Adolescent Attachment Security to Fathers and Mothers: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

The Family Communication Project (FCP) is a psychoeducational program designed to improve communication in families with adolescents. Attachment security likely plays a vital intervening role between conflict and adolescent adjustment because enhanced attachment security can improve emotional and behavioral outcomes for conflict-exposed adolescents. Previous research has shown the efficacy of the FCP program for increasing constructive interparental conflict, decreasing destructive conflict, and improving adjustment for adolescents, but relatively few studies have systematically evaluated attachment security as an intervening variable in these effects. Earlier findings indicated heightened attachment security with their fathers for adolescents from a specific treatment condition during later assessments. The present study follows up on this finding by evaluating the explanatory role of attachment security in links between the intervention effects and later adjustment for adolescents. In particular, our goal is to investigate how paternal attachment security influences the relationship between paternal negative emotionality and adolescent internalizing problems, both before and after the program's implementation by testing a moderated mediation model that includes paternal negative emotionality as a predictor, intervention condition as a moderator, paternal attachment as a mediator, and adolescents’ internalizing symptoms as outcomes. We found that treatment conditions did not significantly influence the relationship between paternal negative emotionality and adolescent internalizing symptoms through the proposed mediating variable, paternal attachment at posttest. This project explores an understudied area by examining how paternal attachment influences adolescent mental health during family interventions, offering clinicians valuable insights into its significance. Key words: attachment security, adolescent mental health adjustment, conflict resolution, family communication, moderated mediation analysis