Sex-specific relationships among attachment security, social values, and sensation seeking in early adolescence: implications for adolescents' externalizing problem behaviour.
In early adolescence, attachment security reflects not only the quality of ongoing relationships with parents, but also how adolescents process social relationships with "others" - that is, their "social value orientation" - with possible implications for adolescents' risk-taking. In this study, a sample of Italian early adolescents were administered self-report measures in order to examine the relationships (a) between early adolescents' perceived attachment security to mothers and fathers, social values (related to family and the socio-cultural context), and sensation seeking (as a temperamental predisposition to risk-taking), and (b) between these variables and adolescents' externalizing problem behaviour. Adolescents were more securely attached to the same-sexed parent. Further, attachment security with the opposite-sexed parent predicted more conservative social value orientations, and lower levels of problem behaviour. In contrast, sensation seeking predicted self-enhancement and openness-to-change values to a greater extent, and, in girls, lower levels of attachment security to mothers and fathers.
Sarracino
Diego
D
Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano, Italy. diego.sarracino@unimib.it
Presaghi
Fabio
F
Degni
Silvia
S
Innamorati
Marco
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007558:Italy; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012574:Schools; D012737:Sex Factors; D012945:Social Values; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires