The Role of Adolescent Attachment in Moderating and Mediating the Links Between Parent and Adolescent Psychological Symptoms

The present study examined whether adolescent attachment security and attachment-related representations moderate and mediate, respectively, the link between parent symptoms (depressive and anxiety) and adolescent depressive symptoms. Participants were 189 (118 girls) eleventh graders and their parents in a community sample. Results showed that adolescent attachment moderated the connection between parent and adolescent symptoms; in most cases attachment security was more protective if both parents were high on anxiety symptoms or if one parent was high on anxiety but the other parent was low on depressive symptoms. Mediational analyses indicated that representations of their mothers as a secure base mediated the link between maternal and adolescent depressive symptoms. Perceptions of fathers as a secure base did not play a mediating role, although paternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower perceptions of the father as a secure base. Neither parent's anxiety symptoms were related to perceptions of the parent as a secure base or to adolescent depressive symptoms.