Personality, attachment and parenting styles in adolescents

Abstract

The relationship between personality characteristics, attachment and parenting styles was studied in a group of school-going adolescents. The Argentine standardization of the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory, the mother and father formats of the Argentine adaptations of the Kerns security scale and the abbreviated version of the Inventory of Children’s Report on Parent Behavior (subscales: acceptance, pathological control and extreme autonomy). Considering the total score obtained on the Kerns safety scale, respect to the maternal and paternal figures, high attachment perception groups (mean ≥ + 1 SD) and low attachment perception groups (mean ≤ - 1 SD) were formed. Correlations between parental styles and empathy with the Spearman test were evaluated. Mean comparisons were made with the Mann Whitney U test. Results: the group with an insecure attachment to their mother and father showed less adjusted personality styles than those with a secure attachment (p ≤ .001; p = .004). Adolescents with secure and respectful personality patterns established a secure attachment (p = < .001; p = < .001; p = < .001; p = < .001) and perceived acceptance from both parents (p = < .001; p = < .001; p = < .001; p = < .001). Discussion: Establishing a secure attachment bond and perceiving acceptance as parental practice allows the development of more flexible personality styles and greater psychological adjustment.