Browsing by Subject "Attachment"

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Attachment and social behavior in middle childhood: a comparison of maltreated and non-maltreated children.
(2012-08) Jagadeesan, Lisa Michelle
This study examined perceptions of attachment and social behavior in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample of maltreated (N = 334) and non-maltreated (N = 339) 6- to 12-year old children who attended a summer camp research program. Children completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of security and propensity toward avoidant or preoccupied coping with their mothers, and their counselors and peers rated their social behavior. Consistent with previous research, avoidant coping was negatively correlated with both preoccupied coping and security, whereas preoccupied coping was positively correlated with security. Avoidant coping was more common among boys and showed an age-related increase that was most pronounced in girls. In contrast, preoccupied coping was more common among girls and showed an age-related decrease that was comparable for girls and boys. Children who reported high levels of preoccupied coping were less liked and accepted by their peers, and those who reported high levels of security were seen as less withdrawn by their counselors. Overall, maltreated children reported slightly lower levels of avoidant coping, but did not differ from non-maltreated children in terms of security or preoccupied coping. When attachment was examined in relation to maltreatment characteristics, early maltreatment was associated with more avoidant and less preoccupied coping, whereas recent maltreatment was associated with less security. Counselors and peers perceived maltreated children as less likeable and more prone to problematic social behaviors, but there was no indication that attachment mediated the association between maltreatment and these behaviors.
Factors related to the development, maintenance, and/or resolution of unresolved/disorganized states of mind regarding abuse in a sample of maltreated individuals.
(2010-05) Whaley, Gloria J. L.
This is the first prospective study of male and female child abuse survivors to investigate the rates of unresolved/disorganized states of mind with respect to abuse (U/d abuse) classifications and factors that increase or decrease the risk of being classified as U/d abuse during late adolescence and/or adulthood. Participants were drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study of families from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The present sample (n = 42; 19 males, 23 females) includes only individuals who were identified prospectively as having experienced childhood physical and/or sexual abuse by a caregiver and for whom scores from the Adult Attachment Interview for U/d abuse were available at age 19 and/or 26 years. The following constructs were included in analyses: infant attachment representations; maltreatment circumstances; dissociative symptoms across childhood and adolescence; relationships with parents, friends, and romantic partners over time. Based on findings from previous longitudinal studies and attachment theory, it was hypothesized that disorganized/disoriented (D/d) attachment classifications in infancy would relate significantly to U/d abuse classifications, but that the circumstances of abuse (type, chronicity, or age of onset) would not relate significantly to U/d abuse status. Dissociative symptoms over time were anticipated to predict U/d abuse classifications. Positive and supportive relationships with others over time were expected to predict lower rates of U/d abuse classifications. Finally, following a cumulative risk perspective, it was expected that the added influence of severe trauma, a history of D/d infant attachment, high degrees of dissociation, poor relationships over time, and insecure states of mind would significantly predict U/d abuse status. Results revealed that approximately 36 percent of participants received U/d abuse classifications at age 19 and 41 percent at age 26, with little stability between the two assessments. Cumulative risk was significantly predictive of U/d abuse classifications. D/d infant attachment was a strong predictor of U/d abuse at age 19 but not at age 26 years. The circumstances of abuse, dissociative symptoms, secure infant attachment status, or the quality of important relationships by themselves were not significantly related to U/d abuse status at either age. Findings and needed future areas of research are discussed.
Family Problem-Solving and its Relationship to Adolescent Risk-Taking Behavior
(2017-05) Holth, Angela
Close parent-child relationships have been found to be a protective factor against the development of delinquent behavior (Harris, Furstenberg, & Marmer, 1998). By having a close parent-child relationship, parents may positively influence their adolescent’s development by creating a context for open communication and trust, and fostering family problem-solving abilities.The current study examined the mediating effect of family problem-solving ability on the relationship between attachment and risk-taking behavior in a sample of parents and youth from a larger mentoring study (Campus Connections; N=540). Results show that attachment was negatively related to both parent and adolescent report of the adolescents risk-taking behaviors, after controlling for age, gender, and race/ethnicity; and attachment was positively related to family-problem solving, after controlling for age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Family problem-solving was not associated with parent or youth report of adolescent risk-taking behavior. Finally, family problem-solving ability did not mediate the effect of attachment on parent or youth report of adolescent risk-taking behavior. While family problem-solving did not significantly mediate the relationship between attachment and risk-taking, other family-level behaviors may prove useful for helping families prevent risk-taking during adolescence.
The Influence of Primed Romantic Attachment on Attitudes Toward Consensual Non-Monogamy with a Mediating Role of Romantic Jealousy
(2022-04) Muzzy, Brieanna M
Although monogamy is the most common romantic relationship arrangement in Western cultures, interest and prevalence of consensual non-monogamy (CNM; romantic relationships negotiated between two or more people and therefore nonexclusive, either sexually, emotionally, or in combination) is increasing and attitudes tend to be negative. Furthermore, research indicates that romantic attachment impacts attitudes toward CNM, such that individuals who are anxiously attached report more negative attitudes than avoidant and securely attached individuals. However, previous research has only been correlational, thus the causal relationship between romantic attachment and CNM attitudes was assessed. Additionally, due to the relationships between attachment, jealousy, and CNM attitudes, the extent to which romantic jealousy mediates the relationship between romantic attachment and CNM attitudes was explored. A total of 173 adults were recruited via Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in which they were asked to reflect on a prompt designed to induce the three romantic attachment styles. All participants also completed a battery of questionnaires measuring romantic jealousy and CNM attitudes. Although results revealed that the manipulation did not have a significant effect on CNM attitudes (thus, a mediational analysis could not be performed), significant correlations between romantic jealousy and CNM attitudes emerged. Additionally, participants with infidelity experience reported higher jealousy. Results from this study have important implications for researchers and clinicians working to further understand if attachment can be manipulated and to help partners find ways to cope with and mitigate insecure attachment styles.
The influences of unresolved trauma and family experiences on hoarding behavior
(2013-05) Sampson, Jennifer M.
In a sample of 387 participants who self-reported being a person who hoards or a family member of a person who hoards, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the fit of a proposed model that examined the influences that unresolved trauma and loss, psychological distress, attachment security, and positive family dynamics had on hoarding behavior. The study found that higher levels of unresolved trauma and loss and psychological distress contribute to predicting hoarding severity, and positive family dynamics can serve as a protective factor in the relationship between these variables. Future research, treatment, and policy implications are discussed.
Interview codings of attachment style:using profile analysis to understand the patterns involved.
(2011-01) Swinburne Romine, Rebecca Esther
Attachment style is frequently discussed in terms of profiles of early childhood risk factors. Those using attachment interview methods use their ratings of these risk factors in developing an attachment style rating. In spite of this, profile analysis has yet to be used to model specific attachment styles. By using a multiple regression profile analysis to model attachment style in terms of coder's ratings of early risk factors, we can test empirically whether individual elements are relevant and how. The study of attachments began with Freud in the middle of the last century. Since that time attachment style has been studied first by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, and since that time by many others. Early views of attachment, including the identification of specific attachment styles, and the investigation of its stability are discussed, as well as the limitations of the existing research. Specifically, the paper addresses the need for additional research to support or refute the theoretical models of attachment structure. Many methods have been developed to assess attachment style, most of which are closely tied to one particular theoretical view of attachment structure. Because the data for this paper are drawn from a study which utilized a four-prototype model of attachment as assessed for a coded semi-structured interview, the best way to understand the resultant codes is through a profile analysis. By using a two-step multiple regression profile analysis procedure, we can assess the unique contributions of both the level of risk, and the pattern of risk factors. The multiple regression methodology has the additional benefit of allowing for both continuous predictors and criterion variables; something that is not possible with other profile analysis methodologies. This allowed me to run the regressions with both dichotomous and semi-continuous criterion variables which enable the detection of different patterns. The results indicate that both the profile patterns and level can predict the criteria. The pattern component however is significantly more predictive of the criteria. While the derived patterns differ from the predicted patterns, they remain consistent with theory. Overall, environmental risk factors such as abuse, neglect, and parental rejection were not predictive of attachment style or score, while individual risk factors such as anger at parents and rebellion, and the interactive factor of role reversal were highly predictive. This leads us to conclude that profiles are a viable method of understanding attachment styles, and that it is the individual's responses to the risk factors present in the childhood environment rather than those factors themselves which determine attachment style.
Maternal Mood and Comorbid Personality Disorders: Attachment Development from Infancy to Young Adulthood
(2019-06) Ruiz, Sarah
Maternal psychopathology, particularly maternal mood disorders, is an important developmental context for attachment development, as maternal sensitivity and other caregiving behaviors necessary for a secure attachment may be impaired. While maternal depression in relation to offspring attachment has been well examined, less attention has been given to the impact of maternal psychiatric comorbidity, particularly between maternal mood and personality disorders (PD) on attachment development. Leveraging a prospective longitudinal study of well and psychiatrically ill mothers and two of their children (60 children of well mothers, 75 children of mothers with comorbid mood and PDs, and 57 children of mothers with mood disorders), this study seeks to further examine the role of maternal psychiatric illness on attachment development over three time points, early and middle childhood, and young adulthood. In study 1, I characterized the sample using cross-sectional analyses to predict attachment at each time point. Although I predicted that mothers in the mood and comorbid groups would have offspring with greater incidence of insecure attachment across all developmental periods, my hypotheses were not confirmed as maternal psychiatric mood and comorbid group membership did not predict attachment in early, middle, and young adulthood. The study provided preliminary evidence that maternal bipolar disorder predicted lower log odds of secure attachment in early childhood, and that offspring of mothers with higher Cluster B dimensional scores had increasing logs odds of being securely attached in early childhood. For study 2, I predicted that offspring of mothers with mood disorders would be characterized by greater discontinuity over development, moving towards insecurity over time, and ran exploratory analyses to examine attachment discontinuity in offspring of mothers in the comorbid group. Results suggest that for offspring of mothers with maternal personality Cluster C diagnosis, attachment across development may be characterized as discontinuous with increasing log odds of secure attachment from early to middle childhood. Offspring of mother with Cluster A dimensional scores also demonstrated decreasing log odds of being securely attached across development. These results expand upon our existing understanding of maternal psychopathology on offspring attachment development, and offers preliminary evidence on attachment in the context of maternal comorbid psychiatric illnesses with PDs. However, results should be considered in light of limitations of the study, including sample size and general sparse findings, and await further replication and extension. This study offers a preliminary understanding of maternal mental illness, beyond maternal depression, and extends the current literature by examining the role of maternal comorbidity on cross sectional and longitudinal offspring attachment outcomes.
Mitigating the Effects of Early Experience: Adolescent Social functioning as a predictor of adult health
(2014-06) Puig, Jennifer
Researchers examining the etiology of chronic illness in adulthood are increasingly looking back towards early life events to find risk factors for disease. To date, researchers have failed to account for the tremendous amount of social growth and development that takes place in the intervening years between infancy and adulthood. This prospective longitudinal study examines the influence of adolescent and young adult social functioning on adult physical outcomes above and beyond the influence of early life social functioning. This study also examines the relative influence of social functioning, socio-economic status (SES), and health history on adult health outcomes. Participants from this study are a subsample from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (N=167) who have been followed from birth to age 34 years. Social functioning was assessed in infancy as the continuity of attachment classifications between ages 12 and 18 months. Adolescent, young adult, and adult social functioning were assessed via qualitative codes of videotaped interactions and interviews. At age 32 and 34 years participants were asked about the presence of or treatment for any physical illness. Results indicated that infant social functioning predicted the likelihood of reporting a physical illness in adulthood above and beyond the effects of later social functioning, early and concurrent SES, physical health, concurrent body mass index, gender, and self-reported neuroticism. These findings indicate that attachment in infancy exerts a powerful influence on later physical health outcomes and suggests that it as a powerful point of intervention.
Pathways to generalized and partner-specific attachment representations in adulthood: A developmental perspective on the organization of romantic behavior.
(2008-07) Haydon, Katherine C.
This study tested a model of developmental processes by which generalized and romantic-partner specific attachment representations emerge was tested, and tested the joint contribution of both representations to concurrent romantic functioning. Participants (N = 112) in a 32-year longitudinal study of risk and adaptation were grouped based on the security of their generalized and partner-specific attachment representations (Sec/Sec, Ins/Ins, Ins/Sec, and Sec/Ins). The four groups were compared on antecedent measures of infant attachment, parenting quality at 24 months, 54-month ego resilience, middle childhood peer competence, adolescent friendship quality, adjustment prior to the romantic partnership, and concurrent observed and self-reported romantic functioning in early adulthood. Results indicated that both early and later experience shaped developmental pathways to configurations of adult attachment representations. The InsAAI/SecCRI group differed from their concordant-insecure counterparts on measures of both earlier and concurrent relationship functioning. SecAAI/InsCRI individuals functioned similarly to SecAAI/SecCRI individuals in their romantic partnerships, but differed on earlier individual functioning. Results provided evidence that attachment functioning in adulthood is multiply and probabilistically determined by both earlier and later experiences. Implications for process approaches to the study of developmental organization of romantic behavior are discussed.
Reflective Functioning in a High-Risk, Prospective, Longitudinal Sample: Early Antecedents and Associations with Adult Attachment Representations
(2021-06) Foster, Rachel
The construct of reflective functioning (RF)—the ability and propensity of an individual to understand interactions between mental states and behaviors in the self and others—emerged as an attempt to answer some of the gaps in the contemporary attachment theory framework. Despite a growing body of research supporting the role of RF as a mediator between one’s own childhood attachment experiences and observed parenting behaviors with their child, many questions remain. First, it is unclear what contributes to the development of adult RF. Second, it is unclear whether RF provides unique information compared to other operationalizations of adult attachment mental representations, including security. This dissertation project aimed to examine these questions within a prospective, longitudinal study of adults born into poverty. Results did not support the hypothesis that infant attachment security and observed maternal sensitivity would predict RF at age 26. Unexpectedly, results also indicated that RF was more closely associated with concurrent preoccupied and unresolved attachment states of mind than markers of security. A number of interpretations of these results are considered, including potential experimental error and the issue of construct validity. Overall, this dissertation project contributes to the existing literature on RF and highlights the need to continue to empirically test theoretical hypotheses related to RF and attachment theory using diverse, prospective datasets.
The role of parental reflective functioning in promoting attachment for children of depressed mothers in a toddler-parent psychotherapeutic intervention
(2011-09) Vrieze, Danielle Marie
Parental reflective functioning (PRF) refers to a parent's ability to interpret and reflect upon her child's mental states (e.g., thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires) and underlying behaviors, and relate them to her own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Slade, Bernbach, Grienenberger, Lev, & Locker, 2005a). The purpose of the present study was to explore the potential role of maternal reflective functioning in promoting attachment security among depressed mothers and their toddlers involved in a toddler-parent psychotherapy (TPP) intervention program. Children of depressed mothers have an increased likelihood of negative developmental outcomes, including disrupted attachment relationships with their primary caregivers (Cicchetti, Rogosch, & Toth, 1998). Toddler-parent psychotherapy has been demonstrated to significantly improve attachment security among this vulnerable population (Cicchetti, Toth, & Rogosch, 1999); however the mechanism underlying its efficacy is unclear. This study examined PRF and attachment status of 160 mother-toddler dyads. Among dyads, participant groups included: non-depressed control (NC) mothers (n = 62), depressed control (DC) mothers (n = 52), and depressed intervention (DI) mothers (n = 46) who participated in an 18 month TPP intervention program. Results showed no differences in PRF among the subject groups at either baseline or follow-up (post intervention) periods, suggesting no effect of TPP on PRF. Furthermore, results show that PRF does not account for the efficacy of TPP in improving attachment among toddlers of depressed mothers. PRF was, however, associated with educational attainment of mothers, regardless of participant group status. Research examining the construct of PRF is relatively new and therefore limited. Results of the present study are presented in light of previous research findings. The potential benefits and limitations of PRF as a construct, particularly for examining attachment and other developmental processes, are discussed.

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Browsing by Subject "Attachment"