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Abstract
Maternal support is known as a protective factor during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. However, less is known about the conditions leading to support-seeking behaviors toward mothers in early adolescence. In comparison with younger children, it is assumed that the specific nature of these conditions changes with continuing cognitive maturation. To shed light on the normative development of attachment-related behaviors beyond infancy and, more specifically, on the activating conditions for support seeking, 98 early adolescents were instructed to write about a distressing situation during which they needed their mother’s support. Seven distressing conditions could be derived from the current data. Two not previously described age-relevant conditions, academic failure and social conflict, were identified. Notably, 62% of the reported conditions referred to situations Bowlby (1969/1982) originally proposed, empirically confirming the importance of these conditions in early adolescence.
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Author Biographies
Eva Vandevivere is a PhD student in the Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology at Ghent University. Her research focuses on attachment and the role of temperamental differences in the development of attachment insecurity in early adolescence.
Caroline Braet, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology at Ghent University in Belgium. Her research domain and the topics of her lessons were all characterized by a developmental psychopathology approach. She received her PhD from the University of Ghent in 1993, with a specialization in the investigation of psychological aspects of childhood obesity and depression. She is the author or co-author of over 100 scientific publications.
Guy Bosmans is an assistant professor at the University of Leuven. He studies attachment in early adolescence. His research focuses on the cognitive mechanisms explaining the link between attachment representations and secure base behavior.
