The Need for Attachment: Demonstrations through Teens

1
The Need for Attachment Demonstrations through
Teens Photos on MySpace and Facebook

David E. Szwedo, Amori Yee Mikami, Joseph P.
Allen, Meredyth A. EvansUniversity of Virginia
David E. Szwedo dszwedo_at_virginia.edu
This study was made possible by funding from the
National Institute of Mental Health awarded to
Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator (Grant
R01-MH58066)
Introduction
Method
2. Preoccupied adolescents posted - more
pictures featuring same-age peers (ß .37, p lt
.01) - more pictures of deviant behavior (ß
.28, p lt .05)
SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES - Allow users to
share information with others in their network
including - Name, current location
- Interests, favorite music, TV
shows, movies, books, etc. -
Photos - Messages to one another
than can be seen by all network members -
Facebook and MySpace have a combined 165 million
active users - Evenly distributed by
gender (ComScore, 2007) - 93 of U.S. youth
are online (Lenhart et al., 2007) -
More than 50 of these youth interact via
social-networking websites

• Participants
• Data were collected from a larger multi-method,
  multi-reporter, longitudinal
• study of adolescent social development
• 62 adolescents (24 males and 38 females)
• mean age 14.72 SD 0.74 at Time 1
• mean age 20.53 SD 0.97 at Time 2
• 68 White 21 African-American 3 Asian 8
  Mixed/Other
• Median income 40,000-60,000

Table 3. Predicting pictures posted featuring
same-age peers from preoccupied attachment.
Table 4. Predicting pictures posted of deviant
behavior from preoccupied attachment.
Measures Adult Attachment Interview and Q-sort
(AAI, George, Kaplan, Main, 1996 Q-sort, Kobak
et al., 1993). Participants were asked to explain
their childhood relationships with each of their
parents and to recall examples supporting their
depictions. Individuals were assigned adult
attachment classifications based on the coherence
of their responses. The Attachment Q-sort
procedure was used to determine continuous
measures of qualities of attachment
organization. Self-Perception Profile for
Adolescents (Harter, 1988). The social acceptance
scale from this measure was reported by youths
close peers to assess youths in-person peer
acceptance (alpha .80). Adult Behavior
Checklist (Achenbach Rescorla, 2003). The
rule-breaking behavior and intrusive behavior
scales were combined to create a general
in-person deviancy scale. Reliability for the
scale was high (alpha .88). Pictures of
Youth with Same-Age Peers (Szwedo, Mikami,
Evans, 2007). Photos posted on youths MySpace or
Facebook pages were assigned a global rating 0-3
to indicate the degree to which they featured the
presence of same-age peers (intraclass r . 85).
Pictures of Youth Featuring Deviant Behavior
(Szwedo, Mikami, Evans, 2007). Photos posted on
youths MySpace or Facebook pages were assigned a
global rating 0-3 to indicate the degree to which
their photos featured behavior that might be
considered inappropriate by an employer or
authority figure (intraclass r .76).
ATTACHMENT IN ADOLESCENCE - Secure state of
mind has been associated with -
increased peer competence (Allen, Moore,
Kuperminc, Bell, 1998) - more
supportive best friendships and wider social
acceptance (Zimmermann, 2003) - lower
levels of deviant behavior (Allen et al.,
1998) - Preoccupied state of mind has been
associated with - lower acceptance
from peer groups (Zimmermann, 2003) -
higher levels of deviant behaviors (Allen et al.,
2002) - Dismissing state of mind has been
associated with - lower
friendship quality and less involvement in peer
groups (Zimmermann, 2003) - higher
levels of deviant behaviors (Rosenstein
Horowitz, 1996)
p lt .10 p .05 p lt .01 p lt .001
p lt .10 p lt .05
3. Dismissing adolescents - trend toward
posting more pictures featuring same-age peers (ß
.28, p lt .10) - did not post more pictures
of deviant behavior (ß .22, NS)
Table 5. Predicting pictures posted featuring
same-age peers from dismissing attachment.
Table 6. Predicting pictures posted of deviant
behavior from dismissing attachment.
THEORY - Deviant behavior may be a signal for
attention and express a desire for
attachment-related behaviors from others (Allen
Land, 1999 Kobak et al., 1993) -
Perspective-taking that occurs during adolescence
may permit youth to anticipate
others reactions to such deviant behavior (Kobak
et al., 1993) - On social-networking websites,
displaying many photos of a) oneself
with many friends b) oneself and
peers engaging in deviant behavior may be
attachment-related behaviors intended to increase
attention from others
Results
p lt .10 p .05
p lt .10 p .05
Conclusions
1. Secure adolescents posted - fewer
pictures featuring same-age peers (ß -.32, p
.05) - fewer pictures of deviant behavior (ß
-.39, p lt .05)
Secure youth may feel more satisfied with their
in-person relationships and might not be
motivated to attempt to attract the attention of
others by posting photos online that display
their friendships or deviant behavior. Preoccupie
d youth may choose to display more photos
featuring peers and deviant behavior on MySpace
and Facebook in an attempt to draw more attention
to themselves. These individuals may do so in an
attempt to appear more socially desirable to
others and with the hope of making new social
connections online. Dismissing individuals may
also utilize MySpace and Facebook to reach out to
others. Although these results were not
significant, their direction suggests that these
youth may also tend to try to signal a degree of
desirability to others with the kinds of photos
they post. It is possible that they too desire to
connect with others and think that demonstrating
this need online is emotionally safer than in
person.
Hypotheses
Table 1. Predicting pictures posted featuring
same-age peers from secure attachment.
Table 2. Predicting pictures posted of deviant
behavior from secure attachment.
1. Secure adolescents will post - fewer
pictures featuring same-age peers - fewer
pictures of deviant behavior
2. Preoccupied adolescents will post -
more pictures featuring same-age peers -
more pictures of deviant behavior
3. Dismissing adolescents will post -
more pictures featuring same-age peers -
more pictures of deviant behavior
p .05
p .05