Relations Between Parenting and Adolescent’s Attachment in Families Differing in Solidarity Patterns

Abstract

To explain attachment development in adolescence in different contexts we applied the family solidarity model (e.g., Bengtson, 2001) generally used to analyze intergenerational adult children-elderly parents relations. The model differentiates four family solidarity patterns which were assumed in our study to occur in adolescent–parent relations, though with a different distribution. We tested a susceptibility hypothesis assuming that effects of parenting will be stronger in family patterns with higher, compared to lower, affectual solidarity. A sample of Polish adolescents, their mothers (N = 570, both), and their fathers (N = 290) was surveyed as part of the Value-of-Children-Study (Trommsdorff & Nauck, 2005). Four family patterns were identified: highly affectual amicable and harmonious; and less affectual and most frequently displayed detached and disharmonious patterns. The parenting susceptibility hypothesis was supported: For amicable and harmonious families, adolescents’ perception of maternal rejection was more strongly related with their attachment compared to the other family types. Partly in line with our hypothesis, effects of paternal rejection on adolescents’ attachment were strongest in amicable families, however not significant in harmonious families. The study demonstrates that the relation between parenting on adolescents’ attachment representation is influenced by the pattern of family parentschild relations.