Predicting Adolescent Anxiety with Childhood Attachment Disruptions: A Systematic Review

This systematic review explores the relationship between childhood attachment disruptions and the development of anxiety during adolescence. The structured search was conducted for studies from five major databases between 2000 and July 2024, selecting studies that longitudinally examined the association of childhood attachment with later anxiety in adolescence. Eleven studies were synthesized to show that insecure, avoidant, and disorganized attachment styles within childhood predict the emergence of adolescent anxiety. These results point to the clear association of attachment disruptions in early childhood with anxiety disorders later in life and, therefore, strengthen the efforts of early intervention in supporting the development of a secure attachment to prevent later mental health problems. These findings have shown that preventing insecure attachment in early childhood can be one potential strategy for preventing the anxiety disorders later in adolescence.