Your psychologist in New York should know that a longitudinal study of 596 females and 599 males ages 11- to 14-years-old measured delinquent behavior, illicit drug use, alcohol use, and cigarette use in relation to family attachment (Sokol-Katz, Dunham, and Zimmerman, 1997). Family attachment was measured by feelings of trust, respect, loyalty, and pride in one’s family members, shared values and beliefs, and openness to expressing feelings to one’s family. Through path analyses, family attachment was significantly directly related to minor delinquency, serious delinquency, and cigarette, alcohol, and drug use. Family composition was only indirectly related as it was somewhat predictive of family attachment. In other words, improving your family relationships with the help of a New York psychologist will have the most impact on your child’s adjustment.

Pulling from Bowlby’s (1969), Ainsworth’s (1978), and Bartholomew’s (1991) work, quality of parent-adolescent relationships has been researched with respect to attachment styles and should be familiar research to the New York psychologist working with your child. Allen et al. (2002) assessed adolescent’s current attachment-related memories, affects, and cognitions in addition to the adolescents’ realistic, positive expectations regarding attachment relationships. According to Allen et al. (2002), adolescents classified as secure/autonomous describe attachment experiences that are consistent and appropriately balanced in remembering positive and negative features of those experiences.

As a New York psychologist, I will work to help you and your child develop a secure attachment. Insecure adolescents are classified as insecure-preoccupied, insecure-dismissing, or insecure-disorganized. Insecure-preoccupied adolescents exhibit a preoccupation with attachment figures and give disproportionate attention to attachment needs and experiences such as focusing excessive attention and anger on past experiences with attachment figures. This type of attachment has been linked with higher levels of deviant behavior and is a focus within therapy in New York. Insecure-dismissing adolescents minimize the importance of attachment experiences and may state that they cannot recall such experiences or may create idealized experiences where memories are lacking. This type of attachment has been linked with an increase in conduct disorders. Lastly, insecure-disorganized adolescents often feel insecure in their attachments from experiencing loss or trauma. These are also focuses of therapy in New York.

Allen et al. (2002) also began to examine communication interactions in conjunction with these attachment styles when examining problem behaviors. According to their research, adolescents classified as insecure-preoccupied showed a decrease in social skills and an increase in delinquency behaviors from age 16 to 18. When looking at communication as well, the insecure-preoccupied adolescents whose mothers also argued their points more rigidly and forcefully in discussions experienced an even more pronounced decrease in social skills and increase in delinquency behaviors. On the other hand, securely attached adolescents did not experience any negative effects from this communication style. This shows the importance not only of communication style as a treatment goal for your therapy in New York but also relationship quality between adolescents and parents with respect to the overall relationship.

Written by Dr. Cortney Weissglass as part of Clinical Research Project submitted to the Faculty of the American School of Professional Psychology of Argosy University, Washington, DC Campus, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology. Dissertation chair: Ann Womack, PhD and Member: Jennifer McEwan, PhD. August, 2010.

For a full list of references, contact Dr. Weissglass at [email protected].

Resource Box: When providing http://www.drcortneyweissglass.com therapy in New York, Dr. Weissglass utilizes a strengths-based approach to help her clients focus on the positive potential of a situation. In September of 2012, as a licensed http://www.drcortneyweissglass.com New York psychologist, Dr. Weissglass will utilize this effective approach to help her clients address a wide range of concerns.