Many studies that assess secure and insecure attachment in adolescence use the

Adolescence is a time when vulnerabilities to many adult mental health issues emerge (Hofstra et al., 2000, 2002; Jones, 2013). However, rapid neurological, cognitive, and social-relational changes during this period offer immense opportunities for growth and adaptation (Kroger et al., 2010; Sercombe, 2014). In particular, social learning develops rapidly between the ages of 12 and 16, whereby structural changes in the “social brain network” sensitize adolescents to engage with and attend to others in new ways, corresponding to a rise in social understanding (Crone & Dahl, 2012; Wölfer et al., 2012). In short, the adolescent brain could not be more perfectly designed to ensure maximal fit with ever-changing social contexts (Crone & Dahl, 2012).

Attachment theory provides a comprehensive framework for understanding adolescents' mental health in the context of the parent–child relationship (Allen & Tan, 2016; Bowlby, 1969; Brumariu & Kerns, 2010; Groh et al., 2017; Kerns & Brumariu, 2014). Adolescents, in fact, fare much better when they can rely on their parents for the provision of a safe haven and secure base (Kobak et al., 2007; McElhaney et al., 2009) as they explore social roles outside the family and develop attachment relationships with peers and romantic partners (Allen & Tan, 2016). Conflict in the parent–adolescent relationship is also normative, but the ways in which the dyad negotiates this conflict and sustains the relationship have critical implications for the adolescent's healthy development (Branje, 2018; Moretti & Holland, 2003). Adolescents who feel their relationship with their parents is secure, despite conflict, confidently move forward toward early adulthood (Allen & Tan, 2016). These securely attached adolescents do not avoid conflict, exploration, or individuation, nor do they prematurely push to independence without their parents' support (Feeney & Cassidy, 2003; Moretti & Holland, 2003).

Secure attachment and emotional connectedness with parents, however, may be difficult to maintain. Adolescents sometimes express their needs in ways that confuse their parents; parents, in turn, may respond using strategies that are no longer effective now that their child is older (Moretti et al., 2018). As adolescents push for autonomy, parents may experience caregiving as increasingly difficult (Spring et al., 2002). As a result, they may become stressed and try to control their adolescent child using coercive and aggressive strategies, and this may damage the parent–adolescent relationship and intensify any social-emotional and behavioral difficulties that the adolescent may have. Alternatively, parents may experience their adolescent's push for autonomy as deeply rejecting, and consequently pull away from their child (Moretti et al., 2018).

How can parents be helped in supporting their offspring through this challenging developmental transition? Although most attachment-based parenting interventions have been developed for mothers of infants or young children (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003), there has recently been increased interest in attachment-based parenting interventions for parents of adolescents (Kobak & Kerig, 2015). There are two main reasons for this: first, attachment security has been shown to be a robust predictor of adolescent positive adjustment in early adulthood and beyond (Allen & Tan, 2016; Bowlby, 1969); and second, adolescent attachment has been found to be relatively fluid and meaningfully related to changes in the quality of caregiving, even among adolescents who were insecurely attached to their parents in infancy (Beijersbergen et al., 2012; Booth-LaForce et al., 2014).

In contrast to attachment-based interventions for parents of young children, which aim at changing parents' internal working models and increasing parental sensitivity to children's attachment needs (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003), attachment-based parenting interventions for parents of adolescents emphasize adolescents' active role in maintaining the attachment bond as a goal-corrected partnership (Allen & Tan, 2016). Some attachment-based interventions for adolescents already exist. For instance, the attachment-based family therapy (ABFT; Diamond, 2014) has been found to be effective in strengthening family cohesion and thereby buffering against adolescents' suicidal thinking, depression, and risk behaviors (Diamond, 2014); furthermore, the Adolescent Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment (AMBIT; Bevington et al., 2015) has been shown to support caseworkers in forming a relationship with difficult-to-reach adolescents through the cultivation of mentalization (Bevington et al., 2015). Notwithstanding these developments, Kobak and Kerig (2015) recently called attention to the need to provide parents of adolescents with an alternative and positive model of attachment that might alter their interpretations of and responses to their adolescent child's problematic behaviors.

Based on these premises, Moretti et al. (2009) developed Connect—a 10-week manualized parenting program for parents or alternative caregivers of pre-adolescents and adolescents with behavioral problems. In contrast to other attachment-based interventions, which mainly target a single aspect of parenting, Connect addresses four aspects of parenting linked with attachment security in adolescence (i.e., caregiver sensitivity, reflective functioning, dyadic affect regulation, shared partnership/mutuality) to support adolescents in taking developmentally appropriate steps toward autonomy while remaining emotionally connected to their parents (Moretti et al., 2018).

Compared to social learning theory–based behavioral programs for parents of younger children (e.g., Comet, Incredible Years), Connect has been found to be particularly effective in reducing child externalizing behaviors, both post-intervention and at a 2-year follow-up (Högström et al., 2017). Furthermore, previous research from different countries (i.e., Canada, Italy, Sweden) has shown significant improvements post-intervention corresponding to medium-to-large effect sizes in a number of domains for adolescents with pre-intervention levels of externalizing symptoms in clinical and sub-clinical ranges, as reported by parents; these results have been consistent, irrespective of adolescent gender (Moretti et al., 2015, Moretti et al., 2018). Upon completing Connect, parents have reported reduced adolescent oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior (Barone et al., 2020; Osman et al., 2017a; Ozturk et al., 2019), as well as reduced anxiety and depression, compared to a waitlist group (Barone et al., 2020; Moretti & Obsuth, 2009; Osman et al., 2017b); increased parenting satisfaction and efficacy (Moretti & Obsuth, 2009; Osman et al., 2017b); decreased parenting stress (Ozturk et al., 2019); decreased adolescent overuse of wine and beer (Giannotta et al., 2013); and a shift in parenting representations toward greater mutuality, positivity, and security (Moretti et al., 2012).

In addition to offering these promising results, Connect also lays the groundwork for research into the relationship between adolescent attachment insecurity and adolescent behavioral problems. Several studies have indicated that, over the course of development, individuals with anxious attachment have a higher risk of developing internalizing symptoms (Carlson & Sroufe, 1995; Colonnesi et al., 2011; Dagan et al., 2018, 2020; Finnegan et al., 1996; Hodges et al., 1999), while those with avoidant attachment are at greater risk of developing externalizing symptoms (Bakermans-Kranerburg & van IJzendoorn, 2009; Kobak & Cole, 1994). However, studies have produced conflicting results about the precise forms of insecure attachment associated with specific behavioral problems (Brumariu & Kerns, 2010; Groh et al., 2012; Kerns & Brumariu, 2014; Madigan et al., 2013). In a similar vein, Moretti et al. (2015) found that parental participation in Connect reduced adolescent avoidant and anxious attachment, which were associated with decreased externalizing and internalizing symptoms, respectively. However, the study relied exclusively on parents’ reports of adolescent functioning, did not use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, lacked a control group, and measured both behavioral problems and attachment only pre- and post-treatment. Therefore, the treatment outcomes require further investigation.

The present paper reports two experimental studies (Study 1, using mothers' reports only; Study 2, using a subsample of mothers' and adolescents’ reports) using a longitudinal, multicenter, RCT design with three assessment points: pre-intervention (t1), 2 weeks post-intervention (t2), and a 4-month follow-up (t3). The following hypotheses were tested:

The Connect mother group would report a decrease in adolescent avoidant and anxious attachment and internalizing and externalizing problems, relative to the waitlist control mother group, at t2 and t3.

Mothers in the Connect parent group would report a decrease in adolescent attachment avoidance and anxiety at t2, which, in turn, would be associated with reduced externalizing problems and internalizing problems, respectively, at t3.

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