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PubMed2002

Attachment representations in 6-year-olds: related longitudinally to the quality of attachment in infancy and mothers' attachment representations.

A new method to assess attachment representations in children by applying a story completion procedure in doll play (SCPDP) is presented. Transmission and continuity of attachment were tested in 28 German families by using the Strange Situation procedure (SS) with the mother and her infant, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) with the mother when the child is 5 years old, and the attachment representations (SCPDP) of the 6-year-olds. Relying on the twofold distinction (secure/insecure), results revealed a significant continuity of attachment from 1 to 6 years of age, and a correspondence between maternal AAI and child's attachment quality in SS, as well as a correspondence between maternal AAI and the 6-year-olds' attachment representations. Using configural frequency analysis, we found continuity in patterns of security and insecurity when looking across the measures of infant and pre-school attachment and maternal adult attachment. Processes underlying the high match of mothers' and children's attachment representations are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Absence of Attachment Representations (AAR) in the adult years: the emergence of a new AAI classification in catastrophically traumatized Holocaust child survivors.

In the present study we present a new and rare type of discourse in the AAI which is characterized by absence of attachment representations during adulthood. Forty-eight women, who as children lost both parents as a result of the Holocaust, were administered the AAI in their late adulthood. Two cases in this sample could not be assigned to any of the traditional AAI classification system (F, Ds, E, CC), mainly because they were unable to associate themselves with any significant attachment figure throughout their life. We raise the possibility that some devastating experiences during childhood might cause an unrecoverable crash in already established patterns of attachment to an extent that adulthood will be characterized by state of mind that bears no emotional tie to even a single attachment figure. We illustrate this state of mind by presenting the life history as well as quotations from the AAI of two women, and we discuss the possibility of a new AAI classification, namely Absence of Attachment Representations--AAR. The possible effects of the AAR classification on parental caregiving behaviors are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed2004

Continuity, discontinuity, and coherence in attachment from infancy to late adolescence: sequelae of organization and disorganization.

This longitudinal study examines continuity and discontinuity of attachment quality from infancy to late adolescence in a sample of 125 participants considered at birth to be at high-risk due to poverty. Strange Situations were conducted at 12 and 18 months; Adult Attachment Interviews were administered at age 19. Child and maternal characteristics and experiences and observational assessments of the families were explored as correlates of continuity and discontinuity in attachment. Contrary to findings of continuity from low-risk samples, analyses demonstrated no significant overall continuity in attachment security. Disorganized infants were significantly more likely than organized infants to be insecure or unresolved in late adolescence. Additionally, infant disorganization predicted unresolved abuse scores on the AAI for those participants who experienced childhood abuse. Significant correlates of continuity and change spanned a variety of age periods and included infant temperament, maternal life stress, family functioning at pre-adolescence, child maltreatment and features of the home environment. Findings are discussed as supporting the coherence of attachment over time.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Attachment, self-worth, and peer-group functioning in middle childhood.

We evaluated links between peer-group functioning and indicators of attachment security in relation to both mother and father in middle childhood, among 73 10-year-olds (37 girls). Children's perceptions of security with both parents, coping styles with mother, and self-worth were assessed. Classmates, teachers, and mothers evaluated the participants' peer-related behavioral characteristics. Children's perceptions of security to both parents were related to others' appraisals of their social competence; perceptions of security to father were related to lower aggression. We did not find child gender effects, but children had higher security scores in relation to mother than to father. Self-worth perceptions mediated the relation between attachment and social competence.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The neonatal nurse's role in parental attachment in the NICU.

Parent/infant attachment or bonding is a naturally occurring event that begins during the prenatal period. The feelings of attachment strengthen when fetal movement is felt and grow stronger with parent/infant interaction after birth. Parents who have a newborn requiring intensive care can have a disruption or delay in this attachment process. Neonatal nurses are in a unique position to assess this process and intervene to promote attachment behaviors.

Aftercare↗
PubMed1998

Attachment styles and personality disorders: their connections to each other and to parental divorce, parental death, and perceptions of parental caregiving.

Attachment theory was explored as a means of understanding the origins of personality disorders. We investigated whether adult attachment styles and personality disorders share a common underlying structure, and how both kinds of variables relate to family background factors, including parental death, parental divorce, and current representations of childhood relationships with parents. A nonclinical group of 1407 individuals, mostly adolescents and young adults, were surveyed about their attachment styles, parental marital status, parental mortality status, perceptions of treatment by parents in childhood, and 13 personality disorders. Results indicated substantial overlap between attachment and personality-disorder measures. Two of the personality-disorder dimensions are related to the two dimensions of the attachment space; that is, there is a two-dimensional space in which both the attachment patterns and most of the personality disorders can be arrayed. The one personality-disorder factor that is unrelated to attachment appears akin to psychopathy. Both personality disorders and attachment styles were associated with family-of-origin variables. Results are discussed in terms of encouraging further research to test the idea that insecure attachment and most of the personality disorders share similar developmental antecedents.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral inhibition, heart period, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia: an attachment perspective.

This study shows that relations between behavioral inhibition and cardiac activity may be clarified by identifying attachment status, whereas relations between security of attachment and cardiac activity may be clarified by identifying inhibition status. Assessments at 4.5 years (N = 126) included heart period (HP), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), behavioral inhibition (BI), and security of attachment. There was no main effect of BI status (Low, Medium, High) on either HP or RSA. Instead, it was only the Secure children who showed the predicted relation between low BI and high HP or RSA, with the Low BI-Secure group having significantly higher HP than either the High BI-Secure or the Low BI-Insecure groups. Turning to attachment, both HP and RSA increased significantly from an assessment during separation from mother to an assessment 3 min after reunion. The only subgroups showing a significant increase in HP, however, were those with both secure attachment and an absence of high BI.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Separation anxiety in parents of adolescents: theoretical significance and scale development.

Parents of adolescents commonly face separation-related issues associated with children's increasing independence and imminent leave-taking. The aims of this investigation were (1) to develop a reliable and valid measure of parental emotions associated with separation and (2) to validate the measure by relating it to other attributes (attachment relationship quality, parent-child communication, and parent-adolescent differentiation) assessed in mothers, fathers, and their adolescents. The newly constructed, 35-item Parents of Adolescents Separation Anxiety Scale (PASAS) was administered to 686 parents of teenagers in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 or college-bound freshmen and seniors. Factor analyses supported formation of two subscales: Anxiety about Adolescent Distancing (AAD) and Comfort with Secure Base Role (CSBR); both subscales showed distinctive patterns of change with child age. Parents' reports indicated that healthy adult attachment styles were associated with lower AAD and higher CSBR scores; children of parents who had higher AAD scores reported lower quality of attachment to both mothers and fathers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

The relative effects of maternal and child problems on the quality of attachment: a meta-analysis of attachment in clinical samples.

In this meta-analysis of 34 clinical studies on attachment the hypothesis is tested that maternal problems such as mental illness lead to more deviating attachment classification distributions than child problems such as deafness. A correspondence analysis on 21 North American studies with normal subjects produced a baseline against which the clinical samples could be evaluated. Separate analyses were carried out on studies containing the traditional A, B, C classifications and on studies that also included the recently discovered D or A/C category. Results show that groups with a primary identification of maternal problems show attachment classification distributions highly divergent from the normal distributions, whereas groups with a primary identification of child problems show distributions that are similar to the distributions of normal samples. The introduction of the D or A/C classifications (about 15% in normal samples) reveals an overrepresentation of D or A/C in the child problem groups, but the resulting distribution still is much closer to the normal distributions compared to the samples with maternal problems. In clinical samples, the mother appears to play a more important role than the child in shaping the quality of the infant-mother attachment relationship.

Child Behavior Disorders↗
PubMed1993

Biobehavioral organization in securely and insecurely attached infants.

Attachment research has shown the emergence of individual differences in the security of infant-mother attachment during the first year of life as well as their importance for later social-emotional development. A biobehavioral perspective may help settle disagreements about the validity and interpretation of 12-month-old infants' different behavioral patterns of attachment assessed by Ainsworth's Strange Situation. It was shown that, despite less overt distress in insecure-avoidant infants after short separations from the mother, overall cardiac measures indicate arousal patterns similar to the secure infants during separation. However, differences in cardiac response emerged with regard to object versus person orientation during reunion. Additionally, findings of increased cortisol in both insecure-avoidant and disorganized infants support the theoretical interpretation that these infants, in contrast to secure infants, lack an appropriate coping strategy.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

Attachment, anxiety, and loss of a husband.

Using a conceptual framework of attachment, an interview study of 81 women whose spouses had died indicated that anxiety and fear are prevalent throughout the first three years of bereavement. In addition, those women identified as anxiously attached in their relationships reported a more distressful adjustment. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1997

Attachment and psychoanalysis.

This paper examines the relationship between certain aspects of attachment theory and psychoanalytic theories and practice. The specific issues discussed include the relative roles of 'real' external events 'versus' an individual's constitution and temperament in shaping an individual's internal working model; the relationship between attachment and sexuality; conceptions of factors that maintain maladaptive behaviour, including the intergenerational transmission of maladaptive patterns; assessment of attachment status as determined by responses to the Adult Attachment Interview; an understanding of the therapeutic situation in terms of the attachment concepts of secure base and exploration; the relative roles of secure base and exploration in dealing with different kinds of pathology; and finally, the degree to which attachment research and theory serves as a model for the meaningful study of complex human behaviour in a relatively rigorous manner.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Healing factors of psychiatry in light of attachment theory.

Bowlby's attachment theory is an evolutionary biological model of human affectional bonding. Secure attachment to a parental figure has survival value and is necessary for normal development of the young. When secure attachment was lacking during formative years, the adult remains anxious about the availability of attachment figures in time of need. Persons seeking psychotherapy usually have such anxious attachment. Frank has pointed out features common to all psychotherapies. These common features describe a relationship which has the characteristics of a secure attachment. Strupp notes that specific technical skills are necessary for the success of psychotherapy. The therapist directs these techniques toward changing the patient's anxious attachment to a secure one. In the context of a secure attachment, the patient is able to change his attitudes, try new behaviors, and find fresh meaning in his world.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Attachment and cancer: a conceptual integration.

Cancer traditionally has been explained by the biomedical model; however, it is limited in comprehensively accounting for all factors in this disease. Recently, it has been suggested that a broader theoretical framework that includes psychosocial components in cancer is needed to complement the traditional approach. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to explore the utility of attachment theory as a biopsychosocial model of both development and health. Attachment, a developmental theory, explains how repeated interactions between caregiver and child in the early years establish lifelong psychosocial, physiological, affective, and cognitive patterns as well as enduring patterns of stress response to threat or illness. Despite attachment theory's biopsychosocial foundation, the application of attachment security as a factor in physical health and psychosomatic medicine is relatively recent. The current work reviews attachment theory and psychosocial literature with regard to cancer and follows with a novel attempt to conceptually integrate both bodies of literature. A concluding integrative model of attachment theory and the type C behavior pattern is provided to illustrate potential links and integrative processes that may lead to disease resilience or vulnerability.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

[A study of the effects of behavior contact in early mother-infant attachment].

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study was to establish a nursing intervention data base to improve maternal attachment. METHOD: The first group of mothers(control group), experienced their first physical contact with their infants after being discharged from the hospital. The second group(experimental group) practiced early initial mother-infant postpartum contact known as the most sensitive period for founding maternal-infancy attachment. The subjects of this study gave birth to normal infants at M hospital from Aug.25 to Sept.30, 2004. During the same time, data was collected through direct observation, with instruments designed by Cropley et al., to assess the behaviors of normal attachment. The statistical methods for data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test with an SPSS program. RESULT: The group practicing initial mother-infant contact, showed a higher degree of physical and functional bonding than the group experiencing the first contact after discharge from the hospital (control group)(p<.01). The group practicing initial mother-infant contact, showed higher degrees of bonding attachment assessments than the group experiencing their first initial contact after their discharge from the hospital(p<.01). CONCLUSION: The group practicing early mother-infant contact, showed more maternal-infant interaction than the group experiencing their initial contact after their discharge from the hospital. These results show that maternal attachment behavior increases according with an early initial mother-infant contact.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

[Effect of gentle nursing care of premature infants on bonding and emotional development of the child. Follow-up of premature infants in Dr. Marina Marcovich's study].

The study was set out to investigate whether the Marcovich model of a "soft treatment" of premature infants encourages the parent-infant-relationship to such an extent that, at school age, the Marcovich-children would be found to differ significantly from children treated with standard care with regard to the quality of their attachment and the prevalence of emotional and behavioural disorders. The Marcovich-children of the present sample had been discharged from hospital much earlier than the standard group, they were less frequently treated with artificial respiration, infant-parent body contact was encouraged significantly earlier, and, although they were less frequently breast-fed, those who were breast-fed were allowed to do so at a much earlier stage. The Marcovich-children were found to display higher social competence, more emotional openness, more emotional coherence, less dismissal of attachment and less preoccupied anger. The two samples did not differ with regard to their total attachment quality as well as their emotional and behavioural problems. The fact that no significant differences could be established with regard to the quality of the attachment suggests that the complex life-saving attachment system is not irreversibly affected by the early separation and distress and that the months and years after the hospital stay have the power to make up with any experienced trauma. It seems, however, that special aspects of the attachment system, such as the communication and interaction, are positively encouraged and enhanced by the soft treatment of the premature infant, which leads to greater emotional openness and social competence, as well as less preoccupied anger against the attachment figures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Dissociative experiences and anger proneness in late adolescent females with different attachment styles.

The study examined the relationships among dissociative experiences, anger proneness, and attachment styles in late adolescent females. One hundred sixty-two college students (mean age = 17.5 years) were assessed using the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ), a self-report tool for assessing attachment styles (avoidant, secure, and ambivalent-resistant) in close relationships of youths and adults. Significant correlations were obtained between DES scores (total and factorial) and STAXI scores (State Anger, Trait Anger, Anger/In, and Anger/Expression), confirming in a nonclinical sample the connection between anger proneness and dissociation described in patients with dissociative disorders. Insecure females, particularly ambivalent ones, scored higher on the DES, supporting van der Kolk's hypothesis of an inverse relationship between secure attachment and dissociative tendency. Moreover, insecurely attached females showed more anger proneness, with some differences between ambivalent and avoidant types. Further research should be conducted to examine these relationships in males, as well as to clarify the role of insecure attachment in anger management and the recourse to dissociation in late adolescence as a protective response to trauma and emotional distress.

Adolescent↗