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Exploring the relationship between parental attachment and emotional functioning during late adolescence

Parental attachment is related to the development of child and adolescent emotion regulation skills. In general, research supports an association between parent-child relationships and child emotional development (e.g., Gus et al., 2015), with secure attachment being associated with more adaptive emotion regulation skills (e.g., Kerns et al., 2007). The current study sought to examine the influence of features of the parental attachment relationship on emotional functioning during late adolescence. Our findings suggest both parental communication and alienation were related to emotional reactivity; gender significantly predicted emotional reactivity and emotional suppression, which fits with previous research suggesting gender differences in emotional functioning.