AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CORRELATES AND DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUELAE OF ANOMALOUS MATERNAL BEHAVIOUR AND DISORGANIZED ATTACHMENT RELATIONSHIPS

It has long been believed that early relationships with parents play an important role in subsequent social development. Recent research in attachment theory has focused on understanding of the complex intricacies of disorganized attachment and ensuing psychopathology. This study aims to further elucidate our understanding of the origins, correlates, and developmental sequelae of disorganized attachment. This dissertation draws on theory and research from relevant areas of developmental and clinical psychology to investigate the relation between disorganized attachment relationships and 1) unresolved states of mind, and 2) anomalous interactive behavior. A narrative review and meta-analysis reporting on the links between unresolved representations of attachment, anomalous behavior, and disorganized attachment relationships is presented. Results revealed that moderate effect sizes were found for the associations between unresolved status and anomalous behavior, unresolved status and infant disorganized attachment relationships, and anomalous behavior and disorganized attachment relationships. In a second study, the links between unresolved status, disorganized attachment, and anomalous behavior were examined in a sample of 82 adolescent mother-infant dyads. A strong association was observed between anomalous behavior and disorganized attachment, as well as between unresolved status and anomalous behavior. Regression analyses revealed that anomalous behavior statistically mediated the association between unresolved status and disorganized attachment. In a third study, the associations between toddler behaviour problems, unresolved states of mind, anomalous behaviour, and disorganized attachment were examined in 64 111 adolescent mother-infant dyads. Maternal reports of externalizing problems were significantly related to unresolved status, anomalous behavior, and disorganized attachment. Regression analyses supported a model in which disorganized attachment mediated the association between anomalous maternal behavior and externalizing problems. No evidence was found for disorganized attachment as a mediator of the association between unresolved status and externalizing problems. In the final study, the rate of change in the display of anomalous behavior over the course of an attachment-based intervention in a group of 11 high-risk mother-infant dyads was examined. Results from this study provided preliminary empirical support that a significant decrease in the mothers’ display of disrupted behaviors could be observed relatively quickly after the attachment-based treatment commenced. Data from this study provide encouraging support for Main and Hesse’s (1990) and Lyons-Ruth, Parsons, and Bronfman’s (1999) conceptualization of anomalous maternal interactive behaviour

Can a Measure of Disrupted Caregiver Behavior Discriminate Infant Disorganized Attachment from Insecure-organized Attachment?

Purpose: To examine if a measure of disrupted caregiver behavior is equally effective in differentiating children with disorganized attachment from children with secure and insecure-organized attachment. Method: One hundred and eighty-four low-risk mother-infant dyads participated in this study. Mother-infant attachment relationships were assessed using the Strange Situation procedure and disrupted caregiver behavior was assessed at 12 and 18 months using the AMBIANCE measure. Results: Disrupted caregiver behavior distinguished children with disorganized attachment from children with secure attachment but not from children with resistant attachment

Associations between Caregivers\u27 Global and Specific Attachment Representations and the Infant-Caregiver Attachment Relationship

The primary objectives of the current study were: (1)to determine the extent to which caregivers’ conceptualizations of their own attachment history (global attachment representations are congruent with the way in which they conceptualize their relationships with a specific child (relationship-specific attachment representations); and (2)to evaluate whether these relationship-specific representations play a mediating role in the intergenerational transmission of attachment. Prenatal assessments of caregivers’ global attachment representations, as measured by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and relationship-specific attachment representations, as measured by the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI), were obtained in a sample of 196 mother-infant dyads. Infant-caregiver attachment status was assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) when infants were 12 months of age. Considerable correspondence was found between caregivers’ global and relationship-specific attachment representations; however, there was no evidence for the mediational hypothesis. The current study makes a significant contribution to the literature as it represents the first attempt to directly evaluate the links between caregivers’ global and relationship-specific attachment representations within the domain of caregiver-child relationships

Both Maternal Sensitivity and Atypical Maternal Behavior Independently Predict Attachment Security and Disorganization in Adolescent Mother–infant Dyads

On the basis of these findings, at odds with current models of the origins of secure vs disorganized attachment, the current study examined the association between distinct qualities of maternal interaction and attachment in a single study. The participants in the current study were adolescent mothers and their infants, a population that has been shown to be at substantial developmental risk and to exhibit a range of markedly atypical interactions with their infants (Jaffee, Caspi, Moffitt, Belsky, and Silva, 2001)

Parental sensitivity and child behavioral problems: A meta-analytic review

Meta-analytic associations between observed parental sensitivity and child behavioral problems were examined (children aged 0-17 years). Studies (k = 108, N = 28,114) contained sociodemographically diverse samples, primarily from North America and Europe, reporting on parent-child dyads (95% mothers; 54% boys). Sensitivity significantly related to internalizing (k = 69 studies; N = 14,729; r = -.08, 95% CI [-.12, -.05]) and externalizing (k = 94; N = 25,418; r = -.14, 95% CI [-.17, -.11]) problems, with stronger associations found for externalizing. For internalizing problems, associations were significantly stronger among samples with low socioeconomic status (SES) versus mid-high SES, in peer-reviewed versus unpublished dissertations, and in studies using composite versus single scale sensitivity measures. No other moderators emerged as significant

The perspectives of senior researchers in applied disciplines on the current state of developmental attachment research: an interview study

Based on interviews with leading researchers and researcher-clinicians in fields allied to attachment research, this paper describes participants’ perceptions of contemporary attachment research in the developmental tradition. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 research leaders in applied disciplines cognate to attachment research. Participants perceived attachment research as having played a foundational role for developmental science, including highlighting the importance of a developmental perspective and attention to early caregiving experiences. They also identified important contemporary strengths in developmental attachment research, including the observational acuity and insightfulness of its measures, its attention to dyadic processes in contrast to much of biomedicine, the development of a number of attachment-based interventions with well-articulated mechanisms of action, and the capacity of developmental attachment concepts to resonate with clinical and popular audiences. However, participants suggested that the developmental tradition is also perceived as having a comparatively high “cost of entry,” and consequently they warned that it has become somewhat separated from wider developmental science, with its growing prominence of biological research, scalability of methods, and less reliance on theory. Participants perceived both strengths and weaknesses to contemporary developmental attachment research. However they felt that the classic concerns of developmental attachment research were placing the field potentially at odds with current trends in developmental science

The Perspectives of Senior Researchers in Applied Disciplines on the Current State of Developmental Attachment Research: An Interview Study

Based on interviews with leading researchers and researcher-clinicians in fields allied to attachment research, this paper describes participants’ perceptions of contemporary attachment research in the developmental tradition. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 research leaders in applied disciplines cognate to attachment research. Participants perceived attachment research as having played a foundational role for developmental science, including highlighting the importance of a developmental perspective and attention to early caregiving experiences. They also identified important contemporary strengths in developmental attachment research, including the observational acuity and insightfulness of its measures, its attention to dyadic processes in contrast to much of biomedicine, the development of a number of attachment-based interventions with well-articulated mechanisms of action, and the capacity of developmental attachment concepts to resonate with clinical and popular audiences. However, participants suggested that the developmental tradition is also perceived as having a comparatively high “cost of entry,” and consequently they warned that it has become somewhat separated from wider developmental science, with its growing prominence of biological research, scalability of methods, and less reliance on theory. Participants perceived both strengths and weaknesses to contemporary developmental attachment research. However they felt that the classic concerns of developmental attachment research were placing the field potentially at odds with current trends in developmental science

Prevalence of Common Child Mental Health Disorders Using Administrative Health Data and Parent Report in a Prospective Community-Based Cohort from Alberta, Canada: Prévalence des troubles communs de santé mentale de l’enfant à l’aide des données de santé administratives et des rapports des parents dans une cohorte prospective communautaire d’Alberta, Canada

Objective. Knowing the prevalence of mental health difficulties in young children is critical for early identification and intervention. In the current study, we examine the agreement among three different data sources estimating the prevalence of diagnoses for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and emotional disorders (i.e., anxiety or mood disorder) for children between birth and 9 years of age. Methods. Data from a prospective pregnancy cohort was linked with provincial administrative health data for children in Alberta, Canada. We report the positive agreement, negative agreement, and Cohen's Kappa of parent-reported child diagnoses provided by a health professional (“parent report”), exceeding a clinical cut-off on a standardized questionnaire completed by parents (the Behavior Assessment System for Children, 3rd edition [“BASC-3”]), and cumulative inpatient, outpatient, or physician claims diagnoses (“administrative data”). Results. Positive and negative agreement for administrative data and parent-reported ADHD diagnoses were 70.8% and 95.6%, respectively, and 30.5% and 94.9% for administrative data and the BASC-3, respectively. For emotional disorders, administrative data and parent-reported diagnoses had a positive agreement of 35.7% and negative agreement of 96.30%. Positive and negative agreement for emotional disorders using administrative data and the BASC-3 were 20.0% and 87.4%, respectively. Kappa coefficients were generally low, indicating poor chance-corrected agreement between these data sources. Conclusions. The data sources highlighted in this study provide disparate agreement for the prevalence of ADHD and emotional disorder diagnoses in young children. Low Kappa coefficients suggest that parent-reported diagnoses, clinically elevated symptoms using a standardized questionnaire, and diagnoses from administrative data serve different purposes and provide discrete estimates of mental health difficulties in early childhood