Humfress, Harriet; (2000) The relationship between attachment to parents, peer relations and mentalising in early adolescents. Doctoral thesis (D.Clin.Psy), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The relationship between attachment, peer relations and mentalising was explored in a study of 70 early adolescents. Two different measures of attachment were used, the Middle Childhood Attachment Interview and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment. Peer relationships were also investigated from a number of different perspectives using a self-report measure of friendship quality, peer ratings of popularity and teacher ratings of social skills with peers. This study found that security of attachment was related to some aspects of peer relations in adolescents but not others. As predicted, security of attachment was related to friendship quality. It is proposed that the adolescent's internal representation of the parent-child attachment relationship generalises to other close relationships. Security of attachment was not related to peer-rated popularity or teacher ratings of peer problems, but it was associated with teacher-rated prosocial behaviour. The quality of the parent-child attachment may therefore also influence some aspects of general social skills in this age group. Alternative explanations are discussed. Mentalising ability was not found to be related to peer relationships. There was an association between attachment, mentalising and verbal ability but mentalising did not make an independent contribution to the association. The measurement of mentalising ability in older children is discussed with suggestions for future research.

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