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PubMedDate not supplied

Attachment from infancy to early adulthood in a high-risk sample: continuity, discontinuity, and their correlates.

This study explores the stability of attachment security and representations from infancy to early adulthood in a sample chosen originally for poverty and high risk for poor developmental outcomes. Participants for this study were 57 young adults who are part of an ongoing prospective study of development and adaptation in a high-risk sample. Attachment was assessed during infancy by using the Ainsworth Strange Situation (Ainsworth & Wittig) and at age 19 by using the Berkeley Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main). Possible correlates of continuity and discontinuity in attachment were drawn from assessments of the participants and their mothers over the course of the study. Results provided no evidence for significant continuity between infant and adult attachment in this sample, with many participants transitioning to insecurity. The evidence, however, indicated that there might be lawful discontinuity. Analyses of correlates of continuity and discontinuity in attachment classification from infancy to adulthood indicated that the continuous and discontinuous groups were differentiated on the basis of child maltreatment, maternal depression, and family functioning in early adolescence. These results provide evidence that although attachment has been found to be stable over time in other samples, attachment representations are vulnerable to difficult and chaotic life experiences.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Predictors of parental attachment during early parenthood.

Parental attachment of 121 high-risk women, 61 partners of high-risk women, 182 low-risk women, and 117 partners of low-risk women, was studied at the first week postpartum and 8 months following birth. The tests of theoretical models showed low predictive ability explaining from zero to 21% of the variance in parental attachment in the four groups over the two test periods. Empirical respecified models predicting parent-infant attachment at the first week postpartum and 8 months explained 31% and 29% of the variance among high-risk women, 69% and 45% among high-risk partners, 41% and 53% among low-risk women, and 35% and 38% among low-risk partners. Parental competence was a major predictor of parental attachment over all test periods for all four groups. Early parent-infant contact following birth was never a predictor except at 8 months when, among low-risk women, the opposite effect than that expected was observed; the later women held their infants the higher was their attachment. High-risk women scored significantly higher than low-risk women during the first week postpartum only.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

Breaking the intergenerational cycle of insecure attachment: a review of the effects of attachment-based interventions on maternal sensitivity and infant security.

In this paper the effectiveness of preventive or therapeutic interventions aiming at enhancing parental sensitivity and children's attachment security is addressed. Sixteen pertinent studies have been reviewed, and 12 studies have been included in a quantitative meta-analysis (N = 869). Results show that interventions are more effective in changing parental insensitivity (d = .58) than in changing children's attachment insecurity (d = .17). Longer, more intensive, and therapeutic interventions appear to be less effective than short-term preventive interventions. Interventions which are effective at the behavioral level may not necessarily lead to changes in insecure mental representations of the parents involved. The implications of changes at the behavioral level (sensitivity; attachment) without accompanying changes at the representational level will be discussed.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The effect of promoting intrauterine attachment in primiparas on postdelivery attachment.

Twenty-two women participated in a modified replicate study which examined the effects of prenatal maternal attachment behaviors during first pregnancies. A pretest reflected the degree of maternal-fetal attachment behaviors and attitudes already formed. The women in the experimental group received three interventions aimed at directing the mothers' attentions toward their fetuses. The remaining women received routine prenatal care only. All mothers were observed once in the first few days postpartum to assess maternal attachment behaviors. Data analysis did not substantiate the findings of the earlier study. Factors identified in the added pretest may have accounted for this difference.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Mothers' attachment insecurity and diabetes-related autoantibodies in their infants.

Psychological stress may, via hormonal levels, increase insulin resistance. The aim of this study was to investigate whether mothers' attachment insecurity is associated with the induction or progression of diabetes-related autoimmunity in early childhood. Adult attachment interviews were conducted with 18 mothers of infants who were positive, and 32 mothers of infants who were negative, for glutamic acid decarboxylase, selected from ABIS, a large prospective population-based project. The proportion of children with insecure mothers was larger, but not significantly so, in the autoantibody-positive group than in the negative group. If an association exists between maternal attachment insecurity and diabetes-related autoimmunity during infancy, it does not appear to be strong.

Attitude↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Pair bonding and attachment. A meta-analysis of 63 studies published between 1987 and 1997].

UNLABELLED: Starting with Hazan and Shaver (1987) [8] a new field of research has been opened, couple relationship and attachment, which is attracting increasing interest worldwide. METHOD: 63 primary studies, published between 1987 and 1997, on partner relationship and adult attachment were systematically content analysed with regard to their methodology (samples, designs, methodology of data-collection with regard to attachment status and to couple relationship) and their results (demographic data and sex/gender effects; concordance of attachment classifications within couples; correspondence between one partner's AAI and the other's CRI; associations between attachment and relationship stability/relationship satisfaction/partner related explanations/couple interaction/psychophysiological data/sexuality; relationship specific effects; interactions of attachment, sex/gender and relationship quality). Conceptual and methodological problems with regard to the measurement of adult attachment are critically discussed (the two "camps": AAI-researchers and self-report questionnaire researchers; categorical versus dimensional assessments; global trait or relationship specific construct; conscious or unconscious) and research conclusions derived.

Humans↗

PubMed1978

Trends in the psychoanalytic theory of treatment.

Freud considered understanding, attachment, and integration to be important factors in achieving treatment benefits. Subsequent discussions have not always embraced all three factors. It has been especially difficult to conceptualize the part played by the personal attachment of the patient to the analyst. A new, narrower focus on common, structure-building processes promises to show how all three factors are involved with each other in the treatment process.

Freudian Theory↗

PubMed2007

Frequency and difficulty in caregiving among spouses of individuals with cancer: effects of adult attachment and gender.

How caregivers relate to care recipients can affect how well care is provided and how much burden is experienced in providing it. We conceptualized the relationship of spousal caregivers via adult attachment theory and examined how attachment qualities of caregivers related to level of caregiving involvement and difficulties in caregiving. Gender differences in the associations were also explored. From participants in the ACS Quality of Life Survey for Caregivers, 400 spousal caregivers provided valid data for the study variables. Findings indicated that frequency of various types of care was a joint function of attachment orientation and gender. In contrast, the difficulty that caregivers experienced in providing care related directly to attachment, without moderation by gender. Our findings suggest that ineffective caregivers of cancer patients, who can be identified by their attachment orientation and/or gender, may benefit from educational programs to improve their caregiving skills and to encourage them to utilize resources from other family members or community.

Attitude↗

PubMed2004

Parental alcoholism: relationships to adult attachment in college women and men.

The present study of general and romantic adult attachment among 484 female and male college students compared those who resided with an alcohol-abusing parent prior to age 16 and those who did not. Participants completed the Relationship Style Questionnaire (RSQ; general adult attachment), Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R; romantic attachment), and the Children of Alcoholic Screening Test (CAST; perceived parental alcoholism). Results indicated that 23% of these young adults had lived with an alcohol-abusing parent, and relative to those who had not, they reported more anxiety and greater avoidance in romantic relationships and a more fearful style of general adult attachment. The implications of these findings in the context of the extant literature were discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Adult attachment, anxiety, and pain self-efficacy as predictors of pain intensity and disability.

Pain self-efficacy and anxiety have each been shown to contribute substantially to pain intensity and pain-related disability. Although adult attachment theory has been related separately to chronic pain, anxiety, and self-efficacy, it has not before been investigated with either pain self-efficacy or anxiety in the context of chronic pain. This study investigated the interrelations between these aspects of the chronic pain experience and their relative contributions towards pain intensity and disability. A clinical sample of 152 chronic pain patients participated in this study, completing self-report measures of attachment, self-efficacy, pain intensity, and disability, prior to attending a multidisciplinary pain clinic. Results revealed that fearful and preoccupied (anxious) attachment categories were associated with low pain self-efficacy, while high scores on the attachment dimension of comfort with closeness were linked with high pain self-efficacy, particularly for males. Insecure attachment (whether defined in terms of categories or dimensions) was related to higher levels of anxiety. Pain self-efficacy proved a stronger predictor of pain intensity than did anxiety and was a stronger predictor of disability than pain intensity or anxiety. In addition, comfort with closeness moderated the associations between pain self-efficacy and disability, pain self-efficacy and pain intensity, and anxiety and disability. Together, these findings support the value of adopting an attachment theoretical approach in the context of chronic pain. Treatment considerations and future research directions are considered.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2001

Attachment, parenting, and marital dissatisfaction as predictors of disruptive behavior in preschoolers.

The aim of this study was to examine if an insecure coercive attachment pattern is associated with disruptive behavior in preschoolers, as well as to examine the concurrent and joint effects of attachment pattern, marital dissatisfaction, and ineffective parenting practices on disruptive behavior. Participants included 60 preschoolers and their mothers, recruited from three sites to ensure an adequate range of disruptive behavior. The Preschool Assessment of Attachment (Crittenden, 1992) was used to measure attachment pattern. Results of an analysis of variance revealed that children in the coercively attached dyads scored significantly higher on the measure of disruptive behavior than either the defended or secure children. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the combination of a coercive pattern of attachment, marital dissatisfaction, and permissive parenting practices accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in disruptive behavior in preschoolers. These data suggest that a specific type of insecure attachment, a coercive pattern, is associated with disruptive behavior in preschoolers. Also, the data are consistent with previous findings of associations among marital dissatisfaction, ineffective parenting practices, and disruptive behavior.

Child Behavior Disorders↗

PubMed1996

Attachment representations in mothers, fathers, adolescents, and clinical groups: a meta-analytic search for normative data.

This meta-analysis on 33 studies, including more than 2,000 Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) classifications, presents distributions of AAI classifications in samples of nonclinical fathers and mothers, in adolescents, in samples from different cultures, and in clinical groups. Fathers, adolescents, and participants from different countries show about the same distribution of AAI classifications as nonclinical mothers do. The distribution of nonclinical mothers is as follows: 24% dismissing, 58% autonomous, and 18% preoccupied mothers. About 19% of the nonclinical mothers are unresolved with respect to loss or trauma of other kinds. Mothers from low socioeconomic status show more often dismissing attachment representations and unresolved loss or trauma. Autonomous women and autonomous men are more often married to each other than can be expected by chance, and the same goes for unresolved men and women. Clinical participants show highly deviating distributions of AAI classifications, with a strong overrepresentation of insecure attachment representations, but systematic relations between clinical diagnosis and type of insecurity are absent.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Correlates of attachment at age 3: construct validity of the preschool attachment classification system.

This study examined correlates of attachment at age 3 to further validate preschool separation-reunion measures. Three-year-olds (N = 150) and their mothers participated in a separation-reunion protocol, the Preschool Attachment Classification System (PACS: J. Cassidy & R. S. Marvin with the MacArthur Working Group on Attachment, 1992), and a mother-child interaction session during a laboratory visit. Mothers also completed psychosocial measures and, along with teachers, evaluated child behavior problems. The secure and disorganized groups received, respectively, the highest and lowest interaction scores. Disorganized children showed a higher level of teacher-reported externalizing and internalizing problems than did secure children. Mothers of insecure children reported higher child externalizing (all insecure groups) and internalizing (avoidant group) scores, more personal distress related to emotional bonding (disorganized group), childrearing control (ambivalent group), and child hyperactivity (avoidant group). Results strongly support the validity of the PACS as a measure of attachment in 3-year-olds.

Child Behavior Disorders↗

PubMed2006

When sex is more than just sex: attachment orientations, sexual experience, and relationship quality.

The authors explored the contribution of individual differences in attachment orientations to the experience of sexual intercourse and its association with relationship quality. In Study 1, 500 participants completed self-report scales of attachment orientations and sexual experience. The findings indicated that whereas attachment anxiety was associated with an ambivalent construal of sexual experience, attachment avoidance was associated with more aversive sexual feelings and cognitions. In Study 2, 41 couples reported on their attachment orientations and provided daily diary measures of sexual experiences and relationship interactions for a period of 42 days. Results showed that attachment anxiety amplified the effects of positive and negative sexual experiences on relationship interactions. In contrast, attachment avoidance inhibited the positive relational effect of having sex and the detrimental relational effects of negative sexual interactions. The authors discuss the possibility that attachment orientations are associated with different sex-related strategies and goals within romantic relationships.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

A concept analysis of parent-infant attachment.

A concept analysis, the clarification of a concept, is the first step towards building the foundations of nursing theory, research and practice. As a relevant concept for nurses working with childbearing families, parent-infant attachment is an important part of the body of nursing knowledge. Wilson's method of concept analysis was used to generate antecedents, critical attributes and consequences of parent-infant attachment, highlighting the need to refine measurements of this concept.

Canada↗

PubMed2000

Internal working models of attachment during late childhood and early adolescence: an exploration of stability and change.

This article addresses the question of how the transition from late childhood to early adolescence influences the organization of attachment. The applicability of a measure for attachment representations in early adolescence, the Attachment Interview for Childhood and Adolescence (AICA), was explored. The AICA is based on the Adult Attachment Interview, which was adapted in minor ways to the early adolescent age-group. It was hypothesized that attachment shows considerable stability from late childhood to early adolescence, although some changes might become manifest especially because distancing mechanisms toward the parents may be activated in this period. Also, stability may be different for the various secure and insecure attachment classifications. Lastly, because gender differences become larger during the transition from childhood to adolescence, attachment differences between boys and girls were explored. The same 31 Italian participants (14 girls, 17 boys) completed the AICA at 10 years and at 14 years of age. The AICA attachment classification distributions did not differ from Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) distributions in comparable but older adolescent or young adult samples. The stability of attachment security was considerable: 74% (k = .48). The stability of the dismissing and secure categories was somewhat higher than the stability of the (small) preoccupied and unresolved categories. The participants tended to show more dismissing strategies across the four years, and to report more rejection from their parents. It was suggested that the activation of dismissing defense mechanisms might be necessary to keep parental figures at some distance in order to achieve a more definite personal identity. Finally, no significant gender differences in attachment emerged during the transition from late childhood to early adolescence.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

The Manchester Child Attachment Story Task: relationship with parental AAI, SAT and child behaviour.

The Manchester Attachment Story Task (MCAST) is a new method for eliciting the internal working model (IWM) of attachment representations in children between 5 and 7 years. The instrument is described in the companion paper, 'A New Method of Evaluating Attachment Representations'. This paper reports initial findings on a non-clinical sample comparing the MCAST with concurrent maternal attachment representation, measures of child temperament and behaviour, and concurrent ratings on the Separation Anxiety Test (SAT). Ratings of disorganized attachment on the MCAST show association with Unresolved status on concurrent maternal Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and with independent teacher ratings of classroom behaviour. Child temperament shows an effect on the style of engagement with the interview but not the attachment ratings. Possible alternative explanations for the phenomena seen are discussed, along with potential applications of the instrument and directions for future research.

Anxiety, Separation↗

PubMed2002

Adult attachment and preparing to provide care for older relatives.

A normative developmental task of middle-aged adults is to consider older family members' care needs. Preparing for future caregiving responsibilities may be an important way to prevent excessive stress responses when the caregiver role is taken on. The present study investigates the extent to which attachment style and dimensions of attachment insecurity predict whether middle-generation adults prepare for possible future caregiving responsibilities, feel prepared for these responsibilities and are satisfied with their preparation activities. Middle-generation parents of undergraduate students (N = 141) were sent questionnaires assessing adult attachment style, attachment insecurity, preparation for future care activities, feelings of preparedness, and satisfaction with preparation. Results suggest that secure attachment style and lower attachment insecurity had limited associations with preparation activities, whereas the associations with feelings of preparedness were more robust. Moreover, attachment variables predict feelings of preparedness even after controlling for the influence of actual preparation behaviors. Separate analyses for individuals already providing care vs. those not yet providing care suggest that secure attachment may be more important in predicting preparation activities for individuals not yet providing care.

Adaptation, Psychological↗