1. Attachment, Coping, & Social Competence
Emily DelGuercio1, David E. Szwedo1, & Joseph P. Allen2 1James Madison University
2University of Virginia
Introduction
Measures
Attachment Styles (Age 14): Adolescents were assessed for a preoccupied attachment style with the Adolescent Attachment Interview. Higher scores indicate a more preoccupied style.
Coping (Age 21): Active coping and emotional social support were assessed by problem focused coping responses through the COPE, a self-report measure of adaptive and maladaptive coping styles.
Intimate Relationship Score (Age 25) Assessed by a self-reported measure of success with intimate relationships with the Adult Self-Perception Profile
Trust in Friends (Age 25) Assessed by peer reports of the quality of participants’ trust in their friendships with through the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment measure.
Table 1. Univariate statistics and intercorrelations between primary variables.
Background: The development of parent-child relationships begins very early on. From the nature and quality of these relationships certain attachments styles are formed and described as the fundamental bond between parent and child that is essential to survival and development (Moretti & Peled, 2004). Research has shown that attachment styles are useful in predicting many aspects of psychosocial development in childhood and adolescence such as coping methods and relationship quality (Dawson, Allen, Marston, Hafen, & Schad, 2014).
Purpose of Study: This study examines how the development of social competence may be attributed to different attachment styles and mediated by emotional coping responses.
Hypotheses
Results
Individuals with preoccupied attachment styles will be less likely to place trust in their friendships and will perceive themselves to have lower quality intimate relationships
A preoccupied attachment will be associated with participants endorsing less use of adaptive active coping and emotional support-seeking skills
Active coping and emotional support skills will be positively associated with trust in friendships and intimate relationship quality
Active coping and perceived emotional social support will mediate the association between preoccupied attachment and social competence.
Univariate statistics and intercorrelations between primary variables are presented in Table 1.
Regression analyses showed that a greater preoccupied attachment style predicted less trust in friendships and success with intimate relationships several years later, after controlling for gender and household income.
There were no significant associations between preoccupied attachment and coping styles.
Greater use of active coping and emotional support-seeking skills predicted greater trust in friendships and success in intimate relationships.
When active coping and emotional support seeking were included as mediators in regressions with preoccupied attachment predicting trust in friends, previously significant associations between preoccupied attachment and trust in friends were reduced (and coping was a significant predictor of trust in friends), suggesting mediation of these effects.
Discussion
Our results suggest that coping can mediate the relationship between preoccupied individuals and certain social competencies. This may be because attachment has continually been linked to social awareness, empathy, formation of relationships, and coping skills (Liable, 2007). Adolescents experience many instances dealing with interpersonal conflicts, physical changes, and social development. Coping has received considerable attention as one of the probable factors of adolescent adjustment. Our study suggests that developing adaptive active coping skills can result in elevated social competence even when an individual is not securely attached. Additional research should done to further test coping as a mediator of social competence.
Method
Participants (N=184)
Gender: 86 males, 98 females
Race/Ethnicity: 107 Caucasian, 53 African American, 25 Mixed/Other
Family income: median = $40,000-$59,000
Assessed at ages: 14, 21, 25