1
Author
Koiv, Kristi
Title
Disturbances of attachment history of juvenile delinquents
compared with ordinary school pupils
Origin
Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational
Research, University of Lisbon, 11-14 September 2002
Abstract
A matched pair method was used to select juvenile delinquents
studied at training school and control group. Young offenders (75
males) were matched by age and sex with the control group. Three
different research instruments were used to explore whether
juvenile delinquents' attachment history and -styles were different
compared with that of the control group. Two hypotheses, that
juvenile delinquents' attachment style and attachment history
should be insecure compared with controls, was confirmed and
specified. Research findings showed that two general risk factors
of the development of delinquent behavior of adolescents were
connected to insecure current attachment styles and disturbances in
the overprotection dimension of maternal bonding. Two aspects of
attachment history: (1) ambivalent scores in maternal
overprotection dimension, - at the same time as high and low
overprotection, and (2) the repeated separation from both parents
during late childhood and adolescence were influential in the
genesis of delinquent behavior during adolescence.
Suggested key terms Antisocial behavior, attachment, parental bonding
Version Number
Registration Number R106
Introduction
The attachment theory as a framework of our study was formulated by Bowlby (1969,
1973, 1980) describing the bonding relationships that develop between infants and their
primary caregivers. John Bowlby described attachment as a behavioural system grounded
in evolution, which has as its set goal keeping the infant in close proximity to its primary
caregiver. Several researchers nowadays have applied the attachment theoretical
framework to relationships of adults (see reviews: Feeney & Noller, 1996; Sperling &
Berman 1994). This applications was based on the assumption put forward by Bowlby
(1980) that attachment patterns become internalized and form the basis to internal
working models. Older children, adolescents and adults were seen as having internal
models which guide their general behavior with others, especially regarding issues of
attachment in close relationships.
Whereas longitudinal research with infants and toddlers suggests relationship between
attachment and interpersonal competence (e.g. Erickson et al., 1985; Lewis, et al., 1984;
2
Sroufe, 1983), research on the relationships between adolescent attachment and
interpersonal competence in general is not so clearly documented. Empirical research
indicated that adolescents who perceive secure relationships with their parents exhibit
higher emotional well-being (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), and less depression and
social anxiety (Papini et al., 1991; Batgos & Leadbeater, 1994), than adolescents who
perceive insecure relationships with their parents. The meta-analysis of studies (Rice,
1990) linking adolescent attachment with three types of adjustment (academic, social,
and emotional) showed a reliable positive association between attachment and measures
of social and emotional adjustment, but no reliable association with measures of
academic adjustment.
When we look at the connections of attachment style classified in infancy and distortions
of social development connected with several types of antisocial behavior in early
adolescence, we may underline three empirical studies. First, Grossmann and Grossmann
(1991) followed a sample of children from infancy through 10 years of age and found
that insecure children, especially those originally categorized as anxious-ambivalent,
reported having either no good friends or many friends. Secondly, Elicker et al. (1992)
results provide evidence that the quality of infant-mother attachment of high risk children
was an important predictor of competence and interpersonal relations in 10-11 years:
children with secure attachment histories were rated as emotionally more healthy, selfassured, and competent; children with insecure attachment histories were rated as more
dependent on adults and received lower ratings than insecure peers on popularity,
sociability, and prosocial interaction skills with avoidant children showing the lowest
levels. Thirdly, Renken et al. (1989) investigated early antecedents of elementary school
aggression and passive withdrawal in a high-risk sample. Among other predictors of
aggression, such as stressful life circumstances and inadequate or hostile parental care,
avoidant attachment was significantly related to aggressive behavior for boys. Other
researchers have found similar connections between avoidant attachment and preschool
aggression (Engeland & Sroufe, 1981).
Matcus and Betzer (1996) had studied correlations between attachment to mother, father,
and best friend and antisocial behavior of boys and girls between 11 and 14 years of aga
measuring concurrent attachment. Attachment to mother or father were related negatively
with the frequency of antisocial behavior of juveniles, whereby attachment to father was
the strongest predictor of this kind of behavior.
Looking at the antisocial behavior from the legal viewpoint and connecting it with
adolescents’ attachment we can mention that some researches comprised delinquents and
nondelinquents. Research results clearly supported the relation between poorer emotional
bonds between a parent and an adolescent in the sense of greater conflict and/or lower
cohesion for delinquents (Linden & Fillmore, 1981; Matlack et al., 1994; Simons et al.,
1991; Tolan, 1988).
Studies have shown that distortions in parental bonding measured by the Parental
Bonding Instrument (BPI) to be related to a number of different types of antisocial
behavior patterns in adolescence - delinquent behavior (Howard, 1981; Pedersen, 1994),
bullying (Browers et al., 1994) and oppositional/behavioral disorders (Ray & Papp,
1990). Howard (1981) compared male adolescents who had been committed to residential
training for the first time with persistent offenders classified as antisocial personalities.
3
He found that the only statistically significant PBI scale score distinguishing the groups
was that of maternal care, with the persistent offenders reporting their mothers as less
caring than the first committals. Additionally, maternal overprotection was a better
predictor connecting to aggression manifestation of offenders.
Pedersen (1994) examined the connections between PBI scores and anxiety/depression
and delinquency in boys and girls in a population of normal secondary school children.
Findings showed that both - care and control, as measured by PBI - show a clear
relationship to anxiety/depression and/or delinquency. The relationship was the strongest
between these behavior patterns and low care, with low care by father as the strongest
predictor of anxiety/depression, and low care by mother as the strongest predictor of
delinquency and the combination of the two conditions.
The results of the Browers, Smith, Binney (1994) research yield differences between the
four early adolescence age ordinary school subgroups of bullies, bully/victims, victims
and controls, identified by a modified version of the Parental Bonding Instrument.
Bully/victim subgroup indicated more troubled relations directly with parents – they
perceived parents lowest for accurate monitoring (overprotection dimension) and warmth
(care dimension), and simultaneously highest for over-protection and neglect, whereby
lowest accurate monitoring was especially characteristic of mothers and highest
overprotection especially fathers.
The link between parental bonding and antisocial behavior has been investigated using
clinical samples - Ray and Plapp (1990) found no differences between adolescents
suffering from oppositional and behavioral disorders with regard to PBI scores, but both
groups reported lower care and high control than normal adolescents. Also, Burbach et al.
(1989) found that low care and high control, as measured by PBI, characterized both
depressed adolescents and those with behavioral or oppositional disturbances, as distinct
from normal adolescents.
The objective of the present study was to explore whether juvenile delinquents’
attachment style (measured by multiple-item attachment scale) and attachment history
(measured by Parental Bonding Instrument) was different compared with the matched
control group adolescents.
On the basis of attachment theory and previous research concentrating on links between
attachment and antisocial behavior, two hypothesis were generated: (1) juvenile
delinquents’ current attachment style should be insecure compared with controls, and (2)
delinquent adolescents’ attachment history should be characterised by distortions of
parental bonding - low care and high overprotection compared with comparison groups.
Method
Subjects
The sample consists of two different groups of male subjects: juvenile delinquents and a
matched control group. The first group consists of 75 young offenders undergoing a state
training school. The second group – control group, consists of 75 adolescents of
randomly selected three different comprehensive schools. Delinquent youth was matched
by age and sex with control group. The total number of male adolescents from two
different group was 150 ranging from 10 to17 years in age (M=14,18; SD=1,82) (Tab. 1).
4
Tab. 1. Ages of male adolescents.
10
Age
years
4.00
Percentage
11
years
2.67
12
years
10.67
13
years
13.33
14
years
21.33
15
years
17.33
16
years
20.00
17
years
10.67
Instruments
Multiple-item attachment scale, developed by Simpson (1990), was used to define
attachment in terms of present reports of attachment. This measure was directly based on
Hazan and Shaver (1987) attachment measure indicating three paragraphs corresponding
to the three attachment styles: secure, avoidant, anxious-ambivalent. Delinquent and
matched adolescents were asked to rate 13 sentences (five items for secure attachment
and four items per insecure attachment style - avoidant, anxious/ambivalent) contained
within the Hazan and Shaver (1987) adult attachment measure on a 7-point Likert-type
scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). To measure each
attachment style, the items corresponding to three paragraphs aggregated to form three
attachment indexes.
Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI; Parker et al., 1979) was used for measuring two
different parental bonding dimensions - care and overprotection including orthogonal
constructs: high care - low care and high overprotection - low overprotection. Delinquent
and matched control group youth were asked to rate a 25-item PBI questionnaire
measuring the parental characteristics retrospectively (make ratings based on your
earliest memories until you were 16 years old) measuring separately the participants’
perceptions of mother and father along two dimensions. Within each form, 12 items
compose the Care scale, and 13 items compose the Overprotection scale. The coding
scheme for self-reported involvement in each item was as follows: very like = 1,
moderately like = 2, moderately unlike = 3, very unlike = 4. Respondents were given a
possibility to rate the most influential parent figures, to meet the possibility that any
restriction to biological parents may have some obvious limitations, especially if a
respondent has no memory of such parent.
Additionally, one aspect of attachment history with parents was assessed using a
questionnaire - separation from parents in childhood. Subjects were asked whether and
why they had been separated from either parent for what seemed like a long time, from
which parents, if they had been separated from parents repeatedly and how old they were
during separation.
Results
Table 2 persists three attachment indexes - means of three (secure, avoidance,
anxious/ambivalent) attachment style and standard deviations of two different groups of
subjects measured by Simpson’s (1990) multiple-item attachment scale. To test the
differences among delinquent and matched control adolescents’ groups, Fisher Fcriterion was computed for each measure.
Tab. 2. Means, SDs and F-values for multiple-item attachment scale of two adolescents’ groups.
Attachment style
Group
Mean
SD
F
5
Secure
Delinquent
Control
Avoidant
Delinquent
Control
Anxious/ambivalent
Delinquent
Control
Notes. * p<.05; significantly different from each other.
4.37
4.85
3.42
3.75
3.67
3.39
1.27
1.23
1,29
1.35
1.42
1.37
4,41*
1.96
1.32
Research results indicated that one statistically significant Simpson’s (1990) attachment
scale score distinguished two groups of subjects: control group adolescent were more
securely attached compared with delinquent adolescents (F = 4.41, p<.05). Lower scores
reflected greater insecurity of delinquent adolescents and higher scores reflected greater
security of control group respondents in current attachment relationships. Our data
suggested that attachment variables, defined in terms of present reports of attachment,
clearly distinguished juvenile delinquents from controls – delinquent individuals were
less securely attached and comparable subjects were more securely attached.
Table 3 presents a comparison of delinquent adolescents’ to matched control subjects
measured by the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker et al., 1979) of parental care and
overprotection (high care, low care, high protection, low protection).
Table 3. Means, SDs and F-values for the PBI of two subjects’ groups measured separately participant’
perceptions of mother and father.
PBI dimensions
Maternal high care
Group
Mean
Delinquent
1.81
Control
1.93
Maternal low care
Delinquent
3.04
Control
3.20
Maternal low protection
Delinquent
2.00
Control
2.23
Maternal high protection
Delinquent
2.94
Control
3.14
Paternal high care
Delinquent
2.14
Control
2.17
Paternal low care
Delinquent
3.11
Control
3.01
Paternal low protection
Delinquent
2.07
Control
2.09
Paternal high protection
Delinquent
3.10
Control
3.18
Notes. * p<.05, ** p<.01; significantly different from each other.
SD
0.71
0.66
0.66
0.48
0.57
0.67
0.52
0.51
0.84
0.71
0.73
0.62
0.76
0.68
0.61
0.59
F
0.90
2.25
3.89*
4.52*
0.04
0.68
0.38
0.45
Research results showed that two statistically significant Parental Bonding Instrument
scale scores distinguishing the adolescents groups were maternal low overprotection (F =
3.89, p<.05) and maternal high overprotection (F = 4.52, p<.05), with the delinquent
youth reporting their mothers at the same time as having high and low overprotection.
There were no significant differences between young offenders’ group and comparison
groups in perception of father scores in the PBI. Research findings indicated that
adolescents with delinquent behavior perceived conflicting parental bonding in the PBI
maternal overprotection dimension: high versus low overprotection.
6
The additional way to assess subjects’ attachment history was to injury questions
connected to separation experiences from parents in childhood measured by
questionnaire. A chi-square test revealed significant differences between juvenile
delinquents and matched controls. Research results indicated that a significantly bigger
number of delinquent adolescents had experienced separation from parents in childhood
compared with matched control group youngsters (Table 4).
Tab. 4. Mean frequency (percentage) of childhood experiences of separation from parents of two examined
groups.
Frequency (percentage)
Have experience No experience
χ²
Group
Childhood separation experience
Delinquent
75.5
24.5
43.27**
Control
17.3
82.7
Notes. * p<.05; significantly different from each other.
Research results also indicated that 64.6% of delinquent youths compared with only
12.5% of matched controls were separated from their both parents. The resulting chisquare was highly significant (χ² = 43.27, p<.01). 46.3% of juvenile delinquents had
repeated experiences of separation from parents in childhood compared to 17.1% of
matched controls (χ² = 8.91, p<.05). In the adolescent delinquent group, 9.1% of
adolescents had been separated from their parents when they were younger than 6 years,
whereas 38.9% of comparison group reported the same. The frequency distribution of
adolescents also significantly differed between groups in the question of separation from
parents in childhood when they had been older than 7 years, χ² = 5.04, p<.05, with a
greater frequency of delinquent youth (90.9%) compared with comparison group
(61.1%).
Research results indicated that there were different reasons for separation from parents in
childhood for two different groups of adolescents comparing delinquent subjects with
comparison group individuals (Tab. 5).
Tab. 5. Mean frequency (percentage) of reasons of separation from
groups.
Reasons of separation from parents
Group
Parents’ divorce
Delinquent
Control
Studying in school far away from home
Delinquent
Control
Running away from home
Delinquent
Control
Parents business trip
Delinquent
Control
Father in prison
Delinquent
Control
Parent(s) death
Delinquent
Control
Visiting relatives
Delinquent
Control
Being in hospital
Delinquent
Control
Notes. * p<.05, ** p<.01; significantly different from each other.
parents in childhood of two examined
Percentage
13.6
15.8
33.8
0.0
30.1
0.0
3.4
35.9
10.2
0.0
3.4
3.3
0.0
39.7
5.5
5.3
χ²
0.21
10.3**
9.83**
10.1**
1.39
0.00
12.2**
0.00
7
Significantly more delinquent adolescents were separated from their parents because they
had studied in the school far away from home or they themselves had run away from
home. Control group subjects were separated from parents in childhood more frequently
than juvenile delinquents due to their parents’ business trips and visiting relatives. The
reason of childhood separation from parents clearly distinguished two groups of
adolescents – matched controls from young offenders.
Discussion
Drawing upon assumptions from attachment theory, the present study examined whether
delinquent and control group juveniles differed from each other by attachment style and
history. The present attempts to understand adolescents’ close relationships from an
attachment perspective have been strongly influenced by Bowlby’s fundamental work
(Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980). The attachment theory lays the groundwork for the first
hypothesis that delinquent adolescent current attachment style should be insecure
compared with controls. Research results indicated that at the adolescent age delinquent
boys’ current attachment relationships were poor and tended to be insecure compared
with matched controls. These results affirmed previous research (Elicker et al., 1992;
Grossmann & Grossmann, 1991; Matcus & Betzer, 1996; Renken et al., 1989) among
adolescents, but differed from previous research by the measurement of attachment style:
the current attachment style of adolescents was measured in present research, but in
previous researches attachment style was classified in infancy and followed through
childhood and early adolescence.
The second object of this study, connected to the dimensions underlying attachment
styles, was to test whether there is any support for hypothesized differences in parental
bonding care and overprotection dimensions by comparing childhood perceptions of
parental behavior by juvenile delinquents and controls. The second hypothesis, that low
care and high overprotection characterize delinquent adolescents’ attachment history, was
moderately supported regarding bonds with mothers, but not with fathers.
Research results indicated that there were differences between young offenders and
matched controls: adolescents with delinquent behavior perceived their mothers
simultaneously as high and low overprotection. The ambivalent perception of mothers of
juvenile delinquents expressed at one side the childhood memories of mother as
overprotection, controlling, encouraging dependency, intrusion, excessive contact,
prevention of independence, and infantilizing the child, and at the other side oppositely
encouraging the child’s socialization, autonomy and independence. The last fact is
connected with numerous previous findings (e.g. Patterson, 1982; Larzelere & Patterson,
1990) that pointed at ineffective parental monitoring and supervision as one of the risk
factors of antisocial behavior of adolescents.
The findings here were thus reminiscent of previous research connected to one of the PBI
dimensions - high overprotection: among clinical group adolescents with oppositional
disorder (Burbach et al., 1989; Rey and Plapp, 1990), and among ordinary school
adolescents with bully/victim problems (Browers et al., 1994) and with delinquent
behavior among mainstream school pupils (Pedersen, 1994). Our results do not affirm the
findings (e.g. Burbach et al., 1989; Howard, 1981; Pedersen, 1994; Rey and Plapp, 1990)
8
that juvenile delinquency and behavioral clinical diagnosis of adolescents were connected
to low care scores of PBI. The interpretation of this finding may result from different
characteristics of the respondents – previous researches deal with clinical diagnosis and
ordinary school male and female adolescents, but the subjects of our research were male
adolescents with serious (aggressive) antisocial behavior in a training school. Howard
(1981) found that maternal overprotection was a better predictor of manifest aggression
of adolescents. He supposed that the role of the overprotective mother is of vital
importance in the genesis of aggressive antisocial behavior of male adolescents.
Consequently, findings suggest that enormous parenting is considerable relevant to
adolescents’ delinquent behavior - the perception of contradictions in maternal
overprotection dimension may be a risk factor to the development of serious antisocial
behavior pattern in adolescence among males. According to Bowlby (1969, 1973), it has
been usual to place the greatest emphasis on the mother’s significance in connection to
the development of psychosocial problems of children. Our findings agree with this
assumption.
Bowlby (1969) also explores the process by witch attachment relationships are formed
and broken; in particular, he describes how children become emotionally attached to their
primary caregivers and emotionally distressed when separated from them. Bowlby is
convinced that children need a close and continuous relationship with a primary caretaker
to thrive emotionally.
We were interested how one aspect of attachment in early relationships - separation may
affect later developmental outcomes. The results among adolescents showed that
delinquent males were significantly more likely to recall (repeated) separations from their
mother and fathers during the childhood compared to matched controls, and had been
separated more from their both parents during late childhood and adolescence (older than
7 years) by reasons connected to studying far away from the school or running away from
homes. The last reason of separation - running away from home, may be viewed as an
escape form family discord and neglectful family environment (e.g. Kurtz et al., 1991).
Rutter (1971, 1972) modifies Bowlby’s conclusions about negative consequences of
maternal deprivation maintaining that separation experiences have some association with
the later development of antisocial behavior but this is not due to the fact of separation
itself, but rather to the family discord which precedes and accompanies the separation.
Therefore, we may speculate that one of the risk factors for development of delinquent
behavior patterns in adolescence were connected to repeated childhood experiences of
separation from both parents reflecting probable escape from family discord.
According to Bowlby (1980), continuity of attachment style is primarily due to the
persistence of mental models of self and others, central components of personality. It is
suggested that our findings supported Bowlby’s view that early acquired working models
of self and others affect interpersonal functioning later.
Our research findings showed that two general risk factors of the development of
adolescents’ delinquent behavior were connected with current insecure attachment styles,
and disturbances in maternal bonding overprotection dimension (high and low scores)
that underlie these styles.
Two aspects of attachment history: (1) ambivalent PBI scores in maternal overprotection
dimension – at the same time as high and low overprotection, and (2) the significance of
9
repeated separation from both parents during late childhood and adolescence may help us
explain the development of delinquent behavior during adolescence.
To sum up, our research had supported Bowlby’s (1973) notion that a child’s early
experiences of the close bond to attachment figure have a significant long-term effect on
development. Disturbances in the attachment style and mother-child bond parallel to
separation have been shown to have a detrimental impact on subsequent development of
delinquent behavior of adolescents.
All in all, the results supported the link between the quality of current and early
attachments and delinquent behavior pointing at vulnerable factors of development of
delinquent behavior of adolescents.
References
Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual
differences and their relationships to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 16, 427-453.
Batgos, J., & Leadbeater, B. J. (1994). Parental attachment, peer relations, and dysphoria in adolescence. In
M. B. Sperling & W. H. Berman (Eds.), Attachment in adults: clinical and developmental perspectives.
New York: The Guilford Press, 155-178.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol. 2. Separation: Anxiety and anger. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Vol. 3. Loss: Sadness and depression. New York: Basic Books.
Browers, L., Smith, P. K., & Binney, V. (1994). Perceived family relationships of bullies, victims and
bully/victims in middle childhood. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 11, 215-232.
Burbach, D. J., Kashani, J. H., & Rosenberg, T. K. (1989). Parental bonding and depressive disorders in
adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 412-429.
Elicker, J., Englund, M., & Sroufe, L. A. (1992). Predicting peer competence and peer relationships in
chilhood from early parent-child relationships. In R. Parke & G. Ladd (Eds.), Family-peer relations:
Models of linkage. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 77-106.
Engeland, B., & Sroufe, L. A. (1981). Attachment and early maltreatment. Child Development, 52, 44-52.
Erickson, M., Sroufe, L., & Engeland, B. (1985). The relationships between quality of attachment and
behavior problems in preschool in a high-risk sample. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points
of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1-2),
147-166.
Feeney, J., & Noller, P. (1996). Adult attachment. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Grossmann, K. E., & Grossmann, K. (1991). Attachment quality as an organizer of emotional and
behavioral responses in a longitudinal perspective. In C. M. Parkers, J. Stevenson-Hinde, & P. Marris
(Eds.), Attachment across the life cycle. London: Travistock/Routledge, 93-114.
10
Hazan, C. & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511-524.
Howard, J. (1981). The expression and possible origins of depression in male adolescent delinquents.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 15, 311-318.
Kurtz, D. P., Kurtz, G. L., & Jarvis, S. V. (1991). Problems of maltreated runaway youth. Adolescence, 26,
543-555.
Larzelere, R. E., & Patterson, G. R. (1990). Parental management: Mediator of the effect of socioeconomic
status on early delinquency. Criminology, 28, 301-323.
Lewis, M., Feiring, C., McGuffog, C., & Jaskir, J. (1984). Predicting psychopathology in six-year-olds
from early social relations. Child Development, 55, 123-136.
Linder, R., & Fillmore, C. (1981). A comparative study of delinquency involvement. The Canadian Review
of Sociology and Anthropology, 18, 343-361.
Matlack, M. F., McGreevey, M. S., Rouse, R., Flatter, C., & Marcus, R. F. (1994). Family correlates of
social skill deficits in incarcerated and nonincarcerated adolescents. Adolescence, 29, 117-132.
Matcus, R. F., & Betzer, P. D. S. (1996). Attachment and antisocial behavior in early adolescence. Journal
of Early Adolescence, 16(2), 229-248.
Papini, D., Roggman, L. A., & Anderson, J. (1991). Early-adolescent perceptions of attachment to mother
and father: A test of the emotional-distancing and buffering hypotheses. Journal of Early Adolescence, 11,
258-275.
Parker, G., Tupling, H., & Brown, L. B. (1979). A Parental Bonding Instrument. British Journal of Medical
Psychology, 52, 1-10.
Patterson, G. R. (1982). Coercive family process. Eugene, OR: Castalia.
Pedersen, W. (1994). Parental relations, mental health, and delinquency in adolescents. Adolescence,
29(116), 975-990.
Renken, B., Egeland, B., Marvinney, D., Mangelsdorf, S., & Sroufe, L. A. (1989). Early childhood
antecedents of aggression and passive-withdrawal in early elementary school. Journal of Personality, 57,
257-281.
Rey, J. M., & Plapp, J. M. (1990). Quality of perceived parenting in oppositional and conduct disordered
adolescents. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29(3), 382-385.
Rice, K. G. (1990). Attachment in adolescence: Narrative and meta-analytic review. Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 19, 511-538.
Rutter, M. (1971). Parent-child separation: Psychological effects on the children. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 12, 233-260.
Rutter, M. (1972). Maternal deprivation reassessed. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Simons, R., Whitbeck, L. B., Conrer, R., & Conger, K. (1991). Parenting factors, social skills. And value
commitments as precursors to school failure, involvement with deviant peers and delinquent behavior.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 20, 645-664.
11
Simpson, J. A. (1990). Influence of attachment styles on romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 59(5), 971-980.
Sperling, M. B., & Berman, W. H. (Eds.) (1994). Attachment in adults: Clinical and developmental
perspectives. New York: The Guilford Press.
Tolan, P. H. (1988). Delinquent behavior and mails adolescent development: A preliminary study. Journal
of Youth and Adolescence, 17, 413-427.