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Unique Contributions of Attachment Security and Emotional Awareness for Predicting Adolescent Romantic Relationship Functioning Introduction Attachment Security Attachment security in adolescence has been linked to positive experiences in young adults’ romantic relationships (Simpson, Collins, Tran, & Haydon, 2007) This link may potentially be explained by a function of attachment security to help adolescents regulate their emotions in close relationships (Allen & Manning, 2007) Security may be particularly associated with aspects of functioning that help adolescents meet instrumental, attachment-related, needs in the context of potentially emotionally-challenging relationships (Allen & Manning, 2007) Security may also be a precursor to broader patterns of emotion regulation skills that may predict other aspects of close relationship functioning (Allen & Manning, 2007) Emotion Regulation Evidence suggests emotion regulation may indeed be a multidimensional construct (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) Emotion regulation skills such as emotional awareness may also contribute to experiences of emotional closeness in relationships (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) Currently, however, it is unclear how attachment security and emotional awareness may uniquely or jointly predict aspects of adolescents’ romantic relationship functioning and satisfaction Measures Attachment Security (AAI, George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996; Q-sort, Kobak et al., 1993). The Adult Attachment Interview was used to assess teens’ childhood relationships with each of their parents. Teens were assigned attachment classifications based on the coherence of their responses. The Attachment Q-sort procedure was used to determine continuous measures of qualities of attachment organization. Emotional Awareness (Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, & Palfai, 1995). The attention to emotions subscale from the Trait Meta-Mood Scale was used to assess teens’ emotional awareness. This scale includes items such as, “I pay a lot of attention to how I feel”. Supportive Behavior Task (Allen, Hall, Insabella, Land, Marsh, & Porter, 2001). Teens and their romantic partners (RPs) participated in a 6-minute interaction in which teens asked their RPs for advice about a problem. Interactions were coded for: valuing/warmth, negativity, engagement, call for instrumental support, and instrumental support given. Conflict Resolution Task (Allen, Porter, McFarland, Hare, Miga, & Schad, 2008). Teens and RPs were observed during an 8-minute interaction in which they were asked to come to an agreement about several hypothetical dating scenarios. Interactions were coded for displays of positive and negative autonomy and relatedness from each partner. Relationship Satisfaction (Hendrick, Dicke, & Hendrick, 1998). Teens’ satisfaction was assessed using the Relationship Assessment Scale. This scale includes items such as, “In general, how satisfied are you with your relationship?”. Hypotheses Conclusions Results Participants Data were collected from a larger study of adolescent social development 96 adolescents (40 males, 56 females) and their opposite-sex romantic partners of 3 months or longer M age = 14.26; SD = 0.77 at Time 1 M age = 16.35; SD = 0.87 at Time 2 M age = 18.30; SD = 1.27 at Time 3 52 White; 30 African-American; 14 Mixed/Other Median family income = $40,000-$60,000 1. Attachment security will uniquely predict qualities of instrumental and autonomy support in teens’ romantic interactions. David E. Szwedo dszwedo@virginia.edu David E. Szwedo, Joanna M. Chango, Erin M. Miga, Megan M. Schad, & Joseph P. Allen University of Virginia 2. Emotional awareness uniquely predicted qualities of emotional closeness in teens’ romantic interactions. 3. Attachment security & emotional awareness will jointly predict aspects of teens’ romantic interactions with both attachment-related and emotional qualities. 2. Emotional awareness will uniquely predict qualities of emotional closeness in teens’ romantic interactions. 3. Attachment security & emotional awareness jointly predicted aspects of teens’ romantic interactions with both attachment-related and emotional qualities. 1. Attachment security uniquely predicted qualities of instrumental and autonomy support in teens’ romantic interactions. Adolescent Romantic Relationship Functioning Attachment security primarily predicted aspects of romantic interactions indicative of needs for instrumental and autonomy support Emotional awareness primarily predicted aspects of romantic interactions indicative of emotional closeness Both attachment security and emotional awareness predicted aspects of romantic interactions that may involve both attachment-related and emotional capacities Romantic Relationship Functioning & Satisfaction It may be important to consider several developmental markers of emotion regulation to most effectively predict adolescents’ romantic relationship functioning Positive functioning may be a better predictor of relationship satisfaction than attachment security or other emotional regulation skills This study was made possible by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant# R01-MH58066) and the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (Grant# 9 R01 HD058305-A11) awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator Copies available online at: www.teenresearch.org Method 4. Attachment security, emotional awareness, and positive qualities of teens’ romantic interactions will predict teens’ perceptions of relationship satisfaction. 4. Teens’ relationship satisfaction was predicted by positive qualities of their romantic interactions but not by attachment security or emotional awareness. Note. T = Teen Behavior; RP = Romantic Partner Behavior; ** p ≤.01, *** p ≤.001 Note. Beta weights in parentheses are values after Emotional Awareness was added to the model; RP = Romantic Partner; † p ≤.10, * p ≤.05, ** p ≤.01, *** p ≤.001 Note. RP = Romantic Partner; † p ≤.10, * p ≤.05 Predicting Teen and RP Engagement Predicting Teen and RP Positive Relatedness