Anxious Solitude and Self-Compassion and Self-Criticism Trajectories in Early Adolescence: Attachment Security as a Moderator

Abstract

Youths’ attachment representations with their parents were tested as moderators of the relation between peer-reported anxious solitude and self-compassion and self-criticism trajectories from fifth to seventh grades. Participants were 213 youth, 57% girls, M = 10.65 years of age. Growth curves revealed that attachment representations with both parents moderated the relation between AS and self-processes such that AS youth with (a) dual secure attachments demonstrated the most adaptive self-processes, (b) one secure attachment demonstrated intermediately adaptive self-processes, and (c) dual insecure attachments demonstrated the least adaptive self-processes over time. AS youth with dual insecure attachments are of most concern because they demonstrated elevated and increasing self-criticism over time, given evidence for relations between self-criticism and internalizing psychopathology.