Miri Scharf - Attachment in Adolescence: Reflections and New Angles

In recent years, the number of empirical studies examining attachment in adolescence has grown considerably, with most focusing on individual difference in attachment security. This volume goes a step further in extending knowledge and understanding. The physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes that characterize adolescence invite a closer conceptual look at attachment processes and organization during this period. The chapter authors, leading researchers in attachment in adolescence, address key topics in attachment process in adolescence. These include issues such as the normative distancing from parents and the growing importance of peers, the formation of varied attachment hierarchies, the changing nature of attachment dynamics from issues of survival to issues of affect regulation, siblings' similarity in attachment representations, individual differences in social information processes in adolescence, and stability and change in attachment representations in a risk sample. Together the chapters provide a compelling discussion of intriguing issues and broaden our understanding of attachment in adolescence and the basic tenets of attachment theory at large. This is the 117th issue of the Jossey Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development.