Attachment & Human Development最新文献

Relational savoring improves parents' well-being but has seldom been tested outside of the United States. In Iran, discussing parenting difficulties is taboo, and there is less emphasis on the experience of joy in motherhood. This cultural variation underscores the need to examine the effects of relational savoring, which focuses on heightening positive emotion in the context of parenthood. In this study conducted in Iran, mothers of children ages 5 and under (N = 100) were randomized into the experimental (4 weekly relational savoring sessions) or control group (no intervention). Participants were assessed at pretest, posttest, and 2-month follow-up. Compared to control group mothers, relational savoring mothers had higher closeness to child and availability at post-test and 2-month follow-up. There were no differential impacts on parenting competence and sensitivity/responsiveness. This program can be effective in improving aspects of the mother-child relationship among mothers of young children in Iran.

Maternal childhood maltreatment is associated with child psychopathology in the next generation. One mechanism proposed to underly this intergenerational transmission is alterations in infant stress systems, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and limbic brain regions. McLaughlin and colleagues have shown that direct experiences of threat versus deprivation have different effects on brain development and need to be studied separately. However, human and animal studies generate contrasting predictions about how threat versus deprivation experiences might affect stress systems in infancy. The current paper reviews emerging findings from the Mother-Infant Neurobiological Development (MIND) Study regarding the intergenerational transmission of effects of threat versus deprivation and proposes a Developmental Salience Model of Threat to integrate findings in human and animal literatures. This model proposes that threat of lack of care poses the first survival threat across species and therefore is more salient than threat of attack for stress-sensitive brain regions in infancy.

Since the inception of attachment theory, parent-child relationships has been examined in different populations, including autistic children. Attachment in autistic children has been measured using inconsistent separation-reunion procedures, making it difficult to examine whether autistic children are more or less likely to develop a secure attachment compared to non-autistic children. This study aims to meta-analyze data from studies that have assessed attachment in autistic children using a standardized version of the Strange Situation Procedure. Using the CASCADE catalogue, we identified six studies (n = 202). Results revealed that 45.6% were classified as secure, 18.7% as avoidant, 8.5% as resistant, and 27.2% as disorganized, which was statistically similar to the proportions of attachment categories in general population. Moderator analyses revealed a higher proportion of secure attachment among older children and more recently published studies. Future research should focus on unifying methodological approaches to studying attachment in autistic children.

Despite advances in the measurement of parent-child attachment in middle childhood and early adolescence, most studies relied on a single measure to assess attachment and few studies tested the core assumption that parenting and parents' own attachment models are key factors associated with parent-child attachment security. We aimed to: (a) evaluate a multi-method approach to assessing attachment that included the Middle Childhood Attachment Coding System (MCAS), a behavioral measure of parent-child attachment; and (b) test a model linking parenting, parent attachment, and attachment security. Participants included 179 mother-child dyads with children aged 9-14 years. MCAS patterns showed some associations with a questionnaire measure of attachment security, but they were unrelated to narrative coherence on an autobiographical interview. MCAS patterns, reported attachment security, and narrative coherence showed some associations with maternal sensitivity and autonomy support. MCAS security was associated with maternal secure base scripts. A model assessing how parenting and maternal attachment scripts relate to a latent construct of security composed of narrative coherence, children's perceptions of security, and observed MCAS security fits the data well. Findings provide support for the use of multiple measurement approaches when disentangling associations of parent-child attachment and broadening the research focus on attachment and parenting.

Attachment theory has demonstrated the longitudinal impact that aspects of the parent-child dyad have on youth's social-emotional development. Yet, little to no work has investigated whether parents' attachment, including parental secure base script (SBS) knowledge and parental attachment styles, are associated with youth's social-emotional functioning or examined mechanisms by which parents' attachment leads to social-emotional functioning. Even less research has examined the role of parents' attachment in parent-child dyads with youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; further identified as autistic youth) and its impact on their subsequent social-emotional development. Thus, the current pre-registered study assessed whether parents' attachment was associated with children's maladaptive (internalizing/externalizing symptoms) and adaptive (social competence) social-emotional functioning via parenting quality (authoritative parenting) in 108 nonautistic parent-child dyads and 49 autistic parent-child dyads. Separate structural equation models were run by group. Higher levels of parents' SBS knowledge predicted social competence in autistic parent-child dyads. Additionally, higher levels of parents' attachment-related anxiety predicted lower levels of social competence in autistic parent-child dyads. Attachment-related avoidance predicted lower levels of social competence in nonautistic parent-child dyads and higher levels of externalizing symptoms in autistic parent-child dyads. Results suggest parents' attachment representations may have unique contributions to youth's social-emotional functioning.

This study examined how children's secure base script knowledge and friendship quality were related to bullying and victimization experiences and their emotional, academic, and behavioral adjustment. Participants were 581 children (49.6% males) aged 9 to 13 years old and one of their main caregivers (74% mothers, 23.6% fathers, 2.4% legal guardians) recruited through cluster sampling in Singapore. Most of the children were ethnic Chinese (58.2%), along with Malays, Indians, and Others (e.g. Eurasians). Children's secure base script knowledge was related to less bullying and victimization, which in turn was related to greater positive emotional state, better academic achievement, less aggression, and fewer social problems. Friendship quality did not add unique variance, highlighting the central protective role of attachment representation in the context of school bullying. The findings provide support for the security-competence link in an Asian context, and point to the importance of enhancing children's familial experiences as part of preventive efforts in combating school bullying.

We explored the relationship between cultural values, recollected early caregiving experiences and young adult attachment preference. Young adults in Egypt (N = 209) and the United States (N = 554) ranked their current attachment preference, rated their collectivist and individualist beliefs, and recalled the relative contributions of their early caregivers. Egyptian students scored higher than US students on collectivism and recalled more involvement from non-parental caregivers. Most participants reported a preference hierarchy (82% Egypt & 84% US). Surprisingly, individualism was negatively associated with maternal attachment ratings and with having a clear principal attachment relationship, whereas higher collectivism predicted higher maternal attachment. Findings suggest that attachment hierarchies are normative across varying cultural and child-rearing contexts.