Relationship of Perceived Parental Attachment With Internalizing Problems among Adolescents

Parent adolescent attachment is considered as a significant aspect for adjustment during the stressful transitional period of adolescence. Attachments formed with parents during the childhood provide an important foundation for psychological development later in life. During adolescent years, the increased conflict arises due to number of factors like puberty, cognitive changes, identity, etc. This conflict, if is present in moderation, can serve as a positive function, but if the attachments weaken and the conflict is prolonged as well as is intense, then a number of internalizing and externalizing problems emerge within the adolescents making their adjustment difficult. Keeping in mind the relevant literature this study is an attempt to understand the relationship between perceived parental attachment and the internalizing problems such as depression and anxiety. For this purpose, a sample of 100 female and 100 male adolescents from the age group 13-15 years is taken and incidental sampling technique is applied. The psychological tools used are, inventory of parent and peer attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), The center of epidemiological studies depression scale for children (Weissman et al., 1980) and revised children's manifest anxiety scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978). Correlational analysis is applied to study the relationship between the various variables. The correlation coefficients suggest significant negative relationships between perceived parental attachment and internalizing variables of depression and anxiety. The implications of the study are elucidated.