Ambivalent / Preoccupied Attachment and Emotional Vulnerability in Adolescence

Attachment research, which began with children but was subsequently extended to adolescents and adults, has informed psychoanalytic theory and deepened our understanding of the essential continuities and discontinuities of development. This paper briefly reviews attachment theory and considers the relevance of ambivalent-preoccupied attachment, one of two types of insecure attachment, for understanding psychic vulnerability during adolescents. How current social and economic conditions have exacerbated the effects of ambivalent-preoccupied attachment on the attainment of the developmental tasks of adolescence is also considered.