Attachment to Parents and Adjustment in Late Adolescent College Students

Abstract

The attachment model holds considerable promise for understanding the challenges and adjustment vicissitudes of late adolescent college students. The model is potentially valuable for counseling psychologists, further more, in linking knowledge of developmental theory with counseling intervention and prevention. Existing research supports an association between secure parental attachment and adjustment for first-year college students. A variety of methodological challenges, however, need to be addressed in order to fully assess the validity of attachment-based developmental and intervention models, especially for women and culturally and racially diverse college students.