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Comparative Study
. 2010 Oct;33(5):593-602.
doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.12.005. Epub 2010 Jan 15.

Culture-general and -specific associations of attachment avoidance and anxiety with perceived parental warmth and psychological control among Turk and Belgian adolescents

Derya Güngör  1 , Marc H Bornstein
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Culture-general and -specific associations of attachment avoidance and anxiety with perceived parental warmth and psychological control among Turk and Belgian adolescents

Derya Güngör et al. J Adolesc. 2010 Oct.

Abstract

Both the adolescent peer attachment and perceived parenting style literatures emphasize the role of the quality of the parent-child relationship in children's healthy adjustment beyond the family, but few studies have investigated links between adolescents' peer attachment and perceptions of parenting. We investigate relations of adolescents' perceptions of warmth and psychological control from parents with avoidance and anxiety in attachment to close friends in two contrasting cultures. Altogether, 262 Turk and 263 Belgian youth between 14 and 18 years of age participated. Cross-culturally, attachment avoidance was negatively related to maternal warmth, and attachment anxiety positively related to maternal and paternal control and negatively to paternal warmth. Beyond these general relations, attachment avoidance was associated with paternal psychological control in Belgians but not in Turks. The study provides cross-cultural evidence for specific relations between peer attachment and perceived parenting and suggests a culture-specific pathway for the development of attachment avoidance.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Attachment Avoidance as a function of culture and paternal psychological control
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