Negotiating Adolescence: The Importance of Close Relationships for Dismissing Adolescents J. Claire Stephenson, Nell N. Manning, Dave E. Szwedo

1
Negotiating Adolescence The Importance of Close
Relationships for Dismissing AdolescentsJ.
Claire Stephenson, Nell N. Manning, Dave E.
Szwedo Joseph P. Allen The University of
VirginiaWe would like to thank the National
Institute of Mental Health for funding awarded to
Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator,
(R01-MH58066) for the conduct and write-up of
this study.
Low Dismissing
Introduction

• Measures
• The Adult Attachment Interview (Main, Kaplan,
  Cassidy, 1985) was administered to target
  adolescents at age 14. This semi-structured
  interview probes individuals memories about
  their childhood experiences with primary
  caregivers. The Attachment Q-sort procedure
  (Kobak et al., 1993) was used to determine a
  continuous dismissing attachment score for each
  adolescent.
• The target adolescents completed the Childhood
  Report of Parenting Behavior (Schaefer, 1965) at
  ages 14 and 17. This study uses the maternal
  acceptance vs. rejection scale to measure the
  adolescents perception of his or her mother as
  being affectionate and emotionally supportive, or
  neglecting and rejecting. This scale included
  items such as
• My mother figure is a person who. . .
• Is able to make me feel better when I am upset
• Gives me a lot of care and attention
• Believes in showing her love for me
• The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment
  (Armsden Greenberg, 1989) was completed by a
  close peer of the target adolescent when they
  were 17. This study uses the total attachment
  scale as a measure of friendship quality which
  includes items such as
• My friend can tell when Im upset about
  something
• I feel he/she is a good friend
• I trust my friend
• I can count on him/her when I need to get
  something off my chest

Table 1. Hierarchical regression predicting
adolescents report of maternal acceptance at
age 17 ß Entry ß
Final ?R2 Total R2
Step 1. Gender .19
.07 Income
.04 - .07
Statistics from step.
.04
.04 Step 2. Adolescents report
of maternal .45
.40 .19
.23 acceptance (age 14) Step
3. Adolescents dismissing score (age 14)
- .18 - .12
.06 .29 Step 4. Close
peers report of friendship quality
.21 .25 .04
.33 with
adolescent (age 17) Step 5. Interaction
Dismissing score X .19
.19 .03
.36 Close peers report
of friendship quality Note. p lt
0.001 p lt 0.01 p lt 0.05

• Background
• Attachment security in adolescence is a
  significant predictor of many positive
  psychosocial outcomes ranging from higher grades
  in school to the ability to form intimate peer
  relationships. While it is valuable to realize
  the potential buffering effect that attachment
  security provides during adolescence, it is
  perhaps even more important to better understand
  the risk factors faced by adolescents with an
  insecure attachment orientation. These
  adolescents may be more susceptible to negative
  outcomes therefore, it is essential to explore
  potential protective factors that might better
  prepare insecure individuals for the challenges
  of adolescence. The current study aims to do so
  by examining dismissing adolescents and the
  interplay between their relationships with their
  mother and best friendarguably the two most
  salient relationships during adolescence.
• A fundamental task of adolescence is a
  renegotiation of the maternal relationship that
  allows adolescents to establish their own
  autonomy while remaining connected to their
  mother. Dismissing adolescents have a model of
  caregivers as unavailable and tend to remain
  detached from close relationships therefore,
  they face an added difficulty when it comes to
  maintaining relatedness with their mother. This
  time of transition poses a significant challenge
  for these individuals who enter adolescence less
  oriented towards emotional intimacy in
  relationships. However, this period of
  renegotiating relationships also presents a
  critical opportunity for positive growth. Peer
  relationships become increasingly salient during
  this time, providing dismissing adolescents with
  the chance to establish new significant
  relationships that can provide a source of
  support as well as a positive perspective on
  close relationships.
• Research Questions
• Will dismissing adolescents perceive their
  mother as more rejecting during the transition
  from early to late adolescence?
• Will the presence of a positive relationship
  with a peer make a difference for the way
  dismissing adolescents view their relationship
  with their mother?

Low Dismissing
High Dismissing
Results

• Adolescents who were more dismissing at age 14
  reported that their mothers were less accepting
  at age 17, even after accounting for adolescent
  report of maternal acceptance at age 14
• This result is consistent with the expectation
  that dismissing individuals struggle to maintain
  relatedness with their mother during adolescence
• Adolescents who had a dependable relationship
  with a peer at age 17 concurrently reported that
  they felt more accepted by their mother
• The interaction depicted in Figure 1 reveals
  that the relationship between a close friendship
  and perception of maternal acceptance was
  especially strong for highly dismissing
  adolescents. Adolescents who were highly
  dismissing, but had a quality close friendship,
  reported that their mothers were more accepting.
  Conversely, highly dismissing adolescents who
  lacked a close friendship saw their mothers as
  more rejecting
• Evidently, the presence of a quality close
  friendship in adolescence can have a positive
  impact on a dismissing adolescents feelings
  about his or her relationship with his or her
  mother

Figure 1. The interaction between adolescents
dismissing attachment score at age 14 and their
close peers report of friendship quality at age
17
Conclusions
Method
These results suggest the possibility that
establishing a supportive relationship with a
peer provides dismissing adolescents with an
opportunity to reevaluate their relationship with
their mother in a constructive way. Perhaps
through learning how to navigate a successful
relationship with a close peer, these adolescents
are able to apply this knowledge to improve their
relationship with their mother. Alternatively, it
may not be the mother-teen relationship that has
changed, but instead the adolescents perception
of it. Given that their need for support and
acceptance is being fulfilled through a close
friendship, these adolescents may be in a
position to make a more positive interpretation
of their relationship with their mother.

• Participants
• Adolescents and their close friends were
  assessed at ages 14 (mean
• 14.27, sd.77) and 17 (mean17.32, sd.88)
• Target adolescent demographics
• 97 females and 87 males
• Socio-economically diverse (median family
  income 40-60,000/yr)
• 31 African American 69 Caucasian