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Leaving the Parental Nest: Adjustment Problems,

Attachment Representations, and Social Support
During the Transition from High School to Military
Service

Article in Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology · May 2011

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 Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology

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Leaving the Parental Nest: Adjustment Problems,

Attachment Representations, and Social Support
During the Transition from High School to Military
Service

Miri Scharf , Ofra Mayseless & Inbal Kivenson-Baron

To cite this article: Miri Scharf , Ofra Mayseless & Inbal Kivenson-Baron (2011) Leaving the
Parental Nest: Adjustment Problems, Attachment Representations, and Social Support During
the Transition from High School to Military Service, Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent
Psychology, 40:3, 411-423, DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2011.563464

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 Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 40(3), 411–423, 2011
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1537-4416 print=1537-4424 online
DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2011.563464

Leaving the Parental Nest: Adjustment Problems, Attachment

Representations, and Social Support During the Transition
from High School to Military Service
Miri Scharf, Ofra Mayseless, and Inbal Kivenson-Baron
Counseling and Human Development, University of Haifa
Downloaded by [University of Haifa Library] at 10:31 18 November 2015

Adjustment to the transition from high school to military service in Israel was examined
in a longitudinal study with a sample of 120 late-adolescent girls. During their senior
year in high school (Time 1) the young women were administered the Adult Attachment
Interview. Their coping and adjustment to the new environment were assessed (at two
further points in time after the transition) by reports of the young women, their
mothers, their fathers, and their friends. Young women with preoccupied attachment
representations demonstrated the lowest levels of adjustment at both the second and
third time points. Young women with dismissing attachment representations did not dif-
fer from those with autonomous attachment representations. Satisfaction with social
support from parents mediated the association between attachment representations
and adjustment (assessed by the young women’s reports).

In most Western cultures late adolescence involves the
transition from high school to a new environment that
requires more autonomous functioning (Seiffge-Krenke,
2006). For many youngsters in most Western cultures it
means a move into the college environment (Bernier,
Larose, Boivin, & Soucy, 2004; Kenny & Rice, 1995;
Larose, Bernier, & Tarabulsy, 2005). In the Israeli con-
text this normative transition is into the military milieu,
as 18-year-olds are expected to serve a mandatory 2- to
3-year period of military service.
Individual differences in attachment representations
are expected to be implicated in the way adolescents
cope with this important and central transition. Attach-
ment representations reflect the individuals’ internalized
conceptions and affect regulation regarding their attach-
ment relations, in particular those with their parents.
These internalizations are assumed to guide the indivi-
dual’s expectations, perceptions, emotion regulation,
and functioning in situations that are attachment related
(e.g., separation from attachment figures) and in stress-
inducing circumstances. Such are transitions to college
Correspondence should be addressed to Miri Scharf, Counseling
and Human Development, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa,
Israel. E-mail: scharfm@edu.haifa.ac.il
or military service, which entail separation and the need
to adjust to a new and different environment (Kenny &
Rice, 1995; Larose et al., 2005; Mikulincer & Florian,
1995; Scharf, Mayseless, & Kivenson-Baron, 2004).
Such transitions challenge the coping skills of young-
sters and might engender clinical adjustment problems
for some of them (Bernier, Larose, & Whipple, 2005).
In the present study we longitudinally investigated the
potential contributions of state of mind with respect to
attachment to adolescent girls’ adjustment to the tran-
sition from high school to military service.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN STATE OF
MIND WITH RESPECT TO ATTACHMENT
Individual differences in attachment representations in
adolescence and adulthood have been identified through
the Adult Attachment Interview (Hesse, 2008). Indivi-
duals with a secure or autonomous state of mind freely
and coherently describe their relationships with their
parents; they value closeness and intimacy and find these
relationships influential in their lives (Hesse, 2008).
When coping with new challenges they are able to adapt
more easily to the various stressors (Kobak & Sceery,
 412 SCHARF, MAYSELESS, KIVENSON-BARON
1988; Zimmermann, 1999) because they are less over-
whelmed by the stress than others (Adam, Gunnar, &
Tanaka, 2004; Seiffge-Krenke, 2006) and because they
have better coping skills such as turning to others for
support (Allen et al., 2002; Seiffge-Krenke, 2006).
Three other categories are considered insecure: dis-
missing, preoccupied, and unresolved. Individuals with
dismissing attachment representations strive to limit
the place of closeness in their life. They also idealize,
derogate, or recall very few of their experiences with
their parents (Hesse, 2008). When coping, they tend to
underactivate their attachment system (Dozier &
Kobak, 1992), which involves minimizing the perceived
effect and relevance of the stressors while trying to rely
on themselves more than on others when in need (Hesse,
2008). Individuals with preoccupied attachment repre-
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sentations describe their experiences with their parents
incoherently in anger, passivity, or confusion. When
coping, they tend to hyperactivate the attachment sys-
tem, hence they focus on the stressors (Creasey, 2002),
feel more anxious and depressed (Allen, Moore,
Kuperminc, & Bell, 1998; Kobak, Sudler, & Gamble,
1991), and have a higher need for assistance, yet feel less
relieved and less satisfied than others with the support
they receive (Larose & Bernier, 2001). A fourth group
includes individuals who are unresolved with respect
to loss or trauma, and their functioning is expected to
be worse than that of the other two insecure groups.
ATTACHMENT AND ADAPTING TO
THE COLLEGE TRANSITION
The implications of individual differences in attachment
representations to the college transition have been exam-
ined in several studies. College students with secure
attachment representations were rated by peers as more
ego-resilient, less anxious, and less hostile, and they
reported lower distress and higher levels of social support
than others (Kobak & Sceery 1988). College students
with dismissing attachment representations were not
different from their autonomous peers in their reported
distress, but their friends perceived them as more
anxious, more hostile, and less ego-resilient than auton-
omous peers. Nevertheless, students with dismissing
attachment representations reported lower levels of
social support from family than others. Students with
preoccupied attachment representations reported higher
levels of distress than others, and their peers also viewed
them as more anxious and less ego-resilient than their
autonomous counterparts.
Two studies targeted the academic domain in college.
Individuals with an autonomous (secure) attachment
representation showed better learning dispositions
throughout the college transition than others (Larose
et al., 2005). Individuals with preoccupied attachment
representations reported more fear of failure during
the first semester in college, felt less comfortable seeking
help from their teachers, and gave lower priority to their
studies. In another sample of academically at-risk
students, a preoccupied tendency was related to a drop
in grades between high school and college, to a relative
decrease in adjustment from the beginning to the end of
the 1st year in college, and to lower levels of adjustment
at the end of the year (Bernier et al., 2004). The profile
of results for individuals with dismissing attachment
representations was less consistent. In one study,
students with dismissing attachment representations
reported less preparation for examinations and lower
quality of attention and scored lower grades than their
secure counterparts during the first three semesters in
college (Larose et al., 2005). However, in the second
sample, dismissing tendencies were not associated with
college adjustment (Bernier et al., 2004).
Larose and Bernier (2001) further explored the role of
social support during that transition. They found that a
preoccupied tendency was associated with higher stress
and loneliness in college, distrust of potential suppor-
ters, and difficulty seeking help from teachers. Stress
and seeking help mediated the association between a
preoccupied tendency and loneliness. A dismissing tend-
ency was associated with lower trust in potential suppor-
ters at high school, seeking less help from friends and
teachers in college and peer-rated withdrawal. In sum,
both preoccupation and dismissing tendencies or states
of mind were associated with adjustment difficulties
(e.g., loneliness, withdrawal, anxiety, and lower grades)
and lower mobilization of social support.
TRANSITION FROM HIGH SCHOOL
TO MILITARY SERVICE
The high school and college contexts emphasize academ-
ic skills, and both are moderately open to autonomous
exploration and personal pursuits, the college environ-
ment being even more inviting of such freedom than
high school (Bowen, 1977). The transition into military
service is quite different. The military context is a highly
demanding and rigid ecology, where the young recruits
lose some of their personal freedom and identity as they
must wear uniforms, obey orders, and perform duties
that often conflict with their personal desires. Young
soldiers are further exposed to new and challenging
physical and psychological demands (Scharf et al.,
2004). Military life may also restrict the opportunity to
form and maintain relationships with close others such
as parents and friends, as furloughs are infrequent and
short. Yet military service also provides new challenges,
such as meeting new people from diverse socioeconomic

backgrounds and assuming responsibilities rarely
assigned to adolescents at that age. The stressors inherent
in the military environment might challenge individuals’
flexibility, ego resilience, and social capacities and expose
personal vulnerabilities as well as instigate difficulties
and clinical problems (Monson, Taft, & Fredman, 2009).
The transition to military service has been previously
examined in several studies (Israelashvili & Wegman-
Rozi, 2007; Mayseless & Hai, 1998; Scharf et al.,
2004), showing in general that positive and autonomous
relations with parents are associated with better coping
and adaptation. However, the ramifications of attach-
ment representations for coping in this environment
have been examined in only one study with adolescent
boys (Scharf et al., 2004). In that study individuals with
dismissing attachment representations reported using
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less problem-focused coping than did individuals with
autonomous attachment representations, and their peers
in basic training perceived them as coping worse
instrumentally and socially than their autonomous
counterparts. During this stressful transition they also
perceived their parents as less sensitively responsive to
them than did individuals with autonomous attachment
representations (Scharf et al., 2004).
The adaptation and adjustment to military service
may be somewhat different for adolescent girls. First,
basic training for young women, as well as their service,
is usually less arduous and demanding than that of
young men. Second, whereas for young men, socializa-
tion has been described as focusing on the development
of individuation and separation, female socialization has
been described as focusing on connectedness (Josselson,
1996). Young men and women differ in their vulner-
ability to stress, the social support that they receive,
and the coping strategies they use when confronting
stress (Cummings, Davies, & Simpson, 1994; Scharf,
2001; Stroebe, 2001). Hence, leaving home may affect
young women differently than men in terms of adjust-
ment problems (Berman & Sperling, 1991). Examining
young women’s adaptation at this important turning
point could further our understanding of strengths and
vulnerabilities that might promote or hinder healthy
adaptations to developmental transitions.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SEVERAL
SOURCES OF REPORT
How individuals with dismissing or preoccupied attach-
ment representations perceive their functioning may
differ somewhat from how others perceive it (Berger,
Jodl, Allen, McElhaney, & Kuperminc, 2005; Dozier &
Tyrrell, 1998). Individuals with dismissing attachment
representations are expected to downplay their difficult-
ies. As a result, although others perceive them as having
LEAVING THE PARENTAL NEST 413
higher levels of difficulties than other people, especially
lower levels of social connectedness, this is not always
apparent in their own self-reporting (Kobak & Sceery,
1988). As for individuals with a preoccupied attachment
representation, it has been suggested that their tendency
to hyperactivation of the attachment system may impart
to them a biased view of themselves, which is not shared
by others (Dozier & Lee, 1995; Larose & Bernier, 2001).
For example, early adolescents with a preoccupied
attachment representations perceived themselves as
more socially rejected than was revealed in a sociometric
procedure (Granot & Mayseless, 2001). Similarly,
adolescent preoccupation was associated with levels of
self-reported internalized and externalized symptoms
higher than those reported by their parents (Berger
et al., 2005). Thus, our study engaged four distinct
sources: the young women, peers, mothers, and fathers.
The inclusion of fathers as reporters is especially
noteworthy and provides a viewpoint rarely seen in such
research.
ADJUSTMENT AND THE ROLE OF
SOCIAL SUPPORT
The difficulties of individuals with insecure attachment
representations persist and are salient even after the
initial adaptation and coping period in college (Larose
et al., 2005). To examine adjustment problems over time
we assessed the young women’s initial adjustment 6 to
10 weeks after conscription, and then 6 to 9 months later
when they had been in the new environment for some
time and already resided in their permanent bases. We
further examined the role of social support as experi-
enced at the first period following the transition in
mediating the association between attachment represen-
tations and problems in adaptation at the second
assessment in the military context. One of the main dis-
advantages of individuals with insecure attachment
representations is their difficulty to draw on their social
network for support or to be satisfied with this support,
and this interferes with their capacity to adjust to the
new environment (Larose & Bernier, 2001). In this study
we wanted to examine the mediating role of these
processes. In the college context, seeking help from
teachers regarding learning situations, but not from
friends, mediated the link between preoccupation and
loneliness (Larose & Bernier, 2001). Because at this
developmental stage parents continue to serve as pri-
mary attachment figures for most emerging adults
(Scharf & Mayseless, 2007), we assessed support seeking
from parents in addition to support seeking from
friends, and both were expected to be part of the young
women’s coping efforts, in such stressful situation as the
transition to military service.
 414 SCHARF, MAYSELESS, KIVENSON-BARON
CURRENT STUDY
Based on this background literature, the following
hypotheses were tested in the current study. First, young
women with preoccupied attachment representations
were predicted to show the greatest emotional difficult-
ies and the highest levels of adjustment problems at
the two assessments following the transition as well as
reporting lowest satisfaction with social support.
Second, young women with dismissing attachment
representations, who were expected to downplay their
adjustment difficulties, were predicted to be similar to
young women with autonomous attachment representa-
tions in their self-reported emotional difficulties and
levels of adjustment but were predicted to employ less
support seeking than others. Their lower level of
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adjustment was predicted to be revealed in reports by
others (parents and friends). Third, the higher levels of
adjustment problems in young women with insecure
attachment representations at the second assessment of
adjustment to the military context (T3) were predicted
to be mediated through lower social support seeking
(in individuals with dismissing attachment representa-
tions) and lower satisfaction with this support (in indivi-
duals with preoccupied attachment representations)
during the initial period of military service (T2).
METHOD
Participants
One hundred twenty late-adolescent girls in Israel who
were planning to start compulsory military service away
from home were recruited during the spring semester of
their senior year in high school. The families were
recruited from middle-class neighborhoods and were
largely well educated (74% of the fathers and 73% of
the mothers had at least a college education); 58% of
the families were of Western origin, and their living
quarters were of moderately low density (1.17 persons
per room).
At the time of the first assessment (T1), during the
second semester of the young women’s senior year in
high school, their ages were 17 to 18 years. Mean age
of mothers was 46.40 years (SD ¼ 4.40) and of fathers
was 48.99 years (SD ¼ 5.33). The number of children in
these families varied between one and five, with a mean
of 2.87 (SD ¼ .70). About one third of the adolescents
(32%) were firstborn children. Approximately 72% of
the families described themselves as secular, and the
remainder as upholding the Jewish religious tradition,
but not in the orthodox way. None of these back-
ground variables was associated with the research
variables.
Procedure
Permission to conduct this investigation was provided
by the university Institutional Review Board. Parti-
cipants for the study were recruited over 2 consecutive
years in two waves of data collection, with 60 families
participating in each wave. Prospective participants
were identified and selected through published lists of
high school graduates. Families were contacted by mail
and then by phone, informed about the research, and
asked for their cooperation. In the phone conversation
we screened families to make sure that they met our
research requirements (i.e., intact families, young
women indicated that they wanted to serve in the
military). This constraint did not result in a highly
skewed sample, as divorce rates are much lower in Israel
than in the United States (12.1% according to the Sta-
tistical Abstract of Israel, 2008) and because more than
80% of the young women in these neighborhoods serve
in the military. Written parental consent and written
adolescent assent to participate were obtained from all
participants. Monetary compensation of $40 was offered
to each family and was paid at the end of the first assess-
ment. The young women and the family also received
small gifts. As the study required the investment of
several hours by each family member, most families
who declined did so because of time pressures. The final
sample reflects consent by 55% of eligible families.
At T1 the young women were administered the Adult
Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main,
1985) and filled out questionnaires. The next assessment
(T2) took place 6 to 10 weeks after conscription,
approximately 3 to 8 months following T1. Timing of
conscription across the year is determined based on
birth dates and the military needs. This point in time
(several weeks following the transition) was chosen to
assess the young women’s initial adaptation to the tran-
sition. At this stage most young women have not yet
been stationed in their permanent bases. Of the original
120 adolescent girls, 110 participated and filled out ques-
tionnaires regarding their adjustment and social
support. We also collected information on the young
women’s adjustment from their mothers (n ¼ 83), their
fathers (n ¼ 82), and their friends from home (n ¼ 74).
The young women were requested to provide the name
and phone number of their best friend from home who
knew them well and would agree to participate. The
mean length of the friendship was 319.88 weeks
(SD ¼ 22.36). Reasons for nonparticipation in this
assessment included difficulty locating the young
women, who came home for very brief furloughs, mostly
with only short notice to the family, and the limited time
for contacting the participants, as the study design
required that this be done within the first several weeks
following conscription.

The third assessment (T3) took place 6 to 9 months
following T2. This point in time was chosen because
by this time the young women were already residing in
their permanent placements and had had the time to
adapt to this. One hundred fifteen adolescents partici-
pated by filling out questionnaires regarding their
adjustment. Of these women, 77 resided at the military
base and went home for short furloughs, and 38 slept
at home and commuted daily to their base. At T3, 113
mothers and 115 fathers participated, and 108 adoles-
cents had their friends (mean length of friendship ¼
360.41 weeks, SD ¼ 21.20) participate in the study. The
subsamples of women, mothers, fathers, and friends
who participated in all assessments and of those who
participated only in some as well as the samples from
the two waves of data collection showed no differences
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on any of the research variables. Similarly, differences
in timing of the T2 and T3 assessments were not associa-
ted with any of the study variables.
Measures: Time 1
Attachment. The AAI (George et al., 1985) is a
semistructured interview that asks interviewees to pro-
vide semantic and episodic descriptions of their early
childhood relationships with their primary caregivers.
During the course of the interview, interviewees are also
asked about separations, losses, and their current rela-
tionships with their caregivers. The scoring procedures
for the AAI included ratings of probable childhood
experiences and current state of mind, and assignment
of a participant to one of four classifications reflecting
their state of mind with respect to attachment:
autonomous, dismissing, preoccupied, and unresolved.
Participants in the unresolved group are also placed in
one of the foregoing categories as alternatives.
The AAI has proven to be a highly reliable measure
that shows strong concurrent, predictive, and discrimi-
nant validity (see a review by Hesse, 2008). Interviews
were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim and then
coded by the first and the third authors, who are reliable
and certified coders trained by Main and Hesse (first
author), and Jacobvits and Pederson (third author).
The coders neither interviewed the participants nor
had any information regarding the family. The AAI
transcripts were identified by special code numbers only.
Twenty-two interviews were dual coded, and coders
agreed on 91.1% of the major classifications (j ¼ .70,
p < .001). Disagreements were negotiated through joint
discussion.
Measures: Time 2
Self-report of emotional difficulties. The Mental
Health Inventory (MHI; Veit & Ware, 1983) was used
LEAVING THE PARENTAL NEST 415
to assess adolescents’ emotional difficulties on two
scales: Distress (10 items, e.g., feeling depressed, lonely,
nervous, anxious; a ¼ .88) and Well-Being (10 items,
e.g., ‘‘happy, satisfied, or pleased with personal life’’;
a ¼ .90). The young women were asked to answer each
item using a 1 (never) to 6 (all the time) scale, in reference
to their feelings over the previous 2 weeks. The measure
has shown high internal reliability and good test–retest
reliability, as well as construct and discriminant validity
(Florian & Drory, 1990). Due to the high intercorrela-
tion between the scales (r ¼ .84), we constructed one
general emotional difficulties scale by averaging across
the two scales, after reversing the scores of the Well-
Being scale.
Adjustment to military service. The Student Adap-
tation to College Questionnaire (SACQ; Baker & Siryk,
1984), which was adapted to the military context
(Wintre & Ben-Knaz, 2000) was filled out by the young
women to assess their adjustment to the specific context
of military service. The questionnaire contains 67 state-
ments pertaining to various aspects of adjustment:
general adjustment to military environment (‘‘I know
why I’m in the military and what I want out of it’’;
a ¼ .94), social adjustment (‘‘I have several close social
ties in the military’’; a ¼ .92), personal-emotional adjust-
ment (‘‘Being on my own, taking responsibility for
myself, has not been easy’’; a ¼ .86), and institutional
commitment (‘‘On balance, I would rather be home than
here’’; a ¼ .90). Its validity has been established in many
studies (e.g., Gerdes & Mallinckrodt, 1994), including in
the military context (Wintre & Ben-Knaz, 2000). Due to
the high intercorrelations among the scales (ranging.
64–.87), we constructed one global adjustment to the
military scale by averaging across the four scales.
Social support. The Social Support Questionnaire
(Barrera, 2000) was filled out by the young women. It
contains 10 items referring to tangible, emotional, and
informational support (e.g., an item referring to the
emotional domain: ‘‘Sometimes we want encouragement
and reassurance to help us manage or deal with a specific
situation’’). For each item we first asked the young
women how often during the foregoing month they
wanted to get such support (a ¼ .78). In addition, for each
item they were requested to report how often they turned
to mother, father, and best friend (a ¼ .89, .89, and .85,
respectively) and how satisfied they were with the sup-
port provided (a ¼ .90, .91, and .89, respectively). The
questionnaire has been used extensively in past research,
which has supported its reliability and validity (Barrera,
1986; Finch et al., 1997). Although the correlations
between turning to support and satisfaction with the
support provided by each figure were high (.65–.69),
 416 SCHARF, MAYSELESS, KIVENSON-BARON
we retained these as separate variables because of distinct
expected differences for the different attachment groups.
However, as the correlations between scores related to
mother’s and father’s support were high (.73–.85), we
computed one score for turning to parental support
and another for satisfaction from parental support,
averaging across mothers’ and fathers’ scales.
Parents’ and peers’ report of adjustment. Mothers,
fathers, and peers answered 20 questions drawn from the
adjustment measure (SACQ) and the MHI with regard
to the previous month: young women’s depression=
distress (nine items, e.g., ‘‘My daughter=friend has been
feeling tense or nervous lately’’; a ¼ .92, .94, .90, respec-
tively, for mothers, fathers, and peers), malfunctioning
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(five items, e.g., ‘‘She is finding her role in the army
difficult’’; a ¼ .68, .72, .78, respectively), and social pro-
blems (six items, e.g., ‘‘She has been having difficulty
feeling at ease with other people in the military’’;
a ¼ .72, .74, .72, respectively). Due to the high intercorre-
lations among the scales of each reporter (.52–.77 for
mothers, .62–.82 for fathers, and .63–.66 for peers), we
constructed one global adjustment problems scale for
each reporter by averaging across the three scales. Inter-
correlations among reporters were .67 for mother–
father, .44 for mother–friend, and .26 for father–friend.
The associations between the young women’s reports
on their adjustment to the military and reports by others
were also significant, ranging from .41 to .50.
Measures: Time 3
Self-report of adjustment. The young women filled
the same adjustment questionnaires that they completed
at T2: The MHI (a ¼ .93 for well-being and a ¼ .93 for
distress) and the SACQ to assess military adjustment:
general adjustment to military environment (a ¼ .94),
social adjustment (a ¼ .92), personal-emotional adjust-
ment (a ¼ .86), and institutional commitment (a ¼ .90).
As in the previous assessment, due to the high intercorre-
lation between the MHI scales (r ¼ .84), we constructed
one general emotional difficulties scale by averaging
across the two scales, after reversing the scores on the
Well-Being scale. The intercorrelations among the
SACQ scales ranged between .56 and .86 and, as in
the previous assessment, we constructed one adjustment
to the military scale for Time 3, averaging across the
four scales.
Parents’ and peers’ reports of adjustment. Mothers,
fathers, and peers answered the same adjustment ques-
tionnaires that they answered at T2: young women’s
depression=distress (a ¼ .93, .94, .92, for mothers,
fathers, and friends, respectively), malfunctioning
(a ¼ .79, .83, .73, respectively), and social problems
(a ¼ .77, .81, .78, respectively). The intercorrelations
within each informant were high (.63–.76 for mothers,
.72–.81 for fathers, and .50–.76 for peers), therefore
for data reduction purposes we constructed one global
adjustment problems scale for each informant, aver-
aging across the three scales. Intercorrelations among
reporters were .69 for mother–father, .50 for mother–
friend, and .60 for father–friend. The associations
between young women’s reports on their adjustment to
the military and reports by others were also significant
ranging between .51 and .64.
Data Analyses
We conducted several repeated measures multivariatae
analyses of variance (MANOVAs) across Time 2 and
Time 3 assessments to examine differences between state-
of-mind groups. When significant, these MANOVAs
were followed by a priori contrasts reflecting our hypoth-
eses. We further examined the effects of commuter=
residential status using two-way MANOVAs. Finally,
we examined social support at Time 2 as a mediator of
the association between attachment representations and
adjustment at Time 3 using hierarchical regression
analyses. When time was significant in the repeated
measures MANOVA, we conducted these hierarchical
regression analyses controlling for the respected measure
of adjustment at Time 2.
RESULTS
Descriptive Analyses: Time 1 Attachment
Seventy (58.3%) of the adolescents were classified as
autonomous, 38 (32.5%) as dismissing, and 12 (10%) as
preoccupied with respect to attachment. Due to the small
size of the unresolved group (five adolescents were cate-
gorized as unresolved, with three having preoccupied
subclassification and two an autonomous subclassifica-
tion), we did not analyze this group separately. Instead
we used their alternative subclassification, resulting in
three major state-of-mind groups (see earlier). This
distribution is similar to those in other nonclinical
samples across different cultures (van IJzendoorn &
Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2010).
Adjustment Over Time
The 2 (time)
3 (attachment groups) repeated measures
MANOVA for young women’s reports of general
emotional difficulties (MHI) and adjustment to the
military (SACQ) revealed a significant main effect of
time, F(2, 103) ¼ 7.80, p < .001, g2 ¼ .13, with higher
 LEAVING THE PARENTAL NEST 417

TABLE 1
Young Women’s State of Mind With Respect to Attachment and Their Adaptation to Military Service—Time 2 and Time 3

Autonomous (1)a Preoccupied (2)b Dismissing (3)c

Self-Report M SD M SD M SD F Contrasts

Adjustment to Military—Time 2 6.83 1.36 6.22 1.81 6.87 1.12

Adjustment to Military—Time 3 6.72 1.19 5.46 1.65 6.52 1.42
Main Effect Adjustment 2.75y g2 ¼ .05 2 < 1,3
General Emotional Difficulties (MHI)—Time 2 2.46 .83 2.81 1.24 2.33 .64
General Emotional Difficulties (MHI)—Time 3 2.43 .81 3.03 .87 2.28 .82
Main Effect General Emotional Difficulties (MHI) 2.87y g2 ¼ .05 1,3 < 2
Mothers’ Reportd
Adjustment Problems—Time 2 2.45 1.13 3.83 1.50 2.30 1.46
Adjustment Problems—Time 3 2.36 1.23 4.29 1.96 2.43 1.46
Main Effect Adjustment Problems 6.68 g2 ¼ .14 2 > 1,3
Fathers’ Reporte
Adjustment Problems—Time 2 2.67 1.44 3.85 1.31 2.69 1.37
Adjustment Problems—Time 3 2.56 1.32 3.85 1.58 2.56 1.62
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Main Effect Adjustment Problems 3.45 g2 ¼ .04 2 > 1,3

Peers’ Report f
Adjustment Problems—Time 2 2.23 1.01 3.45 1.53 2.62 1.14
Adjustment Problems—Time 3 2.46 1.08 4.35 1.88 2.73 1.19
Main Effect Adjustment Problems 7.50 g2 ¼ .18 2 > 1,3

Note: MHI ¼ Mental Health Inventory.

a
n ¼ 67.
b
n ¼ 10.
c
n ¼ 30.
d
n ¼ 51, 7, 25.
e
n ¼ 50, 7, 25.
f
n ¼ 48, 7, 19.
y
p < .10.  p < .05.  p < .01.  p < .001.

difficulties in Time 3 than in Time 2. Follow-up analyses
of variance revealed that the time effect was significant
only for the adjustment to the military variable. In
addition, the effect of the young women’s state of mind
with respect to attachment approached significant,
F(2, 104) ¼ 2.88, p < .06, g2 ¼ .05. Follow-up analyses
of variance for general emotional difficulties and adjust-
ment to the military also approached significance, with
planned contrasts revealing that the preoccupied group
was significantly different from the autonomous and
the dismissing groups (p < .05), which did not differ from
one another. The interaction between time and attach-
ment groups was not significant (see Table 1).
The 2 (time)
3 (attachment groups) repeated
measures MANOVA conducted to examine mothers’
reports regarding the young women’s adjustment to
the military revealed a significant main effect of the
young women’s state of mind with respect to attach-
ment, F(2, 80) ¼ 6.68, p < .01, g2 ¼ .14. Time and
Time
Attachment Group interaction were not signifi-
cant. Follow-up planned contrasts demonstrated that
young women with preoccupied state of mind were per-
ceived by their mothers as exhibiting more problems
than their counterparts (p < .05). Similarly, the repeated
measures MANOVA conducted to examine fathers’
reports revealed a significant main effect of state of mind
with respect to attachment, F(2, 79) ¼ 3.45, p < .05,
g2 ¼ .08. Planned contrasts revealed that young women
with preoccupied state of mind were perceived by their
fathers as having more adjustment problems than their
counterparts (p < .05). Time and Time
Attachment
Group interaction were not significant. Finally, the
MANOVA for reports by the young women’s friends
was also significant, F(2, 67) ¼ 7.50, p < .001, g2 ¼ .18.
Planned contrasts showed that young women with pre-
occupied representations were perceived by their friends
as having more adjustment problems than young
women with autonomous representations (p < .05; see
Table 1). Again, time and Time
Attachment Group
interaction were not significant.1
1
The repeated measures analyses included only those participants
who answered both Time 2 and Time 3 questionnaires. Because of
the relatively reduced number of participants in Time 2, these analyses
included a smaller sample than that for Time 3. Therefore we also
conducted separate one-way analyses with attachment groups as the
independent variable to examine Time 3 adjustment by the various
reporters. In all these analyses, except for fathers’ report, which
approached significance, state of mind with respect to attachment
was significant and planned contrasts showed that young women with
preoccupied representations reported more adjustment problems than
young women with autonomous and dismissing representations.
 418 SCHARF, MAYSELESS, KIVENSON-BARON
TABLE 2
Young Women’s State of Mind With Respect to Attachment and Social Support—Time 2
Autonomous (1)a
M SD
Wanting Support 3.83 .59
Turning for Support to Parents 3.61 .85
Satisfaction With Support—From Parents 4.19 .85
Turning for Support—to Friend 3.62 .81
Satisfaction With Support—From Friend 4.11 .84
a
n ¼ 68.
b
n ¼ 10.
c
n ¼ 31.
y
p < .10.  p < .05. 
p < .01.
The MANOVA of social support with regard to par-
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ents and friends was significant, F(5, 102) ¼ 3.20, p < .01,
g2 ¼ .14. Differences were evident with regard to the
amount of support the young women wanted from
others, how much they turned to parents and friend for
support, and how satisfied they were with the support
provided by parents. Satisfaction with friend’s support
only approached significance (see Table 2). Planned con-
trasts revealed that young women with preoccupied
attachment representations reported wanting less sup-
port than their autonomous counterparts and reported
turning less to their parents and friends for support
and being less satisfied with the support received from
parents and from friends than were their autonomous
and dismissing counterparts (all comparisons, p < .05).
Because of the possibility that commuter versus resi-
dential status (C-R) at Time 3 would affect the young
women’s adjustment, and the additional possibility that
their adjustment at Time 2 could affect their C-R status,
several analyses were run where AAI groups and C-R
status served as independent variables and adjustment
and social support indicators as dependent variables.
The C-R status was not associated with any of the
variables we examined, nor was there any significant
interaction with AAI state-of-mind groups.
Examining the Social Support as a Mediator
in Predicting Adjustment
The third hypothesis, related to the role of social
support, was tested by hierarchical regression analyses.
Following Baron and Kenny (1986), we first regressed
the criterion variable (adjustment Time 3) on the predic-
tor variable (preoccupied vs. others) and then regressed
the criterion variable on both the predictor and the
mediator (i.e., social support). This was done for all
adjustment variables at Time 3.
Following Baron and Kenny (1986) suggestions
regarding the assessment of mediation, we examined
whether satisfaction with parents’ and with peers’
Preoccupied (2)b Dismissing (3)c
M SD M SD F Contrasts
3.14 1.08 3.68 .60 5.04 g2 ¼ .09 2<1
2.82 1.24 3.57 .76 3.83 g2 ¼ .07 2 < 1,3
3.32 1.33 4.26 .72 4.89 g2 ¼ .08 2 < 1,3
2.94 1.02 3.63 .81 3.08 g2 ¼ .06 2 < 1,3
3.49 1.35 4.21 .89 2.48y g2 ¼ .05 2 < 1,3
support (the mediator) was associated with the predictor
(adjustment). Satisfaction with parents’ support at Time
2 was significantly associated with all the Time 3 indica-
tors of adjustment that were significantly predicted by
the AAI: the young women’s own reports on general
emotional difficulties(r ¼ .46) and adjustment to the
military (r ¼ .46); mothers’ reports regarding adjustment
problems (r ¼ .33); fathers’ reports regarding adjust-
ment problems (r ¼ –.30); and peers’ reports regarding
adjustment problems (r ¼ .29). Satisfaction with peers’
support was also significantly associated with most Time
3 adjustment scores: the young women’s own reports on
general emotional difficulties (r ¼ .38) and adjustment
to the military (r ¼ .36), fathers’ reports regarding
adjustment problems (r ¼ .22), and mothers’ reports
regarding adjustment problems (r ¼ .25). However,
the analyses with friends’ reports regarding adjustment
problems was not significant. Consequently, following
our hypothesis for the preoccupied group regarding
the mediating role of satisfaction from support, five
hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for
predicting Time 3 adjustment. All of these analyses
included attachment representations in the first step
and the two mediators, satisfaction from parents’ sup-
port and satisfaction from peers’ support in the second
step. This did not include friends’ reports regarding
adjustment problems, where only satisfaction from
parents’ support at T2 could serve as a mediator and
was therefore the only one included in Step 2.
The hierarchical regression analyses predicting the
young women’s reports showed support for mediation.
Specifically, with the inclusion of the mediators (satisfac-
tion of support from parents and from peers) in the
regression models, the b coefficients of the AAI signifi-
cantly decreased or became nonsignificant, and the b
coefficient of at least one of the mediators was significant
(see Table 3). None of the other regression analyses
showed a marked decrease in b coefficients of the AAI
coupled with significant b coefficient of at least one of
the mediators. Application of the Sobel test (MacKinnon,
 LEAVING THE PARENTAL NEST 419

TABLE 3 seen in Table 3, when adjustment to the military at

Hierarchical Regression Analyses—Prediction of Time 3 Adjustment Time 2 was entered in the first step in the hierarchical
With Satisfaction With Social Support as Mediator
regression, AAI was still a significant predictor. This
Step and Predictors – Time 3 b DF df DR2 finding demonstrates that even after accounting for
adjustment problems at Time 2, preoccupied state of
Adjustment to Military (Young
mind still contributed to the deterioration in adjustment
Women’s Report)
First Step 7.50 1,104 .07 of the young women at Time 3. Satisfaction with parents’
Attachment Representations .26 support (z ¼ 2.14, p < .05) also mediated this effect.
Second Step 9.75 2,102 .15
Attachment Representations .13
Satisfaction With Support by .29
DISCUSSION
Parents – Time 2
Satisfaction With Support by .17
Friends – Time 2 The results of our study revealed a fairly consistent
Final Model 9.42 3,102 .22 picture. In general, young women with preoccupied
Adjustment to Military (Young representations demonstrated the lowest levels of adjust-
Women’s Report) Controlling
ment to the military context. Following the young
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for Time 2 Adjustment to

Military women’s transition to the military service (Time 2), as
First step 55.13 1,104 .35 well as in their permanent placements during their
Adjustment to Military – Time 2 .59 military service (Time 3), fathers, mothers, and peers
Second Step 5.54 1,103 .03 of preoccupied young women identified problems in
Adjustment to Military – Time 2 .56
their adjustment. The young women themselves also
Attachment Representations .18
Third Step 4.10 2,101 0.5 reported more adjustment problems and more emotion-
Adjustment to Military – Time 2 .50 al difficulties, although this self-report effect approached
Attachment Representations .12 significance only at Time 2. The fact that these difficult-
Satisfaction With Support by .22 ies were identified by people close to the young women
Parents – Time 2
suggests that it was not only a subjective evaluation by
Satisfaction With Support by .03
Friends – Time 2 the young women but a difficulty discernable and
Final Model 18.77 4,101 .43 observable by others as well. This attests to the consist-
General Emotional Difficulties ency, and perhaps the salience, of the difficulty. The
(Young Women’s Report) fathers’ perspective is especially noteworthy, as fathers
First Step 5.57 1,104 .05
have rarely been included as reporters of the functioning
Attachment Representations .23
Second Step 9.31 2,102 .15 of their adolescent or emerging adult offspring.
Attachment Representations .11 In line with studies that examined the transition to
Satisfaction With Support .23 college (Larose et al., 2005), we too found long-term dif-
From Parents – Time 2 ficulties. The lower functioning and poorer emotional
Satisfaction With Support by .23
adjustment was evident during the first stressful weeks
Friends – Time 2
Final Model 8.36 3,102 .21 of the transition but also several months after the young
women were stationed at their permanent base camps.
Note: Attachment representations were coded 0 ¼ nonpreoccupied, Those with preoccupied representations seem not to
1 ¼ preoccupied.

have adapted well to the new environment even in the
p < .05.  p < .01.  p < .001.
long run. In fact, using their self-reports regarding their
adjustment to the military, the young women’s adjust-
Warsi, & Dwyer, 1995) to examine whether satisfaction ment and adaptation compared with others was poorer
with support at Time 2 extended the influence of the at Time 3 than at Time 2. It might be the case that in the
AAI to the adjustment variables (indirect pathway), context of the general difficulties experienced by others
showed that the Sobel test was significant for satisfaction in the stressful situation at Time 2, the neediness and
with parents’ support in young women’s own reports anxiety of the preoccupied young women might not
regarding adjustment: general emotional difficulties have been so salient, at least for them. However in the
(z ¼ 2.44, p < .01) and adjustment to the military (z ¼ longer run, when the anxiety of others probably sub-
2.54, p < .02). However, the Sobel test was not signifi- sided, that of the preoccupied young women became
cant for satisfaction of support from peers. clearer and more upsetting to them.
Because the effect of time was significant for the Another possibility is related to the quality of
young women’s reports regarding their adjustment to relationships of preoccupied young women with their
the military, we also ran the hierarchical regression parents. Preoccupied adolescents often evince higher
analysis controlling for Time 2 adjustment. As can be levels of conflict with their parents than others do
 420 SCHARF, MAYSELESS, KIVENSON-BARON
(Bernier et al., 2005). Leaving such a home to a new
environment with its challenges and stimulation may
have been a fairly relieving experience for these young
women. With time, however, and as the excitement of
the new experiences declined, their problematic emotion
regulation strategies surfaced and their lower function-
ing compared with others became clearer to them.
In line with this latter interpretation young women
with preoccupied attachment representations reported
wanting less support at Time 2 and turning less to their
parents and their friends for support at Time 2. They
further reported lower levels of satisfaction with parents’
support at Time 2. Despite being perceived by close
others as more stressed, young women with preoccupied
representations opted to turn for support less than
others, and in particular they were less satisfied with
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the support they received from their parents. Hence they
were less able to use this support to help them cope with
the challenges of the new environment. It seems that
although these young women need help, they are less
inclined to ask for it. This could be due to their mistrust
of close others and their repeated past disappointments.
Such reluctance might also reflect their attempt to deny
their dependency needs (Larose & Bernier, 2001). This
mismatch between their inner turmoil (Creasey & Ladd,
2004) and their incompetence in regulating it may make
these young women especially vulnerable, particularly
over time.
In our study we investigated the possible mediating
role of social support. We hypothesized that because
individuals with preoccupied representations are less
able to use the support provided to them by close others
in times of stress in a way that satisfies their needs, they
are less able to adjust well to the transition also in the
long run. Our hypothesis received partial support.
Specifically, satisfaction from parents’ support but not
from that of friends mediated the effect of the young
women’s preoccupied state of mind on their reports of
adjustment to military service at Time 3. This was
apparent even when levels of adjustment to military
service at Time 2 were taken into account. This finding
suggests that satisfaction with social support from par-
ents may be a central factor in the young women’s
adjustment, when assessed from their own perspective,
and that this lower satisfaction from parents’ support
may be at the core of the deterioration in their function-
ing and their lower adjustment at Time 3 compared to
Time 2. This result attests to the significant role of rela-
tionships with parents even during emerging adulthood,
at least in the Israeli culture (Scharf & Mayseless, 2004).
It is also possible that other factors may account for
the inferior adjustment of young women with preoccupied
representations, especially when we take into account that
satisfaction from parents’ support only mediated the
young women’s own reports on their functioning but
not the reports by others. For example, lower capacities
for affect regulation, such as being easily frustrated,
discouraged, saddened, or angry, may result in lower
levels of instrumental and social functioning. A tendency
to ruminate on negative experiences and discount positive
experiences may also lead to a lower capacity to socialize
or to concentrate on the required tasks. Cassidy (2000)
suggested that a history of hyperactivation of
attachment-related stimuli could lead to major difficulty
in focusing on other aspects of the environment that
require considerable attention (Dykas & Cassidy, 2007).
These possible mediating variables should be examined
in future research.
These results correspond well with findings on
the transition from high school to college, where
preoccupation was associated with lower levels of
adjustment—emotionally, socially, and scholastically.
The demonstration of lower levels of adjustment by
individuals with preoccupied attachment representations
in such very different environments exposes their general
vulnerability, which emerges in highly diverse contexts.
By contrast, and contrary to our assumptions, young
women with dismissing attachment representations did
not differ in their adjustment and adaptation from
individuals with secure=autonomous representations or
show lower levels of functioning. Several reasons may
account for this finding.
Dismissing attachment representations may actually
be somewhat adaptive in the context of military service.
Specifically, the deactivating affect regulation character-
istic of individuals with dismissing attachment represen-
tations is moderately suited to the functioning required
in the military context, with its ‘‘distant’’ authoritarian
climate and its focus on instrumental functioning.
Consequently this transition might be smoother for dis-
missing individuals than challenges that require intimacy
and closeness (Scharf et al., 2004). However, in a pre-
vious study, with adolescent boys in military service,
boys with dismissing attachment representations were
found to function worse than those with autonomous
attachment representations (Scharf et al., 2004). If any-
thing, we would expect that in young women, who are
socialized to close relationships (Josselson, 1996), a dis-
missing affect regulation might be less acceptable and
adaptive than in young men. The results, which did not
support this expectation, may be attributable to the rela-
tively less stressful military service of young women than
young men. This less challenging service, in a context
that is compatible with dismissing affect regulation,
may not have been a strong enough stressor for young
women with dismissing representations to expose their
vulnerabilities. Other challenges, such as those requiring
closeness and intimacy, or more persistent stressors, may
expose the predictable covert vulnerabilities of indivi-
duals with dismissing attachment representations.

Because individuals with dismissing attachment
representations tend to paint a neutral or a positive
picture, parents and friends could not have known
about their inner difficulties. In contrast, in previous
studies that examined the college transition, peers’
reports were obtained from friends at college who might
see the individuals’ functioning firsthand (Kobak &
Sceery, 1998; Larose & Bernier, 2001). Had we used
reports by others residing in the military context, such
as military commanders, we might also have been able
to uncover difficulties for individuals with dismissing
attachment representations.
Other researchers had similar difficulties identifying
lower functioning of individuals with dismissing attach-
ment representations, even in the college environment
(Bernier et al., 2004). This may also have to do with
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the type of their affect regulation. Deactivation of
attachment-related aspects may be less hazardous and
problematic to daily functioning, as well as functioning
in different challenging circumstances, than hyperactiva-
tion. For example, distraction (a deactivating approach)
was associated with an easing of dysphoric mood when
dealing with stress (Broderick, 2005), whereas rumi-
nation (especially the brooding subtype)—a hyperacti-
vating approach—proved problematic and presaged
the development of depressive symptoms (Burwell &
Shirk, 2007). Dismissing strategies may be less taxing
in terms of conscious executive functions than the active
preoccupation with attachment-related issues in general,
and particularly in contexts that conform to their affect
regulation tendencies. Future research may need to
investigate such possibilities and test for possible differ-
ences in conditions that challenge the affect regulation
strategies of the two insecure groups.
Implications for Research, Policy, and Practice
Although this sample included 120 participants, only a
small number of preoccupied young women were iden-
tified. This number was sufficient to observe significant
differences, and the discrepancy in number of cases for
the different attachment categories did not lead to
violation of the assumption of equal variances. Being a
nonrisk sample with intact two-parent families might
have contributed to the relatively low rates of insecure
states of mind, which are similar to those in other
nonrisk samples. To extend our understanding of this
group, future research should examine larger groups of
nonrisk samples. With this group of preoccupied young
women the effects were quite clear, yet their size was
small to moderate (between 5% to 18% explained
variance). This might reflect the expected effect for this
high-functioning sample, and is similar to effect sizes
previously reported for the transition to college. Never-
theless, it reflects the fact that a large part of the
LEAVING THE PARENTAL NEST 421
variance in individual differences in adaptation to the
transition from high school to a new context is not
accounted for by individual differences in state of mind
with respect to attachment. Other aspects, such as the
young women’s temperament, sociability, or intellectual
capacities, may be relevant. These possibilities need to
be addressed in future studies along with assessment of
attachment representations.
The present study was conducted in a specific cultural
milieu (i.e., Israeli culture) and a specific environment
(i.e., the military context). Several specific aspects of
these contexts may restrict the ability to generalize the
results. The Israeli collectivist culture, which promotes
involvement, support, and networking among its
members (Salomon & Mayseless, 2003), may also affect
some of the results. In such a context, the neediness and
enmeshment of preoccupied individuals may be less sali-
ent and less disturbing than in individualistic cultures.
This kind of cultural context also invites and promotes
high levels of support from close others as well as from
peers regardless of individual differences. This may
minimize the role of social support as a factor that
discriminates among the state-of-mind groups. In parti-
cular, the less significant role of support from friends
may be related to the general high level of support that
may mask individual differences. Future studies may
need to examine more closely the distinctive role of
friends’ support in such transitions.
This study focused only on women’s adaptation to
the developmental transition from high school to
military service. To address the possibility of gender
differences in adaptation to such transition, future stu-
dies would need to include large samples of participants
representing the two genders.
The results of our study demonstrate, by and large,
that in very diverse contexts (college and military
service) and different cultural milieus (Israel and the
United States), individuals with preoccupied attachment
representations demonstrate higher levels of adjustment
problems than others, and in both contexts these
differences are also observed several months following
the transition. Despite showing only moderate effect
sizes, this result strengthens the general applicability of
attachment predictions to stressful transitions during
emerging adulthood.
Success in coping with these transitions was concep-
tualized as a developmental task and an important
marker of maturity in Western cultures (Arnett &
Galambos, 2003). Our results highlight the importance
of identifying at-risk individuals (even among a
high-functioning population) who might have difficulties
in coping with this normative developmental transition.
The findings from this nonrisk sample underscore the
adjustment problems that might characterize adoles-
cents from less advantageous home environments, in
 422 SCHARF, MAYSELESS, KIVENSON-BARON
particular those where enmeshed and conflictual
relationships with parents prevail. These adolescents
could experience the transition as more taxing than
others and even develop severe adjustment problems
that persist over time. This possibility should be recog-
nized by psychologists, counselors, and social workers
and addressed both in identifying vulnerable adolescents
and providing support to them before and during this
significant transition.
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