Early Adolescent Attachment to Parents, Emotional Problems, and Teacher-Academic Worries About the Middle School Transition

Abstract

This study examines how attachment to mother and father predicts worries about academic demands and relationships with teachers generated by the transition from elementary to middle school through its contribution to adolescents’ emotional problems (depression and anxiety). The study sample includes 626 young adolescents (289 boys and 337 girls) in sixth grade who completed the Security Scale to assess security of attachment to their mothers and fathers. The results of analyses based on structural equation modeling showed that attachment to mother predicts adolescents’ teacher-academic worries about the middle school transition through anxiety symptoms. These results are discussed in light of the literature on attachment theory, emotional problems during adolescence, and the context of the middle school transition.