Forty-one adolescents ages 15-16, a subset of participants from an ong
oing longitudinal study, were observed and interviewed during a 2-day-
long camp reunion. Early attachment information was available for all
participants. Counselors rated them on several personal and interperso
nal characteristics after the reunion, including social competence. Th
e participants were also interviewed regarding their experience and th
eir thoughts about friendships and romantic interests of themselves an
d other campers. The interviews were coded for the extent to which the
adolescent was willing to discuss people and relationships during the
interview and the degree to which the participants were aware of the
patterns of interaction in the social network around them. Results sho
w that concurrent interest in relationships is a stronger predictor of
social competence for participants with anxious histories, although p
articipants with secure histories are more socially competent overall.
This may indicate that participants with anxious histories must put i
n the effort of being interested in relationships in order to achieve
social competence, whereas the skills of social competence come more e
asily to secure participants, whether or not they are explicitly inter
ested in relationships in the given context.