Externalizing and internalizing problems in pre-adolescents and attachment to parents

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Published: Jul 1, 2017

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Teresa Sousa-Machado
FPCE-Universidade de Coimbra
Portugal
Biography
Carine Diogo
Vol. 4 No. 1 (2017), Articles, pages 42-51
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17979/reipe.2017.4.1.1553
Submitted: May 6, 2016 Accepted: Jun 21, 2017 Published: Jul 1, 2017
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Abstract

The externalization and internalization behaviours in childhood and adolescence reflect a malaise of the subject, which often, he, or she, does not know to explain, but which translates to other areas of life. The recurrent publication of the high percentages of these problems, at those ages, raises the need for periodic studies in community samples, to be able to signal and intervene early. Insecure attachment to parents is one of the factors associated with the emergence of these problems. We present an exploratory study, with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), of the relationships between externalized and internalized problems, and attachment to parents, reported by Portuguese pre-adolescents – 258 subjects, 244 (48.1 %) boys, and 134 (51.9 %) girls, among 9 to 12 years old (M = 10.34; SD = 0.88). The relationship between behaviour problems reported by pre-adolescents, and behaviour problems reported by parents correlate positively. Secure attachment to parents (higher scores at attachment dimensions “Acceptance-mutual-understanding”, and “Communication-emotional proximity”, and lower scores at “Alienation”) correlate negatively with problem behaviours reported by tweens, reinforcing the role of secure attachment to parents to more adequate adolescents’ behaviours.

Keywords:

attachment to parents, externalized behaviours, internalizing behaviours, pre-adolescents

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