Mentalization and Emotion Regulation in Adolescent Attachment: A Scoping Review

Background: Adolescence is a critical developmental period marked by reorganization of attachment relationships, heightened emotional reactivity, and ongoing maturation of reflective and regulatory capacities. Within this context, mentalization and emotion regulation have emerged as key concurrent associations linking attachment security to both vulnerability and resilience. This scoping review examined how mentalization and emotion regulation are conceptualized and operationalized in adolescent attachment research and synthesized empirical evidence on their interaction across clinical and non-clinical samples. Methods: Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, four electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria, encompassing community, high-risk, and clinical samples and employing cross-sectional, psychometric, and prospective designs. Results: Across studies, attachment security was consistently associated with more adaptive emotion regulation and higher mentalization capacities, whereas emotion regulation difficulties were linked to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Mentalization was frequently reported as a mediator or correlate in the association between attachment security and emotional outcomes, while epistemic trust emerged as a promising interpersonal concurrent association with adaptive functioning. Conclusions: Findings highlight differentiated patterns of vulnerability and resilience and underscore the need for theoretically integrated, multimethod assessment frameworks to guide future research and prevention efforts in adolescence.