Early%20Adolescent%20Psychosocial%20Predictors%20of%20Future%20Ego-Resiliency%20Nell%20Manning,%20Claire%20Stephenson,%20and%20Joseph%20P.%20Allen%20%20The%20University%20of%20Virginia

1
Early Adolescent Psychosocial Predictors of
Future Ego-ResiliencyNell Manning, Claire
Stephenson, and Joseph P. Allen The University
of Virginia
Low Dismissing
Introduction

• Measures
• Age 13
• Maternal supportive behaviors toward the teen
  were assessed from an observed supportive
  behavior interaction task of teens and their
  mothers. Interactions were videotaped and coded
  reliably using a validated Supportive Behavior
  Task Coding System (Allen, Hall, Insabella, Land,
  Marsh, Porter, (2001). Global codes were
  assigned for
• Mothers engagement, which captures the extent to
  which the mother appears connected and engaged
  with the teen during the discussion
• Mothers negativity, which captures the extent to
  which the mother appears hostile or critical
  toward the teen
• Teens satisfaction that reflects the extent to
  which a teen appears satisfied vs. frustrated
  with how the interaction went and whether his or
  her needs were met.
• Age 14
• Adolescents security of attachment was assessed
  using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and
  Adult Attachment Q-sort coding system (George et
  al., 1996 Kobak et al., 1993). A secure state
  of mind in adolescence is characterized by the
  ability to present information about attachment
  relationships in an orderly, internally
  consistent, and objective manner.
• Age 18
• Ego-resiliency was assessed with the
  Ego-Resiliency Scale (Funder Block, 1989).
  Close peers completed the questionnaire
  describing the target teen at age 18. High
  scores indicate greater ego-resiliency low
  scores indicate greater ego-brittleness.

Similarly, the less negativity a mother exhibits
towards her teen at age 13, the more
ego-resiliency her teen is likely to display at
age 18 (ß-.28, plt.01). Links with observed
maternal valuing of or positivity toward teen,
and accurate maternal interpretation of teen
concerns with future ego-resiliency were also
found.

• What is Ego-resiliency (ER)?
• An individuals adaptive flexibility, or the
  ability to change from ones usual reaction to
  one more adaptive for a particular situation if
  necessary (Block Block, 2006)
• Widely validated marker of self-regulation and
  overall adjustment
• High ER has been liked to lower levels of
  internalizing and externalizing symptoms, higher
  peer relationship quality, ego development,
  assertiveness, and intelligence
• Important aspects of functioning in early
  adolescence
• Parental behavior toward teen
• For younger children, child maltreatment has been
  linked to lower ER (Shonk Cicchetti, 2001).
• Relationship between observed parental behavior
  with teens and future levels of ER has not been
  examined
• State of mind with regard to attachment
• Teens with a secure state of mind with regard to
  attachment see themselves as independent,
  exploring, and comfortable in close relations
  with others, and others are seen as responsive
  and reliable, if imperfect.
• Attachment security has been linked to the
  development of ego-resiliency in both childhood
  (Urban, Carlson, Egeland, 1991) and late
  adolescence (Kobak Sceery, 1988)
• No research we are aware of examines the
  relationship of attachment security to
  ego-resiliency across the range of
  mid-adolescence
• Research questions

Teens security of attachment, age 14
.26
Ego-resiliency, Age 18
Teen gender
R2 .08
Family income
The greater a teens security of attachment (AAI)
at age 14, the more ego-resiliency the teen is
likely to display at age 18.
Conclusions
Results

• In summary, the current data indicate that
• Observed maternal behaviors toward teens at age
  13 predict teen ego-resiliency at age 18.
  Specifically,
• Low maternal hostility and criticism toward teen
• High maternal engagement with teen in supportive
  interactions, and
• High teen satisfaction that his or her needs were
  met in the interaction
• are all predictive of higher levels of
  ego-resiliency for the teen at age 18.
• Higher levels of teen security of attachment at
  age 14 are predictive of ego-resiliency at age
  18.
• These findings are consistent with earlier
  research conducted in childhood and late
  adolescence but extend it by establishing links
  between these factors and ego-resiliency across
  the critical period of mid-adolescence.
• Copies of this poster related research will be
  available at
• www.teenresearch.org

Moms engagement with teen, age 13
.29

Ego-resiliency, Age 18
Teen gender
R2 .09
Family income
The more engaged a teens mother is while
interacting with her teen at 13, the more
ego-resiliency the teen is likely to display at
age 18.
Method

• Participants
• 184 target adolescents and their mothers were
  observed at Time 1 (age 13). Those same
  adolescents were interviewed one year later (age
  14) to assess attachment orientation, and then 4
  years after that (age 18) completed a measure of
  ER.
• Target adolescent demographics
• 97 females and 87 males
• Socio-economically diverse (median family income
  40-60,000/yr)
• 27 African American 63 Caucasian 10 mixed-
  or other-race/ethnicity

Teens satisfaction with interaction, age 13
.34
Ego-resiliency, Age 18
Teen gender
R2 .12
Family income
The more a teen appears satisfied that his/her
needs were met while interacting with mother at
age 13, the more ego-resiliency the teen is
likely to display at age 18.
We would like to thank the National Institute of
Mental Health for funding awarded to Joseph P.
Allen, Principal Investigator, (Grant
R01-MH44934) to conduct and write-up this
project.