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Attachment Types Of The Bond Formed Between Females And Their Primary Caregiver Essay

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Attachment types, the security of the bond formed between females and their primary caregiver’s, has been found to influence romantic relationships which can affect depressive symptoms (Broderick & Korteland, 2002). Attachment in association with depression and romantic experiences was investigated by Steinberg and Davila (2008). A sample of 83 early adolescent females and their primary caregivers were given questionnaires regarding romantic competence, parent-adolescent security, stress and psychopathology. The results showed that when participant’s had frequent romantic experiences and parent’s emotional availability was low, there was a significant association with higher rates of depressive symptoms. In contrast, when parent’s emotional availability was high and girls had frequent romantic experiences, there was no association with depressive symptoms. These findings highlight how romantic relationships only appear to have a negative influence on girl’s mental health if their emotional relationship with parents is insecure. This suggests that girls with emotionally unavailable parents have increased depressive rates because they have not had the opportunity to develop their emotion regulation systems before their first romantic relationships. However, it appears that romantic involvement still affects girls regardless of attachment types; Steinberg and Davila (2008) also found that the more romantic experiences had, the higher the levels of depressive symptoms.

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