize the key variables under study, and applying both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs.First, across all studies, we found evidence for the hypothesis that secure attachment is related to increased self-regulation in preadolescence. The link between the quality of the attachment relationship with mother and self-regulation was demonstrated with both self- and mother-reported effortful control, and performance on the Stop-Signal Task. However, the nature of the association between attachment and self-regulation differed across attachment measures. All attachment measures, except self-reported attachment avoidance, were related with self-regulation at the start of preadolescence. Furthermore, preadolescents’ explicit evaluations of the quality of the attachment relationship with mother were associated with change in effortful control throughout preadolescence. However, when the quality of the attachment relationship with mother was implicitly measured, no association was found with effortful control development. Although the results with regard to the second research objective were mixed, they provided more arguments for the hypothesis that the interrelations between attachment and self-regulation play a role in preadolescents’ (mal)adaptive development. In several samples, self-regulation indirectly linked attachment to externalizing and internalizing behavior problems on the one hand, and exploration on the other hand. Third, first evidence was found for the hypothesis that secure attachment is associated with more self-regulation through a stance of openness to negative affect.The current findings highlight the value of investigating self-regulation development within the context of attachment relationships beyond early and middle childhood. Furthermore, the results suggest that studying the interrelations between attachment and self-regulation can increase our understanding of (mal)adaptive development. Lastly, introducing openness to negative affect as a process that might indirectly link attachment with self-regulation, leads to new intriguing research questions and preliminary ideas to improve clinical practice.

Jaar van publicatie:2017

Toegankelijkheid:Closed