Journal of Adolescence 1999, 22, 805818 Article No. jado.1999.0271, available online at http://www.idealibrary.

com on

Parental attachment and identity in Portuguese late adolescents

PAULA MENA MATOS, SONIA BARBOSA, HELENA MILHEIRO DE ALMEIDA LIA COSTA AND MARIA EMI

Based on a life-span attachment perspective and on identity status paradigm, this study investigated the relationship between attachment and identity in a sample of 361 Portuguese late adolescents as a function of parental and adolescent gender. The results indicated gender differences in the association between attachment variables and identity foreclosure. Although adolescents tended to report close emotional bonds with both parents, relationships with mothers seemed to play an important role in the tendency for foreclosure identity in boys. Adolescents who were in diffusion reported the least secure parental attachment and experienced the least separation anxiety. Parental inhibition of exploration and individuality, as perceived by adolescents, did not correlate with the identity dimensions.

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Introduction
Attachment
According to attachment theory, there is an universal human need to establish close enduring emotional bonds to feel secure and explore one's self and the world with confidence (Ainsworth, 1967, 1989; Bolwby, 1973, 1982). Although attachment theory was born in the context of infancy, soon it inspired the work of psychologists and researchers concerned with adolescence and adulthood. Empirical research on the behavioural organization of attachment in infancy (Ainsworth et al., 1978) opened the door to research on the representational organization of attachment in adolescence and adulthood. This research provided evidence for links between secure parental attachment and the psychological, interpersonal and social development of adolescents (see Rice, 1990; Kenny and Rice, 1995, for a literature review). In an attachment life-span perspective, needs and capacities for relatedness are seen as normative processes at all ages. They are closely related to the desires for self-differentiation and autonomy. In this sense, the process of developing psychological autonomy in adolescence does not imply detachment from the family. On the contrary, it occurs most easily in the context of emotional proximity to the family and the security that it provides (Grotevant and Cooper, 1986; Matos and Costa, 1996).

Identity

Erikson (1950, 1968), in his theory of psychosocial development, considers the process of identity formation to be the major developmental task with which adolescents have to deal.
Reprint requests and correspondence should be addressed to Paula Mena Matos, Institute for Psychological Intervention, Education and Development, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Porto, Portugal, Rua do Campo Alegre, 1055, 4150 Porto, Portugal (E-mail: pmmatos@psi.up.pt). 0140-1971/99/060805+14 $3000/0 # 1999 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

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The crises that normally precede periods of commitment to personal and social roles are seen as developmental groundwork for the synthesis and integration processes that are to follow. Although Erikson himself did not elaborate extensively on the role that family plays in the initiation of exploratory movements in adolescence, the epigenetic principle of his model assumes that the resolution of the present dilemmas is dependent on proper resolution of earlier stages of psychosocial development. The past opportunities for development, and specifically the child's sense of inner security, which is based on an optimal balance between basic trust and mistrust, provide important foundations for identity formation. For this adaptive balance to occur, according to Erikson, the emotional attunement between the caretaker's behaviours and the child's needs is important. Furthermore, trust, as a developmental competence, is being tested and reconstructed, if need be, in the context of intimate relationships with parents and peers during this stage of identity formation, thus concurrently influencing the resolution of identity formation. Finally, explicit in Erikson's theory are the roles that cultural and historical factors play in the organization of personal experience and in one's sense of continuity and coherence. Although there have been a number of different attempts to operationalize Erikson's theoretical contributions, James Marcia's (1966) ideas have generated the most empirical research. Marcia distinguishes two processes, exploration and commitment, that are involved in identity formation. Exploration is an active questioning of personal and relational commitment, mobilizing the individual to action and search of information about possible alternatives. The anxiety that is inevitably aroused during this process can be overcome by supportive family and social relationships. Commitment results from an attempt to integrate the different possibilities. It also mobilizes the individual to action, but this time to implement projects. Marcia (1966) describes four different styles that represent combinations of these dimensions. They are: identity achievement (presence of exploration and commitment); identity moratorium (presence of exploration but absence of commitment); identity foreclosure (presence of commitment but absence of exploration); and identity diffusion (absence of exploration and commitment). Although these theories of attachment and identity have been developed separately, several authors have tried to explore empirically the connections between the two constructs. The existing findings, however, offer inconsistencies, probably because different measurement strategies and conceptualizations of identity were used (Rice, 1990). Several studies have failed to find relationships between attachment and identity and thus have not shown that differences in attachment can be used to predict differences in identity (Quintana and Lapsley, 1987; Kroger and Haslett, 1988; Frank et al., 1990). Lapsley et al. (1990), on the other hand, found that personal and social identity was significantly predicted by attachment to parents in two separate college samples. Kamptner (1988) also found that family security was related to identity development and identified both a direct and an indirect influence that operated through the enhancement of the adolescent's social confidence and affiliation. Finally, Benson et al. (1992) found an association between identity and attachment and also showed that identity achievement, independent of adolescent gender, was related to the adolescents' attachment to their mothers but not to their fathers. Recently, several authors have argued that a single construct, separationindividuation, which combines family connectedness and family encouragement of individuality, can be used to predict identity (Campbell et al., 1984; Grotevant and Cooper, 1985; Quintana and

Relationships between attachment and identity

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Lapsley, 1990; Schultheiss and Blustein, 1994).* Campbell et al. (1984), for example, suggest that a combination of emotional attachment to parents and the encouragement of independence is associated with identity achievement and moratorium. Adolescents who were classified as foreclosed reported the highest levels of affection toward their parents, and those classified as diffused reported the lowest. Both groups of subjects, however, reported low levels of independence. Quintana and Lapsley (1990), using a structural equation approach, found that this latent construct had a direct relationship with ego identity and that attachment variables alone did not explain the differences in identity status. However, another study (Schultheiss and Blustein, 1994) did not confirm those results. The conjoint influence of the psychological separation and parental attachment variables did not account for the most significant amount of the variance in their analysis. Some empirical findings also suggest that associations between identity and family variables depend upon gender (see Costa, 1991; Marcia, 1993, for a review). Cooper and Grotevant (1987), for example, found that female adolescents' expressions of separateness and individuality in the family were associated with exploration in the areas of friendship and dating, whereas males' expressions of connectedness were associated with exploration in the same areas. Similarly, Kamptner's (1988) study suggested that family variables exert a stronger influence on male identity, whereas social confidence seems to play an important role in female identity. Based on results from a Portuguese college sample, Dias and Fontaine (1996) concluded that difficulties in separationindividuation in the motheradolescent relationship have a stronger negative impact on future autonomy and dating for males than females. On the other hand, Schultheiss and Blustein (1994) found that parental attachment was more important in the identity formation process for women than it was for men and suggested that future researchers undertake separate analyses with male and female samples in order to illuminate sex differences. Other studies have failed to find gender differences in the relationship between attachment and identity (Lapsley et al., 1990; Benson et al., 1992; Kroger, 1995; Young and Lichtenberg, 1996).

The present study explores the relationships between parental attachment and identity in late adolescence. Marcia's Identity Statuses Model will be used, as it facilitates the development of hypotheses connecting attachment and identity paradigms. Attachment is conceptualized according to Ainsworth's and Bowlby's propositions (Ainsworth, 1989; Bowlby, 1973, 1977), as an enduring, unique emotional bond that enables the adolescent to move away from the family and explore the world with confidence. We therefore used a parental attachment measure which captures adolescents' views of both emotional bonds and family opportunities for exploration and individuality. Furthermore, as there are reasons to believe that fathers and mothers play different roles in the identity development of their children (Cooper and Grotevant, 1986) and that adolescents view their relationships with fathers and mothers differently (Pipp et al., 1985; Collins and Russel, 1991; Patterson et al.,
*Whether separationindividuation and attachment are distinct constructs it is not clear, yet. Some authors claim that they are conceptually parallel ( Josselson, 1988), although, according to Blos's construct of separation individuation, adolescents have to detach themselves from parental internalized objects for this process to occur (Blos, 1979). According to Bowlby and Ainsworth, the secure base effect of the attachment relationship enables the child and the adolescent to explore beyond the family context and to reach self-differentiation (Ainsworth, 1982; Bowlby, 1988). In this sense, attachment facilitates both the individuality and connectedness processes.

Overview and major hypotheses

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1994), adolescents reported on their attachment relationships with their fathers and mother separately. According to theory, close secure relationships with parents should create the necessary emotional conditions for the adolescent to explore different ways of relating to the world and, as a consequence, to develop a strong sense of self. In other words, it is expected that exploration and commitment will be affected by the quality of attachment to parents. Specifically, it is predicted that close emotional bonds and encouragement of individuality will be associated with identity achievement and moratorium. On the other hand, individuals classified as foreclosed, even though they might report close parental relationships, will fail to separate because their exploratory movements will be inhibited. Individuals labelled as diffused would report the most insecure ties and experience the parental relationship as most discouraging of individuality. Finally, in Portugal, where gender roles are well defined and differentiated, differences across attachment dyads are expected, at least in some of the attachment dimensions. According to previous research, females are expected to report closer emotional bonds to their parents. Nevertheless, attachment should play an important role in the prediction of identity for both females and males.

Methods
The sample consisted of 361 12th-graders from public urban high schools in Porto, a city with a population of about one million and the second largest in Portugal. Schools from the metropolitan area were selected randomly. Participants' ages ranged from 16 to 22 years (mean age 17?4 years; S.D. = 0?742). In the sample, 60?1% were female and 39?9% male. These proportions are representative of the gender distributions among twelfth-grade Portuguese adolescents. Of the subjects, 93?5% planned to enter college, as they had been taking college-preparatory courses. Unlike in other European countries, around 75% of secondary-level students in Portugal choose general courses and only 25% attend technical, vocational or apprenticeship courses. All subjects lived in intact families and the majority of them (61?8%) lived in two-child families. Approximately half of the parents had only sixth-grade educations, while about 22% had college degrees. The remaining parents had either begun or finished their secondary educations. Subjects responded to the questionnaires during regular class periods. They were informed in a letter of the objectives of the study and were asked for voluntary participation. The questionnaires were ordered randomly (within groups) to control for sequencing effects.

Participants

Instruments Demographic information. The participants provided information on age, gender, parental education and professional status, parents' marital status, family composition and on some other variables which were not used in the present study.
The EOMEIS-2 (Bennion and Adams, 1986) is a self-report measure that was designed to evaluate identity in adolescents and young adults, according to Erikson's theory and Marcia's identity operationalization. It is composed of 64 items that are organized into the four

Extended version of the objective measure of ego identity status (EOMEIS 2).

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identity statuses and grouped into two domains. One domain is ideological. It measures identity processes in areas such as occupation, religion, politics and life-style (with two items per identity dimension). The other domain is interpersonal. It assesses identity in areas such as friendship, dating, sexual roles and recreation. For our purposes, the domains will be combined, as correlational analyses suggested that they share a substantial amount of variance. The EOMEIS-2 is the result of several years of study and refinement. Its psychometric properties are adequate, as reported elsewhere (Adams et al., 1989).

Validation of the EOMEIS-2 in Portugal. Validation of the instrument was carried out on a sample of 530 late adolescents (42?6% male and 57?4 female) from public, urban high schools. The mean age of this sample was 17?5 years (S.D. = 0?80). Based on theoretical expectations and previous empirical results, several models were tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Adjustment indices indicated poorly fitting models, with the exception of the foreclosure dimension (Goodness of Fit Index, GFI = 0?93; Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index, AGFI = 0?91; Root Mean Square Residual, RMR = 0?009). Principal components analysis was then used to explore a better factor structure. In short, items tended to aggregate according to identity areas instead of identity status, thus suggesting the need for instruments specially designed to evaluate identity task resolution in particular life areas (Matos et al., in press). Note, however, that the distribution of the items into different components and the correlations between the original dimensions did not indicate theoretical inconsistencies. In view of this last argument and the fact that this instrument does not include enough items to evaluate identity in each life area, we decided to use the original dimensions of the EOMEIS-2. The internal reliability for the sample used in this study (n = 361) was acceptable for all dimensions and across genders. Cronbach's alpha coefficients range from 0?64 to 0?81, with the exception of diffusion in the female sample (alpha = 0?59).
1997) is a newly developed, self-report questionnaire designed to measure adolescents' and young adults' perceptions of current attachment relationships with both parents. Subjects are asked to respond on four-point Likert type scales, according to their general feelings and thoughts about each parent. The instrument is based on a dimensional assessment approach to adult attachment. The contents of the items were derived theoretically, according to Ainsworth's and Bowlby's ideas (Bowlby, 1973, 1977; Ainsworth, 1989). Separate principal components exploratory factor analyses for father and mother in a sample of 441 adolescents from intact families revealed no substantial differences in the solutions. Both solutions yielded four orthogonal, theoretically interpretable factors, labelled as: inhibition of exploration and individuality (IEI, 13 items; examples are: ``My father discourages me when I try something new''; ``My mother is always interfering in my personal life''); quality of emotional bond (QEB, eight items; examples are: ``My mother plays an important role in my development''; ``I rely on my father's support in difficult moments of my life''); separation anxiety and dependence (SAD, seven items; examples are: ``I constantly think that I cannot live without my father''; ``If I had to go study far away from my mother, I would feel helpless''); and role reversal (RR, six items; examples are: ``After all, I am the one that has to solve my mother's problems''; ``I know that my father is more in need of my support that I am of his''). As confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the ``role reversal'' dimension did not contribute significantly to the prediction of the latent construct of attachment, it was removed from the subsequent analyses.

Father/Mother Attachment Questionnaire (FMAQ). This instrument (Matos et al.,

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The magnitudes of the correlations between attachment to mother and attachment to father indicated both shared variance and separate variance (correlations ranged from 0?55 to 0?80), suggesting that the analyses should be performed separately for mothers and fathers. The reliability of the measure was assessed through internal consistency and testretest methods. Cronbach's alpha for the three mother's subscales ranged from 0?76 to 0?88. For the father's subscales, alphas ranged from 0?80 to 0?89. Testretest reliability over a 6-week interval (n=109) ranged from 0?54 to 0?66. Evidence of construct validity (Matos et al., 1998b) is provided by predictable relationships between the FMAQ and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA, Armsden and Greenberg, 1987); the Parental Separation Inventory (PSI, Hoffman, 1984), and the Self-Description Questionnaire III (SDQ III, Marsh et al., 1983). In addition, the FMAQ correlated with expectations of successful resolution of college personal and relational tasks. Studies also suggest that the instrument is useful in discriminating between male and female adolescents and mothers and fathers (Matos et al., 1998a).

Results
Gender differences in attachment and identity Adolescent gender differences in attachment and identity. Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA, Pillai's trace) revealed significant gender effects across attachment [F (6,354)=7?942; p50?001] and identity [F (4,356)=8?75; p50?001] dimensions.{ Means and standard deviations for these comparisons are given in Table 1. Follow-up tests indicated that females scored higher than males on mother's [F (1,359)=29?748; p50?001] and on father's [F (1,359) = 9?655; p50?005] QEB; and on mother's [F (1,359) = 25?035; p50?001] and on father's [F (1,359) = 21?037; p50?001] SAD. No significant gender differences were found on the mother's or father's inhibition of exploration and individuality dimensions. Concerning identity, gender differences were found only on diffusion. Males scored higher than females [F (1,359)=32?500; p50?001].
differently attached to mothers and fathers, t-tests on the attachment dimensions were performed. The results indicated that females scored higher on attachment to mother's QEB (t=3?103; p50?005) and SAD (t=3?344; p50?001) than to father's. Additionally, females scored higher on father's IEI (t=72?870; p50?005) than mother's. No significant differences between mothers and fathers were found for boys.

Attachment to mothers vs. fathers. In order to evaluate whether adolescents are

Associations between attachment and identity dimensions: a canonical correlation analysis

To determine the associations between the attachment and identity dimensions, canonical correlation analysis was used. Unlike multiple regression, which is concerned with the relationship between a set of predictors and a single criterion, canonical analysis forms optimal linear combinations (canonical functions) between two separate linear composites (canonical variates). The first canonical function accounts for the most variance in the relationship and the canonical correlation represents the strength of the relationship.
{

Only differences which were significant at the p50?005 level will be reported.

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Table 1
Dimension

Results for the male and female samples on the attachment and identity dimensions
Girls Items Mean
S.D.

Boys Mean
S.D.

Attachment Father IEI QEB SAD Mother IEI QEB SAD Identity ACH MOR DIF FOR

13 8 7 13 8 7 16 16 16 16

25?02 28?48 18?82 24?07 29?21 19?28 68?62 49?99 43?12 42?38

7?35 4?06 3?87 6?63 2?86 3?59 7?71 8?39 7?76 10?28

25?61 27?12 16?92 25?54 27?19 17?28 67?62 51?57 48?04 44?36

6?62 4?04 3?81 6?40 4?18 3?89 8?68 8?46 8?43 10?62

IEI, inhibition of exploration and individuality; QEB, quality of emotional bond; SAD, separation anxiety and dependence; ACH, achievement; MOR, moratorium; DIF, diffusion; FOR, foreclosure.

Additionally, canonical analysis reveals, through redundancy analysis, how much variance in one set accounts for the shared variance (defined by the squared canonical correlation, r2) in the other set (Bernstein, 1988; Hair et al., 1995). In this study, the three attachment dimensions for each parent will be considered as the independent set and the four identity dimensions will be considered as the dependent set. As we wanted to investigate gender differences in associations between identity and attachment, separate canonical correlation analyses were conducted on boys and girls. The level of significance of the canonical correlation, the magnitude of the canonical relationship and the redundancy measure of shared variance supported the decision for the canonical functions. The statistics for the canonical functions are presented in Table 2. Table 3 reports the canonical loadings, which represent the correlations between the canonical variates (the linear combination of each set of variables) and the original variables, and which can be interpreted in much the same way as factor loadings. The model yielded one canonical function for each sample that defined the foreclosure dimension and showed some differences in the association of the variables according to adolescent's and parent's gender. In both samples, the canonical functions are characterized by heavy loadings on the separation anxiety and dependence dimension, both in relationships with fathers and mothers. The quality of emotional bond dimension presents modest to high loadings for both parents, but only among boys. For girls, although quality of emotional bond in relationships with fathers is associated with foreclosure identity, the same attachment dimension in relationships with mothers is not. Furthermore, father's inhibition Table 2
Girls Boys

Statistics for the canonical functions

Chi-square 87?711 137?032 df 24?000 24?000 r 0?514 0?482 p 0?000 0?000 r2 0?264 0?206 Redundancy index 0?090 0?086 0?659 0?714

Wilks' lambda

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Table 3
Dimension

Canonical loadings for the canonical functions

Girls Boys

Attachment Father IEI QEB SAD Mother IEI QEB SAD Identity ACH MOR DIF FOR
See Table 1 for list of abbreviations used.

0?430 70?565 70?943 0?076 70?187 70?754 70?193 70?086 0?002 70?991

0?378 70?760 70?923 0?150 70?510 70?803 70?120 70?173 0?257 70?913

of exploration and individuality is inversely but modestly associated with a tendency for foreclosure identity among both boys and girls. However, mothers' inhibition of exploration and individuality is not associated with identity dimensions among either boys and girls.

On a dimensional level, results only inform us about the relationships between attachment and identity foreclosure. We therefore decided to investigate individual differences in attachment dimensions by identity groups. It is common practice to use the final scores in order to classify the subjects into the four identity statuses, according to the cut-off criteria suggested in the manual. In this study, however, cluster analysis was preferred to the more classic grouping, because there are not sufficient empirical studies with large and representative Portuguese samples to suggest appropriate cut-off points. Our study (n=530) showed large differences between the means on these dimensions from the present Portuguese sample and those found previously in North American samples, suggesting the importance of cultural context on identity construction processes and pointing out the risks of using cut-offs generated from studies in other cultures. Cluster analysis using K means and simple Euclidean distance was performed. The scores on the four identity dimensions were used as the clustering variables. Theoretical conceptualizations of identity status guided the final decision and the interpretation of the cluster solution. Table 4 presents the means of the identity dimensions of the four groups in the final cluster solution. Differences between the four clusters in the identity dimensions were identified through MANOVAs and follow-up tests and are indicated in Table 4. Differences among the four clusters in the identity dimensions can be interpreted using the concepts of exploration and commitment. The first cluster is characterized by high scores on moratorium and achievement, and moderate scores on diffusion and foreclosure, whereas the second cluster presents high scores on achievement and foreclosure, and low scores on moratorium and diffusion. The identity configuration that emerged in the first cluster is, therefore, defined by the presence of exploration, and that in the second cluster is defined by the presence of commitment. Members of the third cluster scored particularly high on

Identity cluster differences in attachment

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Table 4

Final cluster solution on the identity dimensions

Cluster 1* (n=85) 72?06a 55?41a 47?18a 39?53a 2{ (n=107) 71?15a 42?96b 37?06b 40?10a 3{ (n=63) 59?33b 50?72c 50?12c 33?32b 4} (n=106) 67?47c 54?46a 48?51a, c 55?03c

Dimensions ACH MOR DIF FOR

ACH, achievement; MOR, Moratorium; DIF, Diffusion; FOR, foreclosure. ac Scores with different superscripts are significantly different at p50?01. *Presence of exploration; {presence of commitment; {absence of commitment; }identity in transition.

diffusion, compared to the other groups, moderate on moratorium and low on achievement and foreclosure. The absence of commitment seems to characterize this group. Finally, the last cluster scored highest on foreclosure and moderately on achievement and diffusion. However, as subjects also scored high on moratorium, this cluster was labelled as an in-transition group. Although parents' identifications still play an important role in identity formation, the results indicate that the adolescents in the fourth cluster are, on the one hand, engaged in exploratory movements and, on the other hand, do not need to question or feel committed in some areas of their lives. A two-way factorial MANOVA design was then used, with gender and cluster as factors and the three attachment dimensions as dependent variables. There were no significant interaction effects, as indicated by Pillai's trace (p=0?52).{ Significant multivariate differences emerged for gender, as has been reported previously, and for cluster [F (18, 1050)=2?954; p50?001]. Univariate F-tests were calculated to locate the sources of significant variation. These analyses indicated that the third cluster (defined by absence of commitment) scored lower in quality of emotional bond to both mothers [F(3,353)=5?01; p50?005] and fathers [F (3,353)=8?905; p50?001] than all the remaining three clusters, although these last ones did not differ significantly from each other. Concerning anxiety separation and dependence, the third cluster again scored lower, but only compared with the second (defined as presence of commitment) and the fourth (defined as identity in transition) clusters, both on relationships with mothers [F(3,353)=9?306; p50?001] and fathers [F(3,353)=11?54; p50?001].} No differences were found on inhibition of exploration and individuality at the level of significance that we used.

Discussion
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between attachment to parents and identity in late adolescence and to determine whether these relationships vary as
{ For F-tests to be considered valid, among other assumptions, the null hypothesis regarding the equality of variancecovariance matrixes should be true. As this is not the case (i.e. Box's test is significant), Pillai's trace test has been considered by several authors as being the most robust under violation of this assumption (Olson, 1976). An interaction effect was therefore not considered. } Note that the third group of subjects also differs from the first one concerning anxiety separation and dependence in relationships with fathers, but at p50?05.

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a function of parental or adolescent gender. Consistent with previous research (Pipp et al., 1985; Youniss and Smollar, 1985; Paterson et al., 1994), the results suggest gender-connected patterns, at least in some attachment dimensions. As expected, girls reported that they were more invested in their relationships with their mothers than with fathers, although they also appeared to be more dependent on mothers. Compared with boys, they also reported closer emotional bonds and higher levels of anxiety separation and dependence towards both parents. Moreover, girls reported their relationships with their fathers as more inhibiting of exploration than their relationships with their mothers, which resembles the stereotypes of fathers being more authoritative than mothers. These findings are in line with research on fatherdaughter relational distance at adolescence (Youniss and Ketterlinus, 1987; Hill, 1988). We should not, however, jump to the conclusion that fathers are not important emotional figures to adolescent children, or are not as competent caregivers as mothers; nor does this result mean that attachment dimensions are not meaningful for boys. The mean scores of boys and the ranges of scores on these dimensions show that their relationships with their mothers and their fathers are characterized by close emotional bonds. Boys did not differ from girls in self-reported parental inhibition of exploration and individuality. This result seems particularly interesting because, traditionally, Portuguese families were more likely to foster autonomy and independence in boys and were more likely to protect their girls from the ``risks'' of exploration. Whether or not Portuguese parents behave differently toward their sons and their daughters, these results suggest that high school girls and boys perceive their parent's attitudes and behaviours similarly. A recent study conducted with a representative Portuguese national sample supports this view. It suggests that a democratization in family relationships is one of the major changes that people identify in the last 30 years in the Portuguese society (Pais et al., 1998). On a representational level, then, the results indicate, that traditional gender-related roles are changing in Portuguese society and that parentadolescent relationships probably tend to overcome possible constraints associated with gender. In order to test this hypothesis more extensively, future research should compare parents' and adolescents' reports and behaviours and evaluate their consistency. The canonical correlation analysis partially supports our expectations, as it identified only foreclosure as being predicted by attachment dimensions. This may be a consequence of the number of people classified as foreclosed in our sample and the reliability of the dimension. Consistent with previous research (Campbell et al., 1984; Schultheiss and Blustein, 1994; Young and Lichtenberg, 1996), these results suggest that adolescents classified as foreclosed tended to maintain strong affectional bonds with their parents. In this sense, perceiving parental relationships as caring and supportive seems to be related to identification with parents and to the acceptance of parental commitments. Relationships with mothers, however, seem to play a differential role for boys than girls in the tendency for foreclosure identity. In fact, for boys only foreclosure identity is associated with quality of the emotional bond to their mothers. Note that girls scored significantly higher than boys on the quality of emotional bond dimension. Nevertheless, this component of attachment to the mother is not associated with a girl's foreclosure. The interaction between parental and adolescent gender that was observed in the relationship between attachment and identity foreclosure raises, in our opinion, an important substantive issue which should be subjected to empirical research. Do girls and boys attach different meanings to similar attachment experiences? Do the same attachment behaviours have multiple meanings as a function of parentadolescent gender dyads? Future research should address

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the differential qualitative meanings of attachment experiences, not only across gender dyads but also along developmental stages. Our findings also show that relational anxiety is important in predicting identity foreclosure, both in girls and boys. Indeed, the parentadolescent relationships associated with identity foreclosure seem to be characterized by high levels of separation anxiety and dependence, suggesting that foreclosure is related to emotional enmeshment with parents, as found in other studies (Kroger, 1985; Josselson, 1987). Contrary to theoretical expectations is the finding that identity foreclosure is not associated with maternal inhibition of exploration and individuality and is negatively, but modestly, associated with paternal inhibition of exploration and individuality. These results raise questions concerning the ability of the identity foreclosed to perceive and actually benefit from family encouragement of exploration. If foreclosed adolescents are embedded in their relationships (Kroger, 1990), they probably have trouble separating themselves from their parents to evaluate parental attitudes and behaviours. In the face of actual inhibition of exploratory movements (as observed by independent judges in naturalistic settings, for example), it could be expected that these adolescents would construct their personal meanings about the family system around positive themes of protection and connectedness. On the contrary, the realization that family encourages independence and autonomy could be interpreted as rejection and abandonment. If foreclosed adolescents are fused with their parents and embedded in their family system, then exploring the world would mean separation from parents and mostly from an old but stable representation of themselves. This change might provoke anxiety and feelings of loss. In order to test these hypotheses, a shift toward more qualitative methodologies, which capture personal experience and meaningmaking processes in the context of family relationships, is necessary. Apart from the association with identity foreclosure, adolescents' perceptions of parental inhibition and individuality failed to correlate with the identity dimensions or to discriminate between the different identity configurations. Indeed, it was predicted that families who recognized their children's needs for self-differentiation and offered possibilities for meaningful exploration of individuality would facilitate the identity formation of adolescents. Using adolescents' perceptions of parental inhibition of exploration, this hypothesis was not confirmed. One possible reason might be the adolescent's perceptions of family encouragement of exploration and differentiation. In the literature, studies which linked family differentiation with identity had based their evaluations on direct observations of family interactions (Bosma and Gerrits, 1983; Grotevant and Cooper, 1985), on measures which combine, in a single score, self-reported independence with perceptions of family opportunities for individuality (Campbell et al., 1984; Quintana and Lapsley, 1990), or on measures which do not discriminate between parental warmth and autonomy (Kamptner, 1988). As our intention was to evaluate the adolescents' perceptions of parents as inhibitors/ facilitators of differentiation, our results do not preclude the possibility that identity statuses differentiate themselves in perceived independence and in actual family encouragement of independence. A second reason concerns the theoretical predictions of the associations between family context and identity development. Although it seems plausible that family, as an emotional context, plays a significant role in the creation of conditions for adolescents to develop their identities, we believe that research on the links between attachment and identity would benefit from an ecological focus. Particular attention should be devoted to more than one environment in which the adolescent participates and to the continuities that emerge in

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different settings. Factors outside the family have an important influence on the facilitation of exploratory movements and the impact on the adolescent is certainly optimized when they are combined with the family's opportunities for differentiation. Differential analyses confirm our expectations, particularly regarding identity diffusion. As predicted, subjects who scored high on diffusion reported the most insecure parental attachments and experienced the least separation anxiety. Although the three other identity groups did not differ significantly from each other in the representation of parental figures, interesting differences emerged in the representation of self, concerning separation anxiety. Comparing the groups based on the exploration and commitments concepts, our results indicated that high levels of separation anxiety are inhibitory of exploratory movements, whereas moderate levels of separation anxiety are associated with commitment. This result suggests that parental attachment is important in the development of representations that enable adolescents to trust themselves in the exploration of the world. When separation anxiety is too high, the opportunities for exploration seem to be avoided because of fear of losing the parents. On the other hand, adolescents in secure relationships experience moderate levels of separation anxiety which are, in turn, related to the development of commitments. Finally, it is possible that the results are reflections of the empirical methods and not of the phenomena under study. Although there is evidence of the adequate psychometric properties and construct validity of the Father/Mother Attachment Questionnaire, it needs further validation. It is particularly important to test whether this instrument, specifically the inhibition of exploration and individuality dimension, is sensitive to social desirability processes, which could bias the responses and hide the differences between groups. The findings of this study should therefore be viewed as suggestive until replicated. The measures used to assess identity according to the identity status paradigm have also been criticized regarding content validity (Cote and Levine, 1988; Blasi and Godis, 1995). Some authors consider that, in general, the existent measures do not constitute actual operationalizations of Erikson's theoretical propositions and that they would tend to evaluate methods of processing information and decision-making instead of focusing on identity construction processes. Although it has some limitations, this study suggests, in support of previous findings, common cross-cultural family characteristics associated with adolescent identity development, particularly foreclosure. Furthermore, it raises several important substantive questions about the relationship between identity and attachment which should be the object of thoughtful reflection and empirical research.

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