Attachment and Peer Relationships 1 The Role of Adolescents ’ Representations of Attachment and Peer Relationships in the Prediction of Delinquency

This study examined adolescents’ representations of attachment and peer relationships as predictors of delinquency. Data were gathered from a sample of 151 racially and socioeconomically diverse at-risk adolescents. Results revealed a relationship between peer relationships and delinquency, such that adolescents with better peer relationships had lower levels of delinquency. In addition, an interaction effect was found for adolescents’ representations of attachment and peer relationships in the prediction of delinquency, such that for adolescents either preoccupied with or non-dismissing of attachment, the presence of close friends was associated with decreased levels of delinquency. For dismissing or non-preoccupied adolescents, however, close friendship had relatively little association with delinquency. Results are interpreted as suggesting that close, supportive friends serve an important buffering function for adolescents open to thinking about relationships, as evidenced either by preoccupation with or non-dismissal of attachment. Attachment and Peer Relationships 3 Introduction Almost everyday, we encounter stories in the news concerning school shootings, gang violence, and a range of other crimes committed by adolescents. It is clear from these events that juvenile crime is a major problem in our society. Statistics, too, show that crime is an all too common occurrence for the youth of America. Violent crime rates for the total juvenile population increased by 143% from 1967 to 1996 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1996). In 1992, law enforcement agencies made 2.3 million arrests of persons below the age of 18, accounting for 16% of total arrests, and in 1998, 6% of all people arrested were under the age of 15, and 18% were under the age of 18 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1998). These startling figures only begin to illustrate just how many youths are involved in illegal activities and how enormous a problem this is in our society. Researchers from all different fields have been investigating the causes of these increased levels of juvenile crime, for it is only by understanding the variables surrounding juvenile crime that society can begin to prevent it. Psychologists, therefore, have been studying many different realms of child development and how they relate to the formation of externalizing behavior problems. One area that has been the focus of much research concerning problem behaviors is attachment theory. As infants, all humans form attachment relationships with their primary caregivers. These lasting bonds provide infants with comfort and reassurance when threatened (Weinfield, Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson, 1999), as well as a secure base from which to explore the world around them. Seeking to establish and maintain a certain degree of proximity to the caregiver is the behavioral hallmark of attachment. This proximity may range from close physical contact under some circumstances to interaction or communication across some distance under other circumstances. Attachment behaviors Attachment and Peer Relationships 4 can therefore be seen as those that promote proximity or contact, whereas exploratory behaviors are those that lead the infant away from the caregiver to venture forth and learn about his or her environment (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970). There is a delicate balance between attachment behaviors and exploratory behaviors, for if an infant is to competently explore the environment, he or she must remain confident that the caregiver will be available if a threat arises. It is in this attachment-exploration balance that individual differences in attachment relationships can most easily be seen (Ainsworth, 1967; Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). In addition to differences in the attachment-exploration balance, individual differences in attachment also reflect an infant’s perception of the availability of his or her caregiver in the face of threat and the subsequent organization of responses to the caregiver in light of those perceptions (Weinfield et al., 1999). Briefly, there are four categories of attachment, secure, insecure/avoidant, insecure/resistant, and disorganized/disoriented. Securely attached infants are able to depend on their caregivers as a source of comfort and protection if that need arises. Infants who are insecurely attached, however, are not confident in the responsiveness and sensitivity of their caregivers and therefore do not achieve the same confidence in themselves or mastery of their environments that securely attached infants do (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Weinfield et al., 1999). Finally, the disorganized/disoriented classification is characterized by incomplete or contradictory attachment behaviors (Main & Solomon, 1990). The attachment system includes not only outward behaviors but also an inner organization, and as this inner organization changes in the course of development, so too do the observable attachment behaviors and situations in which they are evoked (Ainsworth, 1989). This occurs because attachment relationships are internalized in what Bowlby (1973) called “internal working models”. An individual’s early experiences and subsequent expectations are taken forward to serve later behavioral and Attachment and Peer Relationships 5 emotional adaptation, and these models serve as a foundation of beliefs regarding the self, as well as relationships with both caregivers and non-caregivers (Bowlby, 1973). More specifically, a secure infant who is confident in the sensitive, responsive, and available caregiver will more likely be confident in later interactions with the world. An insecure infant, however, who has experienced not only inconsistency and insensitivity but perhaps also rejection from his caregiver will be more anxious about the availability of that caregiver. This individual will not develop the same degree of confidence in himself or mastery of his surroundings as his secure counterpart (Weinfield et al., 1999). Because of the impact these internal representations have on the organization of perceptions and expectations within each individual, they are expected to exert their influence on the individual’s later adaptation and behavior. Attachment can therefore be seen as an important construct in understanding future development and behavioral patterns of individuals. One area that attachment has been shown to influence is the development of problem behaviors in childhood and adolescence. Past research has found a link between problem behaviors and insecure attachment strategies. Of a sample of preschool children displaying serious hostile behavior toward peers, 71% had disorganized attachment strategies as infants. Compared to variables such as maternal psychosocial problems and infant cognitive development, early disorganized attachment was in fact the strongest single predictor of deviant levels of hostile behavior (Lyons-Ruth, Alpern, & Repacholi, 1993). Disorganized attachment has also been found to be uniquely predictive of higher levels of aggression at age five (Shaw, Owens, Vondra, Keenan, & Winslow, 1996), and has been shown to be related to individual behavior problems in preschool, elementary school, and high school, and diagnostic ratings of psychopathology at age 171⁄2 (Carlson, 1998). Children classified more generally as insecure at age seven showed significantly higher levels of externalizing behavior problems than secure children, Attachment and Peer Relationships 6 even after accounting for family risk, which had been linked to children’s behavior problems in the past (Easterbrooks, Davidson, & Chazan, 1993). Insecure attachment has also been found with great frequency (80%) among clinic-referred boys with oppositional defiant disorder (Greenberg, Speltz, DeKlyen, & Endriga, 1991). Overall, these findings suggest that attachment is indeed linked to problem behaviors in childhood, such that children with insecure attachment strategies may be more likely than children with secure attachment strategies to display externalizing behavior problems. The link between insecurity and deviant behavior also remains in adolescence, though the type of insecurity that predicts deviance is less clear. Rosenstein and Horowitz (1996) found that psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents with a dismissing attachment strategy, which is characterized by a dissociation with both attachment figures and attachment experiences (Main & Goldwyn, in press), were more likely to have a conduct or substance abuse disorder. Allen, Moore, Kuperminc, and Bell (1998), however, found that a preoccupied attachment strategy, which is characterized by a preoccupation with attachment figures and memories (Main & Goldwyn, in press), was a significant predictor of higher levels of externalizing problems and delinquent behaviors among an at-risk sample of teens. Although these findings disagree on the specific attachment strategy that is linked to deviance in adolescence, it is clear that insecurity in general remains a strong predictor of problem behaviors well into adolescence. Examining these studies as a whole, it is clear that insecure attachment is a significant predictor of later deviance. There has been much speculation regarding the mechanisms by which insecurity influences problem behaviors. One possibility concerns the internal representations of relationships (Greenberg, 1999; Greenberg, Speltz, & DeKlyen, 1993). Early expectations and experiences with the attachment figure result in the formation of internal working models, and these internal models are likely Attachment and Peer Relationships 7 to affect future behavior. An avoidant child may, for example, develop an aggressive or hostile behavior pattern in response to a rejecting and emotionally unavailable caregiver (Greenberg, 1999). This response pattern transcends beyond the parent-child relationship, possibly leading to a variety of externalizing behavior problems. It is thus possible that devi