Abstract

Extending John Bowlby's hypothesis that dysfunctional anger is a predictable outcome of insecure attachments to parents, this study investigated the relationship between current parent-adolescent attachment and both the experience and expression of anger. Participants included 776 students (379 boys and 397 girls) in grades 8-12. As predicted by attachment theory, results of structural equation modeling analyses indicated that adolescents' self-reported attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance toward both mother and father figures were positively related to the adolescents' greater levels of self-reported anger intensity. In turn, greater intensity of anger was associated with higher levels of both internalizing (anger-in) and externalizing (anger-out) expressions. In addition, there was a direct effect of attachment anxiety on internalized but not externalized anger. This study highlights the importance of differentiating anger dimensions and the critical role of anger intensity as a mediator of the relationship between insecure attachment and anger expressions.

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