Are Adolescent Sex Offenders' Peer Relationships related to Attachment to Parents? Does Adaptive and Maladaptive Emotion Regulation Mediate that Relationship?

Abstract

Adolescents who have sexually offended commonly report offending someone within their peer network. However, little research has investigated factors that may contribute to poor quality of peer interactions. The purpose of this study is to examine how adolescents’ attachment to their parents and peers, and both adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation are related. Additionally, this study examines the mediational role of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation. For this study, 187 incarcerated adolescents at a correctional facility in Alabama completed self-report questionnaires regarding demographic information, attachment to their parents and peers, and both adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation ability. We found that adolescents’ attachment to their parents is related to adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation, as well as adolescents’ attachment to peers. Through path analyses, this study was the first to test and find that adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation ability mediated the relationship between attachment to parents and peers.