The relationship between quality of attachment and behavior problems in preschool in a high-risk sample.
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Anxiety↗
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Attachment, exploration, and separation: illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation.
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Anxiety, Separation↗
The reciprocal relationship between early adolescent attachment and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviour.
The aim of the present study is to examine the reciprocal relationship between parental attachment and adolescent internalizing and externalizing problem behaviour. In this longitudinal study, 288 adolescents (mean age 13.5 years) reported on their attachment relationships with their parents and on problem behaviour three times, with 1-year-intervals between measurement waves. Results show that attachment and both indicators of adolescent problem behaviour remain stable over time, although there were differences in stability between constructs. Reciprocal negative effects were found between attachment and internalizing problem behaviour, and between attachment and externalizing problem behaviour.
Adolescent↗
Cognitive reactivity and vulnerability: empirical evaluation of construct activation and cognitive diatheses in unipolar depression.
Cognitive vulnerability is a central concept in cognitive theories of unipolar depression. This idea suggests that negative cognitive factors emerge during stressful situations, and that this cognitive reactivity is critical for the onset, relapse, and recurrence of depression. The number of empirical investigations that model the diathesis-stress nature of cognitive reactivity has substantially increased within the last decade. This review examines this literature, with a focus on priming and longitudinal designs. Extant research supports the concept of cognitive vulnerability to depression among adults, and support is accruing for the validity of this concept among children. Research that examines direct links between cognitive vulnerability and depression onset, relapse, and recurrence and the attachment origins of cognitive vulnerability is also accruing, although at a slower pace.
Cognition Disorders↗
Adolescents' interactions with a best friend: associations with attachment style.
This study tested whether adolescents' attachment style is related to friendship interactions and perceptions of friendship quality. Attachment pairings were contrasted to examine whether dyad members' security of attachment or their models of others was more related to friendship. A total of 44 pairs of same-sex adolescent friends were videotaped as they engaged in an intimate conversation. Participants also completed self-report measures of attachment style and friendship quality. Compared with dyads with at least one insecure partner, dyads with two secure members interacted in ways that promoted a sense of connection with each other. In addition, they did not use as many clarification statements, suggesting a smooth conversational style between the friends. When friend pairs were examined based on positive or negative models of others (i.e., dismissing and fearful vs secure and preoccupied), there were no differences. The findings suggest that security of attachment, rather than type of insecurity, is most related to intimacy in friendship.
Adolescent↗
Attachment representations and characteristics of friendship relations during adolescence.
Attachment theory proposes that experiences with the primary caregivers are an important basis for the development of close social relationships outside the parent-child relationship. This study examined the association between representations of attachment, as assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), representations of friendship and peer relations, as assessed with an interview in a sample of 43 adolescents. Secure attachment representations were significantly related to interview-based assessments of close friendships, friendship concept, integration in a peer group, and emotion regulation within close friendships. Attachment experiences reported during the AAI, their integration, and their coherency were related to friendship quality and friendship concept. Results show the close associations between attachment representations and friendship relationships during adolescence. The associations between peer relations and attachment representations differed depending on whether an interview approach or a questionnaire approach was used.
Adolescent↗
Assessment of attachment in differentially reared infant monkeys (Macaca radiata): response to separation and a novel environment.
To assess the developmental consequences of rearing environments for 12 infant bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata), infants from 2 environments, either low foraging demand (LFD) or variable foraging demand (VFD) for their mothers, were observed under 2 test conditions after the completion of the differential rearing treatment. One of the test conditions involved introduction of the rearing cohorts to a novel room; this was done in two series of four 1-hr sessions, a series before and a series after completion of the 2nd test condition. The 2nd test condition involved a 20.5-hr removal of each mother from the rearing cohort; this was repeated once a week for 3 weeks. The results of the novel room tests effectively differentiated rearing treatments in this study and suggested treatment group differences in attachment security. In contrast, the maternal separations failed to differentiate rearing treatments.
Animals↗
Establishment of a preference by the newborn lamb for its mother: the role of opioids.
Mother-young relationships in sheep are characterized by individual recognition and a rapidly developing exclusive bond. The authors examined the role of opioids in establishment of the lamb's preference for its mother. Newborn lambs received the opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone (0.0, 1.5, or 3.0 mg/kg i.p.), and lambs were tested at 24 hr and 48 hr of age. At 24 hr, controls spent significantly more time near the mother than near an alien ewe; no significant difference was obtained for the naltrexone-treated groups. The effect of naltrexone persisted at 48 hr. No other significant behavioral difference was observed. Results support the hypothesis that opioids mediate the establishment of mother preference and the view that positive affect associated with social attachment and maternal care may be modulated by opioids.
Animals↗
Attachment and the representation of intimate relationships in adulthood.
Community college students in the United States (151 men, 217 women) described their current or most recent intimate relationship on questionnaires derived from the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (Benjamin & Friedrich, 1991). Attachment organization was assessed by categories (secure, avoidant, or ambivalent) and by dimensions (Attachment Security x Level of Activation). Respondents with avoidant or ambivalent attachment described more hostility in their relationships than secure participants did. Avoidant participants described themselves as less submissive. Respondents with low attachment security and high attachment activation were especially likely to describe more hostile patterns of interaction. Those with greater attachment security also described more interdependence in the relationship. No interaction effects of attachment with amount of experience in close relationships were found.
Adolescent↗
We all need our tails to lean on. An analysis of a latency-age girl with a gender identity disorder.
This essay reviews current theories of gender identity disorders, with particular reference to the etiology of the problem in girls. The analysis of a latency-age girl with a serious cross-gender identity disorder is presented in detail. The case material illustrates the complex relationships among this girl's fantasies about her adoption, her ambivalent attachments to her adoptive parents and brother, her pet rats, and about herself as a boy. In the analytic work, the real and transferential connections to the analysts were explored, which enabled the patient to reenact the traumatic derailments in her early attachments, to begin to mourn her losses, and to move to a more feminine identification.
Adoption↗
Leaving home for college: a potentially stressful event for adolescents with preoccupied attachment patterns.
Sixty-two high school students, 28 of which were planning on leaving home to attend college, completed the Adult Attachment Interview and self-report questionnaires pertaining to their relationship with their parents. Compared to their autonomous counterparts, preoccupied students who had left home reported having a more negative relationship with each parent and experiencing more family-related stress. However, they reported having more contact with each parent. In contrast, no attachment differences with regards to perceptions of the parent-adolescent relationship were found among students who lived at home while in college. This suggests that individual differences related to attachment state of mind in adolescence may be magnified by a stressful life experience.
Adolescent↗
Abuse and violence in intimate adult relationships: new perspectives from attachment theory.
Previous attachment writing about violence between intimate adult partners has implicated the role of insecure attachment. This paper proposes that insecure attachment is not sufficient to explain intimate partner violence. Instead, it is suggested that recent evidence leads to the conclusion that such violent behavior is best explained in terms of attachment disorganization, a more profound form of relational insecurity. We discuss the contributions of this perspective to intervention.
Adult↗
Alexithymia and attachment representation in idiopathic spasmodic torticollis.
We investigated alexithymia and the mental representation of attachment in idiopathic spasmodic torticollis (IST). It was hypothesized a) that alexithymia in IST is more prevalent than in a nonclinical control group and b) that significant correlations emerge between alexithymia and a dismissing attachment representation. Twenty patients with IST and 20 healthy controls matched for age and sex were administered the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Attachment was classified using the Attachment Interview Q-sort. IST patients scored significantly higher on the measure of alexithymia than subjects in the comparison group. In IST a dismissing attachment representation was significantly more frequent than in the control group. Across the total sample, externally oriented thinking correlated positively with dismissing attachment, and both externally oriented thinking and difficulty communicating feelings (two of the three subscales of the TAS-20) correlated inversely with secure attachment. Alexithymia is more prevalent in IST than in normals. As was hypothesized, alexithymia in adults is significantly interrelated with the mental representation of attachment.
Adult↗
Infant-mother attachment among the Dogon of Mali.
This study of mothers and infants from the Dogon ethnic group of Mali, West Africa examined three attachment hypotheses: (1) that infant attachment security is linked to the quality of mother-infant communication, (2) that mothers of secure infants respond more sensitively to their infants than do mothers of insecure infants, and (3) that infant disorganization is linked to maternal frightened or frightening behaviors. Participants were 27 mother-infant pairs from a rural town and 15 mother-infant pairs from two agrarian villages; infants ranged in age from 10 to 12.5 months at the first assessment. The distribution of the Strange Situation classifications was 67% secure, 0% avoidant, 8% resistant, and 25% disorganized. Infant attachment security was significantly related to the quality of mother-infant communication as observed in a well-infant exam. The correlation between infant attachment security ratings and maternal sensitivity (assessed in the home) was modest and approached significance. Mothers of disorganized infants had significantly higher ratings of frightened or frightening behaviors. Maternal sensitivity predicted little of the variance in infant security; however, the addition of the frightened/frightening variable in the regression equation tripled the explained variance. The findings are discussed in light of Dogon childrearing practices and key tenets of attachment theory.
Adult↗
Maternal sensitivity and patterns of infant-mother attachment.
48 12-month-old infants and their mothers were videotaped in the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Each infant-mother dyad was also filmed for 3 min while the mother completed a questionnaire and the infant was left to explore the room devoid of toys, a situation in which maternal compliance with the request to complete the questionnaire was expected to compete with attentional demands made on her by the infant. Infant-mother attachment was classified as secure, anxious-avoidant, or anxious-resistant on the basis of behavior in the Strange Situation. Assessment of maternal sensitivity during the questionnaire situation included behaviors classified as reflecting appropriate, insufficient, and intrusive responses to infant cues. 3 summary measures of maternal sensitivity, each of which distinguished between mothers of securely and anxiously attached infants in 1-way analysis of variance tests, were entered into a discriminant function analysis. Using the discriminant function coefficients for combining the maternal sensitivity scores, 94% of the infants were correctly classified as securely or anxiously attached on the basis of their mothers' behavior in the questionnaire situation.
Cues↗
Vulnerability or resilience to intergenerational sexual abuse: the role of maternal factors.
This study examined vulnerability or resilience to intergenerational sexual abuse. The sample included 196 African American mothers and their children of which 96 were sexually abused and 100 had no reported incidents of abuse. Four groups were formed based on maternal report of a history of childhood sexual abuse and the child's abuse status: (a) sexually abused mothers of children who were not sexually abused, (b) sexually abused mothers whose child was sexually abused, (c) mothers with no history of sexual abuse whose children had no history of sexual abuse, and (d) mothers with no history of sexual abuse who had a sexually abused child. The findings indicate that mothers who break the cycle of abuse were functioning as well as the nonsexually abused mothers in the study. Furthermore, sexually abused mothers with abused children evidenced significantly more disturbed functioning than the other three groups of mothers, particularly in their attachment relationships.
Adult↗
Stability and change of attachment at 14, 24, and 58 months of age: behavior, representation, and life events.
Stability and change of attachment was examined longitudinally in a group of 48 children at 14, 24, and 58 months of age. Whereas attachment classifications showed stability between 14 and 24 months, lack of stability was the case between either 14 or 24 months and 58 months. Mothers of children who did not exhibit stability of attachment reported more negative and less positive life events. No correspondence was found between attachment classification at 14 or 24 months and mental representations at 58 months. However there was agreement between representational and behavioral measures of attachment at 58 months, where mental representations of attachment appeared to mirror and complement behavioral classification of the attachment relationship with the mother. Evidence for continuity of attachment from infancy to childhood internal representations was found only in a subgroup of children who showed stability of secure attachment between infancy and 58 months of age. These children exhibited greater Emotional Openness in the SAT at 4.5 years. Findings are discussed in terms of different positions in attachment theory and research regarding the stability and change of attachment relationships.
Anxiety, Separation↗
Assessing secure base behavior in adulthood: development of a measure, links to adult attachment representations, and relations to couples' communication and reports of relationships.
A focus on the secure base phenomenon creates a framework for exploring the function of the attachment system in adulthood. Engaged couples (N = 157) were videotaped in a problem-solving interaction and assessed using the Secure Base Scoring System (SBSS), a system based on Ainsworth's analyses of infant-parent secure base use and support. Study 1 showed behavior was significantly related to representations assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (M. Main & R. Goldwyn, 1994). In Study 2, the interactions were independently scored with the Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (RMICS; R. E. Heyman & D. Vivian, 1993), a communication-based system. The SBSS predicted relationship variables beyond the RMICS, especially for women. Results indicate that the secure base phenomenon provides a cogent perspective on adult attachment behavior.
Adult↗