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Within the intergenerational transmission of attachment framework, this study examines the mediating role of maternal reflective functioning between mother and child attachment orientations (attachment anxiety and avoidance) in middle childhood among mother-child dyads in Poland, the Netherlands, and Turkey. Mothers (N = 758; Mage = 38.5) and their children (Mage = 10.0) separately completed measures of attachment anxiety and avoidance. Mothers also completed the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire. Results of the mediated models showed that the prementalizing dimension of reflective functioning strongly mediated the effects of both mother attachment anxiety and avoidance on child attachment anxiety and avoidance. The mediating power of prementalizing was stronger for attachment anxiety than attachment avoidance, and its effects were stronger for mother-child dyads from Poland and Turkey than those from the Netherlands. Findings are discussed considering the cultural and developmental implications of reflective functioning and the transmission effect. Highlights: The prementalizing dimension of maternal reflective functioning fully mediated the effects of mother attachment on child attachment. The mediating power of prementalizing was stronger for attachment anxiety than attachment avoidance. The effects were stronger for mother-child dyads from Poland and Turkey than those from the Netherlands. Mothers' certainty about mental states dimension of reflective functioning was mainly associated with attachment avoidance. Maternal reflective functioning had powerful effects on child attachment (in)security in middle childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study examined the underpinnings of adolescents' friendship from an attachment perspective, specifically focusing on the role of paternal attachment. In light that individual differences could moderate the association between parental attachment and friendship qualities, adolescent sex and age were also considered. Methods: Participants aged 13–19 (N = 776) reported the extent to which they felt anxiously and avoidantly attached to their mother and father. They also reported their perceived relationship with a close friend on three major qualities, including positive qualities, negative interactions, and relative power. Path analysis was first conducted to examine the relative roles of parental attachment and individual differences in predicting friendship qualities. Multi-group analysis was then performed to determine whether maternal and paternal attachment differentially predicted friendship qualities among junior and senior high school boys and girls. Results: Results indicated that maternal attachment avoidance and anxiety were related to friendship qualities among boys. Not only was paternal attachment anxiety positively associated with power issues among junior high school boys, but it was also positively associated with negative interactions among boys and senior high school girls. Neither paternal nor maternal attachment were associated with friendship qualities among junior high school girls. Conclusions: Findings suggest that paternal and maternal attachment underlie friendship qualities in different ways and that fathers assume more than a complementary role in adolescence for both boys and girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]