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

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.

210930 Kok et al._Self-Regulation in Early Childhood_Preprint

Maternal sensitivity and supportive discipline are important determinants of child self-regulation. Some evidence suggests that specific genetic or temperamental markers determine children’s susceptibility to the impact of maternal parenting on child self-regulation. Cortisol reactivity as a susceptibility marker moderating the relation between maternal parenting and child self-regulation has not yet been studied. In this longitudinal population-based study (N=258), the moderating role of infant cortisol stress response to the Strange Situation Procedure at age 1 was examined in the association between parenting (sensitivity and supportive discipline) at age 3 and child self-regulation at age 3 and 4. Maternal sensitivity and supportive discipline were related to child immediate and prolonged delay of gratification at age 3, and maternal sensitivity was related to working memory skills at age 4. No evidence of differential susceptibility to maternal parenting was found, based on differences in infant cortisol stress response.

The Influence of Taiwan Electronic Production Company's Proprietary Data Products on the Interaction of Company Effectiveness

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the unique interaction of companies in Taiwan from 1998 to 2017 and the influence of the degree of international industry on the effectiveness of the company. Approach/Methodology/Design: We used time series methods to investigate and research. This study only has a significant impact on the upstream industry of the electronics industry, and there is no significant development in the middle and lower reaches of the industry. This is a very strange situation in Taiwan. Findings: At the same time, the interaction of the three attributes of the midstream computer industry can also produce the multiplication effect. In this study, it has been found that the degree of international internationalization has a higher impact on the effectiveness of companies, but no matter how high it is, it seems that increasing the degree of international internationalization at about 10% or 50% and more than 80% of the international level can produce and increase the effectiveness of the company. Practical Implications: This is a very strange situation in Taiwan. However, because the research strength has the effect of prolonging the effect, it may not play a significant role in the middle and lower reaches of the research and development of the product extension effect, so that the research intensity does not play a significant role in the first year of the development of the Taiwan electronics industry. Originality/value: Our value is mainly to solve the problems of internationalization and performance of Taiwanese electronics industry companies.

Attachment Theory and Research

Attachment theory was founded by John Bowlby (1907–1990), a British child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. The theory builds on an integration of evolutionary theory and ethology, cybernetics and cognitive science, as well as psychoanalytic object relations theory. The theory postulates that an attachment behavioral system evolved via natural selection processes. Bowlby conceived of the attachment system as a behavioral control system that continuously monitors the offspring’s proximity to caregivers, which has in turn been associated with protection from dangers and thus increased chances of survival and reproduction in humans’ and many other mammals’ ancestral environments. Attachment is a species-wide phenomenon denoting the strong bonds that children form to their caregiver(s), seeking to maintain proximity and communication, protesting separations, and using the caregiver(s) as a safe haven to return to for comfort and protection and as a secure base to explore the environment from. Attachments take time, maturation, and repeated sequences of interaction to form and are typically observed from the second half of children’s first year of life onward. According to the theory, attachment-related experiences with the caregiver(s) become internalized in the form of cognitive-affective representations of self and others (internal working models [IWMs]) that organize the child’s behavior and displays of affect in relation to the caregiver(s). Although malleable, such IWMs display a certain measure of continuity across time and situations and may generalize to affect the individual’s expectancies and behavioral inclinations in other and later interpersonal relationships. As pioneered by Mary Ainsworth and colleagues, attachments vary in quality, largely depending on the caregiver’s behaviors (e.g., responsivity and sensitivity to the child’s signals), whereas evidence for a direct influence of genetic heritability is limited. Variations in attachment are typically described using two dimensions (secure–insecure, organized–disorganized) subsuming four categories (secure, insecure–avoidant, insecure-resistant–ambivalent, disorganized–disoriented). Much of the empirical research regarding attachment has focused on these variations and their measurement. Ainsworth and colleagues’ Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), applicable for children aged 10–18 months, is often heralded as the “gold standard” attachment measurement tool. The concerted body of research indicates that secure attachment (or associated factors), marked by confidence in the caregiver’s availability, is generally a protective factor in socioemotional development. In contrast, insecure (avoidant and resistant) attachment, characterized by lack of confidence in the caregiver’s availability, is generally a vulnerability factor in development. Disorganized attachment, reflecting confused, conflicted, or apprehensive child behaviors in the presence of the caregiver (in the SSP), is a risk factor in development, most notably for externalizing behavior problems. Notably, the effect sizes observed have typically been small to moderate, and much is unknown about linking mechanisms and moderating influences. Although most readily observed in early childhood, humans form attachments throughout the lifespan. Accordingly, much research has also focused on adult (e.g., spousal) attachment and the intergenerational transmission of attachment from caregivers to their children.

Twenty First Century’s Challenges, Changing Trends and Urdu Novel: A Critical Analysis

The recent pandemic has not only formally announced the entry of man into the 21st century but also indicate the upcoming challenges for humanbeing. The individual of this Century suffers from duality/binary opposition where he is in an isolation/alone but not in the previous sense as he is at the same time sitting in middle of the whole world. This Mob, not his family, but the whole world has gathered at his fingertips, Man has begun to travel for centuries in minutes and seconds.Youval Noh Hariri a Nobel Prize winner philosopher of new era says man has been hacked by his own discovered biotechnology and information technology. This InfoTech or biotech data has snatched man s free will. This algorithm now replace the ancient times place of philosophers, thinkers, saints, sages, writers and leads/compels man to choices of corporate world. Now the corporate world better known mans choices by this algorithm but the man himself notter. The Challenges of self identity is the most important question of this century. The trend of predicting the future is growing day by day. Now a strange situation is knocking on human beings doors. Nature is disappearing. It is impossible to escape from artificial intelligence. Every second changing of technology results in rapid change of life and social taboos.

Is this love? Sex differences in dog-owner attachment behavior suggest similarities with adult human bonds

Sex differences in the behavioral responses of Labrador Retriever dogs in the Strange Situation Test were explored. Behaviors expressed by dogs during seven 3-min episodes were analyzed through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The scores of factors obtained were analyzed with a Generalized Linear Mixed Model to reveal the effects of the dog’s sex and age and the owner’s sex. In Episode 1 (dog and owner) and 5 (dog alone), the PCA identified three and two factors, respectively, which overall explained 68.7% and 59.8% of the variance, with no effect of sex. In Episodes 2 (dog, owner, and stranger), 3 and 6 (dog and stranger), and 4 and 7 (dog and owner), the PCA identified four factors, which overall explained 51.0% of the variance. Effects of sex were found on: Factor 1 (distress), with lower scores obtained by females in Episode 2 and higher in Episode 3; Factor 2 (sociability), which was overall higher in females; Factor 3 (separation-distress), with females, but not males, obtaining higher scores when left with the stranger than when with the owner. Therefore, females were overall more social but seemed more affected than males by the owner’s absence. Parallels can be traced between our results and sex differences found in adult human romantic attachment, suggesting that the dog-owner bond has characteristics that are not found in the infant-mother relationship.

Inheriting Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation: Questions of Legacy, Authority, and Methodology for Contemporary Developmental Attachment Researchers

Mary Ainsworth’s legacy continues to shape the social and developmental sciences well after her death. The Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure has, for decades, not only provided the underpinning methodology of attachment research, but also the frame of reference for theory. This has produced conditions where, as in psychoanalysis, debates about the future of the paradigm also entail a struggle to claim and negotiate the legacy of a founding figure. To date, historians have only looked at attachment research up to the 1980s. Interviews with 15 leading contemporary attachment researchers revealed Ainsworth’s importance to later research, but also laid bare the challenges of claiming her inheritance in responding to the current challenges facing this area of research.

Infant emotion regulation strategy moderates the relation between maternal depressive symptomatology and infant HPA-Axis regulation

Children of depressed mothers often have atypical cortisol levels. Child characteristics associated with emotion regulation difficulties moderate associations between maternal depression and child hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity. We hypothesize that infants of more depressed mothers who utilize more independent emotion regulation will have higher cortisol levels. Mother-infant dyads (N = 193) were recruited from the community. Maternal depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory II, infant regulation strategies were coded during a Toy Frustration Task, and cortisol was collected at baseline, 20, and 40 minutes after two challenges (Toy Frustration and Strange Situation). Results indicate that infant emotion regulation moderates associations between maternal depressive symptoms and infant total cortisol output (AUCG) and cortisol reactivity (AUCI), during the Toy Frustration task. Infants who used more independent regulation had elevated cortisol secretion. Associations were not replicated during the Strange Situation procedure. Findings are discussed in terms of adaptive emotional and physiological regulation.

Infant emotion regulation strategy moderates the relation between maternal depressive symptomatology and infant HPA-Axis regulation

Children of depressed mothers often have atypical cortisol levels. Child characteristics associated with emotion regulation difficulties moderate associations between maternal depression and child hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity. We hypothesize that infants of more depressed mothers who utilize more independent emotion regulation will have higher cortisol levels. Mother-infant dyads (N = 193) were recruited from the community. Maternal depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory II, infant regulation strategies were coded during a Toy Frustration Task, and cortisol was collected at baseline, 20, and 40 minutes after two challenges (Toy Frustration and Strange Situation). Results indicate that infant emotion regulation moderates associations between maternal depressive symptoms and infant total cortisol output (AUCG) and cortisol reactivity (AUCI), during the Toy Frustration task. Infants who used more independent regulation had elevated cortisol secretion. Associations were not replicated during the Strange Situation procedure. Findings are discussed in terms of adaptive emotional and physiological regulation.