Putting eggs in more than one basket: a new look at developmental processes of attachment in adolescence.

“In some ways we know a great deal about attachment in adolescence, yet in other respects we know disconcertingly little. . . . Attempts to assess attachment in adolescence inevitably must confront the questions of what attachment becomes and what function it serves during this stage of the lifespan” (Allen & Land, 1999, p. 331). This concluding remark of the intgrative chapter on attachment in adolescence in the Handbook of Attachment is the opening point of this chapter and volume. In recent years the number of empirical studies examining attachment in adolescence has grown. Most of the research has focused on individual differences in attachment security. This chapter seeks to extend previous research and theorizing on attachment in adolescence by elaborating on what might be considered the normative, universal developmental processes of the behavioral system of attachment during adolescence. To this end we use the notion of developmental tasks, which have been defined as socially, psychologically, and biologically determined activities or goals that individuals are expected to accomplish at certain ages or stages of life. The content and timing of such tasks are expected to be a function of biological capabilities and socially constructed norms and expectations (Schulenberg, Bryant, & O’Malley, 2004). We discuss four developmental tasks that adolescents