Psychology
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Item Tipping Points in Adolescent Adjustment: Predicting Social Functioning from Adolescents’ Conflict with Parents and Friends(American Psychological Association, 2012-10) Ehrlich, Katherine B.; Dykas, Matthew J.; Cassidy, JudeDespite widespread interest in examining the role of conflict for adolescent development, researchers only rarely have examined adolescents' experiences of conflict across relationships. The present study examined how adolescents' experiences of conflict with parents and friends were linked to their social functioning. Adolescents (n = 189) and their mothers and fathers participated in semistructured discussions about areas of parent-adolescent conflict in the laboratory. In addition, adolescents reported about conflict in their best friendships, and peers reported about adolescents' social acceptance and behavior in social settings. Parent–adolescent conflict was associated with peer-reported aggression and delinquency, and friendship conflict was associated with delinquency and prosocial behavior. In addition, significant Parent–Adolescent Conflict × Friend–Adolescent Conflict interactions revealed that parent–adolescent conflict was associated with poor social functioning only when conflict with best friends was also high. The findings suggest that consideration of conflict across relationships may yield insight into the specific contexts in which conflict is associated with negative outcomes for adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)Item Parental Knowledge of Adolescent Activities: Links With Parental Attachment Style and Adolescent Substance Use(American Psychological Association, 2015) Jones, Jason D.; Ehrlich, Katherine B.; Lejuez, C. W.; Cassidy, JudeParents’ knowledge of their adolescents’ whereabouts and activities is a robust predictor of adolescent risk behavior, including the use of drugs and alcohol. Surprisingly few studies have attempted to identify parental characteristics that are associated with the degree of parental knowledge. The present study is the first to examine how parental attachment style relates to mother, father, and adolescent reports of parental knowledge. Further, we used structural equation modeling to test the associations among parents’ attachment styles, reports of parental knowledge, and adolescents’ alcohol and marijuana use. Participants included 203 adolescents (M age = 14.02, SD = .91) living in 2-parent households and their parent(s). As predicted, mothers’ and fathers’ insecure attachment styles were negatively associated with self-reported and adolescent-reported parental knowledge, and all 3 reports of parental knowledge were negatively related to adolescent substance use. Mothers’ and fathers’ attachment styles were unrelated to adolescent substance use. However, evidence emerged for indirect effects of parental attachment style on adolescent substance use through reports of parental knowledge. Implications for prevention efforts and the importance of multiple reporters within the family are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)Item Adolescent Friendships in the Context of Dual Risk: The Roles of Low Adolescent Distress Tolerance and Harsh Parental Response to Adolescent Distress(American Psychological Association, 2013-10) Ehrlich, Katherine B.; Cassidy, Jude; Gorka, Stephanie M.; Lejuez, C. W.; Daughters, Stacey B.Given extensive evidence about the importance of relationships with friends during development, a large body of research has examined the correlates of these significant social experiences. Most of this research, however, has examined either individual characteristics (e.g., behavior, personality) or contextual factors (e.g., family), and most of the work has studied relationships during childhood. The present study extended previous research by examining how both an individual factor (adolescent distress tolerance) and a contextual factor (parental response to adolescent distress) are linked to adolescents’ friendships. Adolescents (N = 161) completed two behavioral measures of distress tolerance, and parents reported about their responses to adolescent distress. Although distress tolerance and parental responses to distress were not directly associated with adolescents’ positive or negative friendship experiences, for adolescents with low distress tolerance, harsh parental responses were negatively associated with adolescents’ positive friendship quality. Further, for adolescents whose parents used harsh responses to distress, distress tolerance was negatively associated with adolescents’ positive friendship quality. Results highlight the importance of studying both individual and familial factors related to adolescents’ social functioning. (APA PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)Item Do Adolescents and Parents Reconstruct Memories About Their Conflict as a Function of Adolescent Attachment?(Wiley, 2010-09-14) Dykas, Matthew J.; Woodhouse, Susan S.; Ehrlich, Katherine B.; Cassidy, JudeThis study examined whether 17-year-old adolescents (n = 189) and their parents reconstructed their memory for an adolescent–parent laboratory conflict over a 6-week period as a function of adolescent attachment organization. It also compared participants’ perceptions of conflict over time to observational ratings of the conflict to further characterize the nature of the attachment-related memory biases that emerged. Secure adolescents reconstructed interactions with each parent more favorably over time, whereas insecure adolescents showed less favorable reconstructive memory. Likewise, mothers of secure girls reconstructed conflicts more favorably over time, whereas mothers of insecure boys showed less favorable reconstructive memory. Participant ratings were associated with observational ratings in theoretically consistent ways. Contrary to expectations, fathers showed no attachment-related memory biases.Item Reporter Discrepancies Among Parents, Adolescents, and Peers: Adolescent Attachment and Informant Depressive Symptoms as Explanatory Factors(Wiley, 2011-03-09) Ehrlich, Katherine B.; Cassidy, Jude; Dykas, Matthew J.The issue of informant discrepancies about child and adolescent functioning is an important concern for clinicians, developmental psychologists, and others who must consider ways of handling discrepant reports of information, but reasons for discrepancies in reports have been poorly understood. Adolescent attachment and informant depressive symptoms were examined as 2 explanations for absolute and directional discrepancies about adolescent symptoms, relationships, and social behavior in a sample of 189 eleventh-grade students (mean age = 16.5 years). Adolescent attachment predicted absolute discrepancies, with greater attachment coherence associated with fewer discrepancies in reports of adolescent depressive symptoms, parent–adolescent conflict, and adolescent externalizing behavior. Parents’ but not adolescents’ depressive symptoms sometimes predicted absolute discrepancies. Mothers’ depressive symptoms and adolescent attachment predicted the direction of discrepancies for mother–peer reports only.Item Stability of Attachment Style in Adolescence: An Empirical Test of Alternative Developmental Processes(Wiley, 2017-03-20) Jones, Jason D.; Fraley, R. Chris; Ehrlich, Katherine B.; Stern, Jessica A.; Lejuez, C. W.; Shaver, Phillip R.; Cassidy, JudeFew studies have examined stability and change in attachment during adolescence. This 5-year longitudinal study (a) examined whether prototype or revisionist developmental dynamics better characterized patterns of stability and change in adolescent attachment (at T1, N = 176; M age = 14.0 years, SD = 0.9), (b) tested potential moderators of prototype-like attachment stability, and (c) compared attachment stability in adolescence to stability in adulthood. The results supported the prototype model, which assumes that there is a stable, enduring factor underlying stability and change in attachment. Exploratory moderation analyses revealed that family conflict, parental separation or divorce, minority status, and male sex might undermine the prototype-like stability of adolescent attachment. Stability of attachment was lower in adolescence relative to adulthood.Item Maternal Attachment Style and Responses to Adolescents’ Negative Emotions: The Mediating Role of Maternal Emotion Regulation(Taylor & Francis, 2014-11-11) Jones, Jason D.; Brett, Bonnie E.; Ehrlich, Katherine B.; Lejuez, Carl W.; Cassidy, JudeObjective. Previous research has examined the developmental consequences, particularly in early childhood, of parents’ supportive and unsupportive responses to children’s negative emotions. Much less is known about factors that explain why parents respond in ways that may support or undermine their children’s emotions, and even less is known about how these parenting processes unfold with adolescents. In the present study, researchers examined the associations between mothers’ attachment styles and their distress, harsh, and supportive responses to their adolescents’ negative emotions two years later and whether these links were mediated by maternal emotion regulation difficulties. Design. Mothers in a longitudinal study (n = 230) reported on their attachment style, difficulties regulating their emotions, and their hypothetical responses to their adolescents’ negative emotions, respectively, at consecutive laboratory visits one year apart. Results. Mothers who reported greater attachment-related avoidance and anxiety reported having greater difficulties with emotion regulation one year later. Emotion dysregulation, in turn, predicted more distressed, harsher, and less supportive maternal responses to adolescents’ negative emotions the following year. In addition, greater avoidance directly predicted harsher maternal responses two years later. Conclusions. These findings extend previous research by identifying maternal attachment style as a predictor of responses to adolescent distress and by documenting the underlying role of emotion dysregulation in the link between adult attachment style and parenting.Item A Preliminary Investigation of Attachment Style and Inflammation in African American Young Adults(Taylor & Francis, 2018-11-08) Ehrlich, Katherine B.; Stern, Jessica A.; Eccles, Jacquelynne; Dinh, Julie V.; Hopper, Elizabeth A.; Kemeny, Margaret; Adam, Emma K.; Cassidy, JudeIndividuals’ social experiences are associated with their mental health, physical health, and even mortality. Over the last 30 years, researchers have examined the ways in which these social experiences might be associated with chronic inflammation – a component underlying many of the chronic diseases of aging. Little research, however, has examined the role of adults’ attachment style as a specific social component that might be associated with inflammation. In the present study, we utilized data from a sample of 59 African-American adults from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS) to examine the links between attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety and C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin (IL)-6. After controlling for demographic characteristics, body mass index, and depressive symptoms, attachment avoidance and anxiety were associated with IL-6 but not CRP. This study adds to the growing body of research identifying the wide range of social experiences associated with inflammation and further suggests that attachment relationship experiences may have implications for biological processes relevant to many chronic diseases of aging.