Connecting parents to their adolescents via an online attachment-based intervention in Italy: The effectiveness of eCONNECT in reducing adolescents’ attachment insecurity and behavioral problems via parents’ affect regulation

CONNECT (Moretti et al., 2009) is an effective attachment-based parenting intervention to reduce adolescents’ behavioral problems and enhance parent-adolescent relationship quality. Whether the online version of CONNECT (i.e., eCONNECT) is similarly effective, however, is unknown. This study collected data on 24 parents (20 mothers, 4 fathers; Mage = 49.33, SD = 5.32) of adolescents (Mage = 13.83 years, SD = 1.76, 45.8% girls) participating in the eCONNECT program in Italy. Parents reported on their emotion regulation strategies and their adolescents’ attachment insecurity (avoidance and anxiety) and externalizing and internalizing symptoms prior to treatment (t1), within two weeks following the final session (t2), and at 2-months follow-up (t3). The aims were to identify changes in adolescents’ attachment insecurity and behavioral problems, and parental emotion regulation over time; and to explore the role of t2 maladaptive (lack of control, suppression) and adaptive (reflection) parental emotion regulation components in reducing t3 adolescents’ attachment avoidance and anxiety and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Data analysis is ongoing. The results will be presented for the first time at IAC2022. In line with previous research (Barone et al., 2021; Moretti et al., 2015), we expect to highlight a significant reduction in adolescents’ attachment insecurity and behavioral problems, and an increase in parental emotion regulation. Also, we expect that specific t2 parental emotion regulation components will decrease t3 attachment insecurity and behavioral problems. The results will add evidence on mechanisms of change underlying the effectiveness of eCONNECT, providing further indications on its application in clinical contexts.