Lack of trust in maternal support is associated with negative interpretations of ambiguous maternal behavior

Attachment theory assumes that children who lack trust in maternal availability for support are more inclined to interpret maternal behavior in congruence with their expectation that mother will remain unavailable for support. To provide the first test of this assumption, early adolescents (9-13 years old) were asked to assess whether ambiguous interactions with mother should be interpreted in a positive or a negative way. In our sample (n = 322), results showed that early adolescents' lack of trust in their mother's availability for support was related to more negative interpretations of maternal behavior. The associations remained significant after controlling for depressive mood. The importance of these findings for our understanding of attachment theory, attachment stability, and clinical practice are discussed

A learning theory of attachment: Unraveling the black box of attachment development

Attachment is an inborn behavioral system that is biologically driven and essential for survival. During child development, individual differences in (in)secure attachment emerge. The development of different attachment behaviors has been traditionally explained as a process during which experiences with (lack of) responsive and supportive care are internalized into working models of attachment. However, this idea has been criticized for being vague and even untestable. With the aim of unraveling this black box, we propose to integrate evidence from conditioning research with attachment theory to formulate a Learning Theory of Attachment. In this review, we explain how the development of individual differences in attachment security at least partly follows the principles of classical and operant conditioning. We combine observed associations between attachment and neurocognitive and endocrinological (cortisol, oxytocin, and dopamine) processes with insights in conditioning dynamics to explain the development of attachment. This may contribute to the explanation of empirical observations in attachment research that are insufficiently accounted for by traditional attachment theory

State trust in middle childhood: an experimental manipulation of maternal support

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Tracking Official Development Assistance for Reproductive Health in Conflict-Affected Countries

Preeti Patel and colleagues report inequity in the disbursement of official development assistance for reproductive health between countries affected by conflict and those unaffected

Diagnostic yield of conventional and digital cephalometric images: a human cadaver study

OBJECTIVES: To compare the clinical efficacy of digital and conventional cephalometric imaging. METHODS: Conventional and photostimulable phosphor cephalometric radiographs were obtained from three human cadavers at nine different exposure settings. Subjective image quality was assessed by six observers who evaluated six cephalometric landmarks. Organ doses were measured with TLDs and effective doses calculated. RESULTS: Compared with conventional cephalometric images, digital images had a consistently better subjective image quality for all exposure settings which was significant (P<0.05) for all but two. Organ doses were comparable. Higher kV and lower mAs settings yielded the lowest effective dose, which was highly dependent on the position of the thyroid gland in the beam. CONCLUSION: Relatively small variations in exposure settings do not influence subjective diagnostic image quality of digital cephalometric radiographs. Higher kV and lower mAs settings have the lowest effective dose and should therefore be preferred.status: publishe