SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Object Attachment”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,171 records · Page 65Linked to original sources

PubMed1988

Further exploration of maternal and paternal fetal attachment.

Fetal attachment of four groups of expectant parents were studied during the 24th to 34th weeks of pregnancy: 153 high-risk women hospitalized for a complication, 75 high-risk women's mates, 218 low-risk women, and 147 low-risk women's mates. No differences in fetal attachment scores were observed between high- or low-risk women or their mates; women scored significantly higher than their mates. Very little variance (7% to 14%) in fetal attachment was explained by the test of causal models except for high-risk women's mates for whom 31% of the variance was explained.

Anxiety↗

PubMed2005

Attachment, behavioral inhibition, and anxiety in preschool children.

This study examined the association between insecure attachment, behavioral inhibition, and anxiety in an at risk sample of preschool children. The relationship between maternal anxiety and child anxiety was also assessed. Participants were 104 children aged 3-4 years who were assessed for behavioral inhibition and mother-child attachment (using the Strange Situation procedure). DSM-IV criteria were used to assess childhood anxiety disorders. Insecure attachment and behavioral inhibition were both independently associated with child anxiety, even after controlling for the effect of maternal anxiety. Maternal anxiety was also associated with child anxiety. This study identified both constitutional and environmental factors associated with the expression of anxiety in young children. Furthermore, the highest levels of anxiety were shown by children who were behaviorally inhibited and insecurely attached and whose mothers were also anxious.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Adult attachment style. I: Its relationship to clinical depression.

BACKGROUND: Although there are an increasing number of studies showing an association of adult attachment style to depressive disorder, such studies have rarely utilised epidemiological approaches with large community-based series and have relied heavily on brief self-report measurement of both attachment style and symptoms. The result is a wide inconsistency in the type of insecure style shown to relate to disorder. The present study examined adult attachment style in a high-risk community sample of women in relation to clinical depression. It utilised an interview measure of adult attachment which allowed for an assessment of both type of attachment style and the degree of insecurity of attachment. A companion paper examines its relationship with other depressive-vulnerability (Bifulco et al. 2002). METHOD: Two hundred and twenty-two high-risk and 80 comparison women were selected from questionnaire screenings of London GP patient lists and intensively interviewed. A global scale of attachment style based on supportive relationships (with partner and very close others) together with attitudes to support-seeking, derived the four styles paralleling those from self-report attachment assessments (Secure, Enmeshed, Fearful, Avoidant). In order to additionally reflect hostility in the scheme, the Avoidant category was subdivided into 'Angry-dismissive' and 'Withdrawn'. The degree to which attitudes and behaviour within such styles were dysfunctional ('non-standard') was also assessed. Attachment style was examined in relation to clinical depression in a 12-month period. For a third of the series this was examined prospectively to new onset of disorder. RESULTS: The presence of any insecure style was significantly related to 12-month depression. However, when controls were made for depressive symptomatology at interview, only the 'non-standard' levels of Enmeshed, Fearful or Angry-dismissive styles related to disorder. Withdrawn-avoidance was not significantly related to disorder. CONCLUSION: The relationship of attachment style to clinical depression is increased by differentiating the degree of insecurity of style and differentiating hostile and non-hostile avoidance.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Attachment style in patients with unexplained physical complaints.

BACKGROUND: Patients who present with physical symptoms that lack an organic explanation are common, difficult to help and poorly understood. Their medical help-seeking is a form of care-eliciting behaviour and, as such, may be understandable in terms of attachment style. Adult attachment style influences functioning in relationships, and may affect help-seeking behaviour from professional carers such as the family doctor. METHOD: A consecutive sample of 2,042 primary-care attenders completed questionnaires on: the reason for consultation, attribution of symptoms, psychiatric distress (GHQ), somatic distress (BSI), and self-reported adult attachment style (ASQ). Their doctors rated presentations into explained physical, unexplained physical, or psychological. RESULTS: There is a powerful relationship between type of presentation and adult attachment style. Both abnormal attachment and level of psychiatric distress increased significantly from the explained physical group, through the unexplained physical group to the group who presented psychologically. Logistic regression models determined three explanatory variables that made significant independent contributions to presentation type: psychiatric distress, attachment style and symptom attribution. CONCLUSION: Presentation to the doctor with unexplained physical symptoms is associated with both higher levels of psychiatric symptoms and abnormal attachment style when compared to presentations with organic physical symptoms. Patients who present overt psychological symptoms suffer more psychiatric distress and have more abnormal attachment than those presenting physical symptoms (either organically explained or unexplained). Models to explain these findings are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Mother-infant and father-infant attachment among alcoholic families.

This study examined the association between fathers' alcoholism and other risk factors such as parental depression, family conflict, infant temperament, and parent-infant attachment. The quality of parent-infant interactions was hypothesized to be a proximal mediator of the associations among alcoholism and other risk factors and attachment. The participants were 223 families (104 nonalcoholic families and 119 alcoholic families) with 12-month-old infants recruited through birth records. Infants in families with two parents with alcohol problem had significantly higher rates of insecure attachment with both parents. Structural Equations Modeling indicated that the fathers' alcohol problem was associated with lower paternal sensitivity (higher negative affect, lower positive engagement, and lower sensitive responding) during father-infant play interactions, and this in tum was associated with higher risk for infant attachment insecurity with fathers. The association between the fathers' alcohol problem and infant attachment security with the mother was mediated by matemal depression, and matemal alcohol problems and family conflict were associated with maternal sensitivity during play interactions. These results indicate that the fathers' alcoholism is associated with higher family risk including the quality of the parent-infant relationship; infant attachment develops in a family context; and this context has a significant association with attachment security.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Attachment organizations in children with difficult life circumstances.

The purpose of this study was to use the Attachment Q-Set to create categories of attachment organization that were conceptually consistent with organizational categories derived from other attachment assessments, reliable, and valid. We were particularly interested in creating categories that would describe insecure attachment organizations in children from difficult life circumstances. Our sample of relationships included 3062 teacher-child relationships. Children ranged in age from toddlers to kindergartners and were diverse in ethnic background. Two percent of the children were diagnosed with severe social and emotional problems and enrolled in a therapeutic preschool. Sixteen percent were enrolled in intervention programs on the basis of family poverty and another 34% of the children attended subsidized child care programs for low-income children. All of the children's child-teacher relationships were assessed with the Attachment Q-Set (AQS). Independent observers observed or rated children's peer play. Teachers completed behavior problem questionnaires and Student Teacher Relationships Scales. Using the AQS we created five subscales and six attachment organizational categories. These subscales and organizational categories were associated in theoretically meaningful ways with measures of behavior problems, social competence with peers, and teacher perceptions of child-teacher relationship.

Avoidance Learning↗

PubMed1999

Perceived social support mediates between prior attachment and subsequent adjustment: a study of urban African American children.

The processes whereby attachment and other social and cognitive factors contribute to social and emotional adjustment were examined. Participants were 56 African American children from low-income urban families. Attachment and sociability were assessed in the strange situation when children were 4.5 years old. Two years later, children were interviewed regarding their perceptions of social support and their attributions about others' intentions. Also assessed at Time 2 were child verbal intelligence, defensive response style, children's self-reports, and parent reports of child adjustment. As expected, attachment uniquely predicted perceived social support. Insecure attachment predicted self-reports of behavior problems and parental report of internalizing problems. Perceived social support was associated positively and significantly with viewing ambiguously depicted actions as prosocial rather than aggressive. Perceived social support was found to mediate the relation between attachment and adjustment. Results suggest that behaviorally mediated strategies for relating to caregivers in early childhood predict generalized social perception, thought, and emotion at later ages.

Black or African American↗

PubMed2003

Reconstructive memory related to adolescent-parent conflict interactions: the influence of attachment-related representations on immediate perceptions and changes in perceptions over time.

This investigation examined the hypothesis that individuals change, over time, their perceptions of interactions with attachment figures in ways that are consistent with their attachment-related representations of those individuals. In an original and a replication study, adolescents participated in laboratory conflict discussions with each of their parents. Adolescents rated their perceptions of the interactions immediately after the conflict discussions, then again 6 weeks later. Results indicated that (a) adolescents' immediate perceptions of the interactions were influenced by their attachment-related representations of their parents, and (b) adolescents' perceptions, over a period of 6 weeks, shifted such that their later perceptions were more congruent with their attachment-related representations than were their immediate perceptions. Implications for the continuity of relational models and relationship patterns are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

The separation experience of children in long-term care: theory, research, and implications for practice.

Research and theory on how abused and neglected children in long-term care experience separation from their families and develop new attachments are reviewed. The thesis that children must mourn former caretakers in order to form new attachments is critically examined, and its validity for children in care is discussed. Implications of a modified model for child-welfare research and practice are discussed.

Anxiety, Separation↗

PubMed1993

Being female and less deviant: the direct and indirect effects of gender on alcohol abuse and tobacco smoking.

We explored the deviance gender gap in relation to alcohol abuse and tobacco smoking with a national sample of adults. Sex role theory inspired the hypotheses that much of the influence of gender on deviance is conveyed through the relationship of gender to social bonds and to the experience of physical violence in childhood. Our results indicated that being female was positively associated with belief and attachment bonds that inhibited alcohol abuse and smoking and negatively associated with the experience of physical violence as a child, which promoted alcohol abuse and smoking.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Less day care or different day care?

Commentary is provided on 2 papers published in this issue, which suggest some risks in nonmaternal or out-of-home care (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD] Early Child Care Research Network, this issue; Watamura, Donzella, Alwin, & Gunnar, this issue). In light of the findings, 2 child care policy options are examined: first, support for in-home care in the early years; and second, changes in the nature of out-of-home care. From ethnographic and experimental research, it is argued that out-of-home pre-elementary care can contribute positively to social development if it emphasizes (a) children's attachment to school and peer group, (b) constructivist rather than didactic learning, (c) intrinsic and internalized motivation, and (4) group structures that support social development.

Child Care↗

PubMed2001

Measuring adult attachment: a construct validation of two self-report instruments.

This study reports the Swedish construct validation of two translated attachment style scales. The factor structure of the attachment construct was investigated via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of attachment scores from 515 students of a Swedish university. Results supported the expected two-factor solution, but found a three-factor solution to be a viable alternative. In addition, the attachment scales were compared with the Big Five personality inventory (NEO-PI), using a sample of 87 Swedish students, and found to have expected correlation to this scale.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Attachment behavior, attachment security, and temperament during infancy.

In summary reviews and empirical research, investigators have suggested that attachment classifications derived from the Ainsworth Strange Situation may reflect variations along dimensions of temperament as well as, or perhaps instead of, individual differences with respect to infant-mother attachments. In this study, relations between temperament dimensions from the Infant Temperament Questionnaire (Revised) and Strange Situation behaviors were evaluated. Relations between the behavioral style scores and the categories of attachment quality were also tested. The hypothesis that temperamental difficulty would be related to negative emotionality, as indexed by infant distress during separation (but not during the reunions), was tested and supported. Neither the behavioral style dimensions nor the temperamental diagnoses (e.g., "easy" vs. "difficult") were associated significantly with attachment classifications. The results are consistent with previous findings that temperament measures do not predict attachment security. Nevertheless, certain behaviors indexing negative emotionality that may be observed in the context of the Strange Situation are related to temperamental variability.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1991

Maternal anxiety: a 5-year review of an intervention study.

Primiparous women were divided into groups according to their post-partum trait anxiety scores. Professional or non-professional support for the first 12 months was offered to two subgroups of high trait anxiety subjects. At the 5-year follow-up the high-anxiety mothers (n = 57) manifested more psychological and social pathology than moderate- and low-anxiety mothers (n = 43), and their children also showed signs of poorer adaptation. There was evidence of improved outcome for mothers in the professional intervention group, but not for their children. Child psychopathology was predicted best by maternal psychosocial variables, and to a lesser extent by child temperament variables. The relation of infant attachment and temperament measures to subsequent psychopathology is discussed.

Anxiety↗

PubMed2005

Attachment and borderline personality disorder: implications for psychotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Psychopathology researchers and theorists have begun to understand fundamental aspects of borderline personality disorder (BPD) such as unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, feelings of emptiness, bursts of rage, chronic fears of abandonment, intolerance for aloneness, and lack of a stable sense of self as stemming from impairments in the underlying attachment organization. In the present study, we will examine self-reported attachment in a study group of well-characterized patients reliably diagnosed with BPD. SAMPLING AND METHODS: Ninety-nine outpatients reliably diagnosed with BPD using the International Personality Disorders Examination, completed a number of attachment measures including the Relationship Questionnaire, Relationship Style Questionnaire, and Experiences in Close Relationships inventory. RESULTS: Factor analysis revealed six factors that clustered into three groups corresponding to an avoidant attachment pattern, a preoccupied attachment pattern, and a fearfully preoccupied pattern. The preoccupied pattern showed more concern and behavioral reaction to real or imagined abandonments, whereas the avoidant group had higher ratings of inappropriate anger. The fearfully preoccupied group had higher ratings on identity disturbance, although only at the trend level. CONCLUSIONS: The psychometric properties and response characteristics of the ECR items suggest that the scales, keying, and domains are appropriate for assessment of attachment in BPD samples. The scales generally retain their factor structure and show a similar pattern of correlations and inter-relationships. Nevertheless, consistent with a developmental psychopathology model, there are some important differences in factor structure, indicating the need to look at both typical and atypical samples when constructing models of attachment. Further research is needed to delineate the prognostic and prescriptive significance of attachment patterns for treating patients with BPD.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Psychiatric staff as attachment figures. Understanding management problems in psychiatric services in the light of attachment theory.

BACKGROUND: Attachment theory argues that psychological development and functioning are affected by our earliest attachments to care-givers. Failed or pathological attachment in childhood may give rise to repetition of maladaptive attachment patterns in adulthood. METHOD: Analysis of therapeutic relationships in the light of attachment theory. RESULTS: Relationships between patients and both psychiatric care-givers and institutions may resemble attachment relationship. CONCLUSION: An attachment perspective may be useful for understanding common behavioural disturbances in general psychiatric settings, and support the use of clinical strategies which focus on containment of arousal and the management of anxiety states.

Caregivers↗

PubMed2003

Lesbian shame: its relationship to identity integration and attachment.

Using self-report measures, this survey study explored the relationship between internalized shame and both lesbian identity integration and attachment styles. Compared to other research, this U.S. sample of 317 highly educated, mid-life, mostly European-American self-identitied lesbians reported higher levels of internalized shame, lesbian identity integration, and dismissing attachment. As predicted, shame scores decreased as lesbian identity integration increased. Likewise, high levels of secure attachment were associated with less shame while high levels of fearful and preoccupied attachment were associated with greater shame. Contrary to prediction, high levels of dismissing attachment were associated with greater shame. These results suggest the pervasive effects of shame even for a sample of educationally and occupationally successful lesbians.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Maternal/paternal antenatal attachment and fourth-dimensional ultrasound technique: a preliminary report.

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the role of the fourth dimensional (4D) ultrasound scanning on the antenatal attachment development, in pregnant women (19-23 weeks of gestation) and their partners. A total of 44 couples were asked to complete questionnaires about maternal and paternal antenatal attachment, before the two-dimensional (2D; control group) and 4D (experimental group) ultrasound scanning and 2 weeks later. In the groups of women, our findings underline the progressive increase in antenatal attachment throughout gestation: the mean level of antenatal attachment was significantly different between the first and the second assessment. No significant differences are shown between 2D and 4D ultrasound scanning groups. We do not eliminate the possibility that ultrasound scanning practice would be a helpful and crucial means of investigation for a complete explanation of prenatal attachment (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warney, 2000) and parental mental representations (Stern, 1987, 1997).

Adult↗