Adolescents ’ Subtypes of Attachment Security with Fathers and Mothers and Self-Perceptions of Socioemotional Adjustment

The study examined adolescents ’ secure attachment with both versus one parent, for deeper understanding of adolescents ’ perceptions of their socioemotional adjustment. Specifically, the current study aimed to identify different attachment profiles with father and mother among 203 adolescents aged 15- 17 years and to examine whether these profiles associated differently with their self-rated peer-network loneliness and peer-dyadic lone-liness, positive and negative affect, and internalizing behavior problems. Descriptive statistics demonstrated that more adolescents were classified as securely attached to mothers than to fathers. No significant associations emerged between adolescents ’ sex and attachment classification distributions with mothers or fathers. Using k-means clustering methods, four distinct clusters emerged: secure attachment to both parents/to neither/to only father/to only mother. Tukey HSD and Scheffe procedures validated the attachment clusters, revealing signifi-cant inter-cluster differences on all of the adolescents ’ socioemotional measures. The current results also high-lighted that the group of adolescents who felt securely attached to both parents was least vulnerable to experi-encing socioemotional difficulties. In addition, secure attachment only to one’s mother and not to one’s father did not seem to act as a protective factor for these adolescents, with the exception of protection from peer-dyadic loneliness. Discussion focused on understanding the possible contribution of parent-adolescent secure attach-ment among these subgroups of typically developing adolescents