Incarcerated adolescents' distress and suicidality in relation to parental bonding styles

This study examines the relationships between the bonding style of an incarcerated adolescent with parents and his/her current feelings of self-esteem, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts and attempts. It also investigates differences between bonding to mother and bonding to father. Some 296 incarcerated adolescents were interviewed using the Parental Bonding Instrument. Significant relationships were found between youths' self-esteem, hoplessness, and suicidal behavior and their bonding style. Youths whose parent(s) had a parental bonding style of affectionless control reported the greatest distress, and youths whose parent(s) had an optimal bonding style reported the least distress. Differences were found between bonding styles with the mother and with the father. Attachment theory may be useful in targeting incarcerated youths who have affectionless control bonding with parent(s) for special interventions since these youths are most at risk for psychosocial problems.