How do children make sense of their experiences? Children’s memories of wellbeing and distress from an attachment perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Messina ◽  
Giulio Cesare Zavattini
Keyword(s):  
Regression Model ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Adult Attachment Interview ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
Child Attachment ◽  
Italian Children

Attachment’s role in children’s memories of wellbeing and distress was evaluated through the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task in 30 Italian children, aged 6 years (15 secure and 15 insecure). Their mothers’ coherence of discourse was determined using the Adult Attachment Interview. A mediation model examining whether children’s attachment mediated the relation between mothers’ ability to talk coherently about their past and children’s memories was tested. Children’s attachment was associated with their ability to describe memories of wellbeing and distress and mediated the influence of maternal coherence on the same ability. A regression model was estimated to further evaluate the association between children’s attachment and ability to describe memories. Results suggest that attachment influences how children understand and recollect emotional experiences.

Assessing Attachment: Convergent Validity of the Adult Attachment Interview and the Parental Bonding Instrument

1999 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Manassis ◽  
Mary Owens ◽  
Kenneth S. Adam ◽  
Malcolm West ◽  
Adrienne E. Sheldon-Keller
Keyword(s):  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Maternal Care ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Parental Bonding ◽  
Adult Attachment Interview ◽  
Role Reversal ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Parental Bonding Instrument ◽  
Child Attachment

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether or not the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) can provide information about parent-child attachment that is comparable to information obtained from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), a more complex measure of attachment. Method: One hundred and thirty emotionally and/or behaviourally disturbed adolescents (73 male, 57 female; ages 13–19 years, × = 15.3 ± 1.47 years) participating in a study of attachment and suicidality completed the PBI and the AAI. Data from these measures were compared within participants. Results: Maternal care and overprotection on the PBI differed significantly by AAI attachment classification (F3,122 = 2.79, p = 0.012), with autonomous participants showing the most optimal and unresolved participants the least optimal PBI results. Maternal love and maternal involvement/role reversal on the AAI were significant predictors of maternal care and maternal overprotection, respectively, on the PBI (R2 = 0.15; R2 = 0.16). These predictions improved when AAI scales measuring idealisation and involving anger towards the mother were included in the regression analyses (R2 = 0.35; R2 = 0.20). Autonomous participants on AAI showed the highest scale correlations across instruments. Conclusions: Attachment information obtained from the PBI and the AAI is comparable in participants with optimal attachment histories, but not in participants showing idealisation or anger towards their mothers. Caution is, therefore, advisable when using the PBI to obtain attachment information in clinical samples where suboptimal attachment histories are likely.

scholarly journals Der familiäre Hintergrund „suchtbelastete Familie“ und dessen Auswirkung auf Mentalisierungsprozesse fremduntergebrachter Kinder

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 9-15
Author(s):  
Nadja Springer ◽  
Brigitte Lueger-Schuster
Keyword(s):  
Child Behavior ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Child Behavior Checklist ◽  
Reflective Functioning ◽  
Adult Attachment Interview ◽  
Child Attachment ◽  
Child Attachment Interview

ZusammenfassungStudien über Bindung weisen auf Schwierigkeiten drogenabhängiger Eltern hinsichtlich ihrer Reaktion auf die emotionalen Signale der Kinder und die daraus abzuleitenden Verhaltensweisen hin. Dies lässt auf eine reduzierte Mentalisierungsfähigkeit schließen. Mentalisieren bedeutet die grundlegende menschliche Fähigkeit, Verhalten in Bezug auf Gedanken und Gefühle zu verstehen.Um diese Fähigkeit bei fremduntergebrachten Kinder (6–12 Jahre) aus suchtbelasteten Familien und deren aktuellen Bezugspersonen zu untersuchen, wurde eine auf dem Konzept der Mentalisierung basierende Gruppenintervention entwickelt, die das Wissen über Drogenabhängigkeit erweitern und soziale und affektive Fähigkeiten verbessern soll.Erhebungsinstrumente: Skala des Reflective Functioning (RF-Score) für das Adult Attachment Interview und für das Child Attachment Interview, Inventar der Sozialkompetenzen (ISK), Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM), Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/6-18R), „Patte-Noire“-Test, Einstellungen zum Drogenkonsum (EBDD Bewertungsinstrument).An Hand zweier Fallbeispiele aus dieser laufenden Pilotstudie, werden der diagnostische Prozess sowie beobachtbare und messbare Veränderungen über den Untersuchungszeitraum von mehr als 12 Monaten exemplarisch dargestellt und diskutiert.

Comparative validity of the Adult Attachment Interview and the Adult Attachment Projective

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 429-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Jones-Mason ◽  
I. Elaine Allen ◽  
Steve Hamilton ◽  
Sandra J. Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Adult Attachment Interview ◽  
Adult Attachment Projective

scholarly journals Vinculação em mães adolescentes e seus bebés

Psicologia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Ines Jongenelen ◽  
Isabel Soares ◽  
Karin Grossmann ◽  
Carla Martins
Keyword(s):  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Adult Attachment Interview

Neste artigo, as autoras apresentam uma investigação empírica com mães adolescentes e seus bebés, conduzida sob a perspectiva da Teoria da Vinculação de Bowlby. Quarenta adolescentes e seus bebés foram avaliados na gravides e 12º mês do pós-parto, com base, respectivamente, na Adult Attachment Interview e na Situação Estranha. Os resultados revelam que a maioria dos bebés apresenta uma organização de vinculação segura à mãe, aos 12 meses de idade. Não foi encontrada uma associação significativa entre a classificação das mães na AAI e a classificação dos seus bebés na Situação Estranha, quer ao nível dos três padrões, quer em função da dimensão segurança versus insegurança da vinculação. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v20i1.375

Earned- and continuous-security in adult attachment: Relation to depressive symptomatology and parenting style

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane L. Pearson ◽  
Deborah A. Cohn ◽  
Philip A. Cowan ◽  
Carolyn Pape Cowan
Keyword(s):  
Parenting Styles ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Depressive Symptomatology ◽  
Adult Attachment Interview ◽  
Model Classification ◽  
Working Models ◽  
Working Model ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
Earned Security ◽  
Early Relationships

AbstractThe secure working model classification of adult attachment, as derived from Main and Goldwyn's (in press) Adult Attachment Interview scoring system, was considered in terms of earned-security and continuous-security. Earned-security was a classification given to adults who described difficult, early relationships with parents, but who also had current secure working models as indicated by high coherency scores; continuous-security referred to a classification in which individuals described secure early attachment relationship with parents and current secure working models. Working models of attachment were classified as earned-secure, continuous-secure, or insecure in a sample of 40 parents of preschool children. Comparisons among the classifications were conducted on a measure of depressive symptoms and two sets of ratings of observed parenting styles. Adults with earned-secure classifications had comparable depressive symptomatology to insecures, with 30% of the insecures, 40% of the earned-secures, and only 10% of the continuous-secures having scores exceeding the clinical cut-off. The rate of depressive symptomatology in the earned-secure group suggests that reconstructions of past difficulties may remain emotional liabilities despite a current secure working model. With regard to parenting styles with their preschoolers, the behavior of earned-secure parents was comparable to that of the continuous-secures. This refinement in conceptualizing secure working models suggests ways for understanding variation in pathways to competent parenting as well as a possible perspective on how adults' adverse early experiences may continue to place them and their children at risk.

Major depression as a predictor of the intergenerational transmission of attachment security: Findings from a pregnancy cohort study

2021 ◽  
pp. 000486742110607
Author(s):  
Megan Galbally ◽  
Stuart J Watson ◽  
Anne Tharner ◽  
Maartje Luijk ◽  
Gaynor Blankley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Major Depression ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Attachment Security ◽  
Maternal Sensitivity ◽  
Adult Attachment Interview ◽  
Insecure Attachment ◽  
Parent Attachment ◽  
Strange Situation ◽  
Infant Attachment ◽  
Strange Situation Procedure

Objective: Understanding the relationship between attachment and mental health has an important role in informing management of perinatal mental disorders and for infant mental health. It has been suggested that experiences of attachment are transmitted from one generation to the next. Maternal sensitivity has been proposed as a mediator, although findings have not been as strong as hypothesised. A meta-analysis suggested that this intergenerational transmission of attachment may vary across populations with lower concordance between parent and infant attachment classifications in clinical compared to community samples. However, no previous study has examined major depression and adult attachment in pregnancy as predictors of infant–parent attachment classification at 12 months postpartum. Methods: Data were obtained on 52 first-time mothers recruited in early pregnancy, which included 22 women who met diagnostic criteria for current major depression using the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The Adult Attachment Interview was also administered before 20 weeks of pregnancy. A history of early trauma was measured using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and maternal sensitivity was measured at 6 months postpartum using the observational measure of the Emotional Availability Scales. Infant–parent attachment was measured using the Strange Situation Procedure at 12 months. Results: Overall, we found no significant association between the Adult Attachment Interview and the Strange Situation Procedure classifications. However, a combination of maternal non-autonomous attachment on the Adult Attachment Interview and major depression was a significant predictor of insecure attachment on the Strange Situation Procedure. We did not find that maternal sensitivity mediated parental and infant attachment security in this sample. Conclusion: While previous meta-analyses identified lower concordance in clinical samples, our findings suggest women with major depression and non-autonomous attachment have a greater concordance with insecure attachment on the Strange Situation Procedure. These findings can guide future research and suggest a focus on depression in pregnancy may be important for subsequent infant attachment.

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