Cognitive underpinnings of narrative attachment assessment

Depression in middle childhood: secure base script as a cognitive diathesis in the relationship between daily stress and depressive symptoms

A better understanding of protective factors against childhood depression may allow for the mitigation of severe and chronic symptoms and the timely implementation of intervention strategies. This study investigated the protective effect of having a secure base script on depressive symptoms when children face daily stressors. To test this hypothesis, moderation analyses were performed in a cross-sectional study with 378 children (48.5% boys, 51.5%) aged 8-12 years (M = 10.20; SD = 0.57). The results provided some support for the moderation effect when secure base script knowledge was investigated as a categorical variable in middle childhood. However, the results did not support the moderation effect when investigating secure base script as a continuous variable. Therefore, future investigations may need to address whether a categorical approach could better elucidate the protective role of secure base script knowledge in childhood depression.

Scripted attachment representations of current romantic relationships: measurement and validation

This report describes the development and validation of a new coding system for the Current Relationship Interview (CRI) that assesses individual differences in secure base script knowledge with respect to adult romantic partners. Drawing on data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 116) a coding system was developed to parallel the secure base script coding system for the Adult Attachment Interview. Specifically, CRIs conducted in adulthood were re-coded for the extent to which the interviews reflected script-like expectations that romantic partners are available and provide effective support in times of distress (CRIsbs). CRIsbs was moderately associated with the traditional coding system for the CRI and showed concurrent and/or predictive validity in relation to observed and self-reported romantic relationship quality as well as interview ratings of the effectiveness with which adults engaged in romantic relationships. Theoretical and practical benefits of the CRIsbs coding system are discussed.

Exploring everyday state attachment dynamics in middle childhood

The current study explored dynamics of secure state attachment expectations in everyday life in middle childhood, specifically state attachment carry-over and reactivity to experiences of caregiver support in the context of stress. In two independent samples (one community sample, N = 123; one adoption sample, N = 69), children (8–12 years) daily reported on their state attachment for respectively 14 and 7 consecutive days. Additionally, they reported daily on their experiences of distress and subsequent experiences of caregiver support. Results in both samples indicated that secure state attachment on a day-to-day basis is characterized by a significant positive carry-over effect, suggesting that state attachment fluctuations are (partially) self-predictive. In Study 1, experiencing no support following distress significantly related to intraindividual decreases in secure state attachment; in Study 2, experiencing effective support during distress related to intra-individual increases in secure state attachment. Taken together, the current studies provide novel and important insights into how state attachment temporally evolves on a day-to-day basis in middle childhood.

Maternal secure base scripts predict child attachment security in an at-risk sample

Accumulating evidence indicates that individuals possess attachment, or secure base, scripts based on experiences with attachment figures, and these attachment scripts predict important outcomes such as caregiving behaviors and offspring social-emotional adjustment. However, less is known about the association between parents' secure base scripts and child attachment security within at-risk samples, i.e., those known to be at greater risk for insecurity. The current study examined the relation between maternal secure base script representations and child attachment security by extending the use of the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA; Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh, 2004) to an at-risk sample. One-hundred mother-child pairs from a larger longitudinal study participated; the larger study focused on psychosocial risks related to parenting in a primarily low-income sample. In the present study, overall ASA script scores were first compared with two independent middle-class samples, one from a U.S. study, the other an international study. Scores and statistical patterns were comparable across all samples, indicating that the ASA was successful in tapping into maternal secure base script knowledge in our at-risk sample. The relation between maternal script scores and children's Attachment Q-Set (AQS; Waters, 1995) security scores were examined at ages 1 and 2 years. Dependency scores from the AQS were also included to establish discriminant validity for the script scores. Results indicated that maternal script knowledge predicted child security, while showing no relation to dependency scores. Findings indicate that the ASA can be an important and viable measure for assessing attachment representations in at-risk samples of caregivers.

State Attachment Variability: Between- and within-Person Level Associations with Trait Attachment and Psychological Problems

Research suggests that inter-individual differences in the degree of state attachment variability are related to differences in trait attachment and psychological problems between children. In this study, we tested whether such associations are also relevant at a within-person level, and if so, whether intra-individual fluctuations in the degree of variability were predictive of or predicted by intra-individual fluctuations in trait attachment and psychological problems. Children (N = 152; M_age = 10.41 years, SD_age = 0.60 at time 1) were tested three times over a period of one year. At each timepoint, children reported on their expectations of maternal support in different distressing situations. Additionally, we administered measures of trait attachment to children and psychological problems to children and their mothers. We used Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models to distinguish between-person from within-person associations between these constructs over time. The results revealed that the degree of state attachment variability was mainly relevant to understand differences between children in trait attachment and psychological problems: children who overall showed more state attachment variability were overall less securely attached at a trait-level and reported more psychological problems. Although evidence for within-person associations was less robust, there was some indication that the degree of state attachment variability might be related to the development of trust and psychological problems at a within-person level.

Data-driven identification of subtypes of intimate partner violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a complex problem with multiple layers of heterogeneity. We took a data-driven approach to characterize this heterogeneity. We integrated data from different studies, representing 640 individuals from various backgrounds. We used hierarchical clustering to systematically group cases in terms of their similarities according to violence variables. Results suggested that the cases can be clustered into 12 hierarchically organized subgroups, with verbal abuse and negotiation being the main discriminatory factors at higher levels. The presence of physical assault, injury, and sexual coercion was discriminative at lower levels of the hierarchy. Subgroups also exhibited significant differences in terms of relationship dynamics and individual factors. This study represents an attempt toward using integrative data analysis to understand the etiology of violence. These results can be useful in informing treatment efforts. The integrative data analysis framework we develop can also be applied to various other problems.

Attachment, coping, and psychological symptoms among military veterans and active duty personnel

Background and Objectives: Military service is a stressful occupation, including increased risk for psychological distress. In order to provide the best care for service members and veterans (SMVs), it is important to understand personality and behavioral patterns associated with negative outcomes. This study examined links between attachment processes, coping styles, problematic alcohol use and psychological distress.Design: Using a cross-sectional, correlational design, a multi-instrument survey was administered to participants either online or in-person.Methods: Veterans and active duty service members (N = 268) completed measures of adult attachment, coping styles, alcohol use, and psychological symptoms.Results: Attachment avoidance was positively associated with avoidant coping, alcohol use, depression, and PTSD symptoms, but negatively related to problem-focused coping. Attachment anxiety was associated with avoidant coping, depression, GAD, and PTSD symptoms. Avoidant coping, but not problem-focused coping, was associated with psychological symptoms, and significant indirect relationships were noted between insecure attachment processes, avoidant coping, and psychological symptoms.Conclusion: Findings highlight personality and behavioral factors that may be important treatment foci when working with SMVs. Future studies should evaluate this model using longitudinal designs.

Adult Attachment Security and Different Types of Relational Violence Victimization Among College-Age Couples

This study aims to understand the associations between adult attachment security and different types of intimate partner violence victimization including that of emotional abuse, physical violence, and sexual coercion among heterosexual couples. Participants included 87 couples with the mean age 22.3 years. An actor-partner interdependence model was fit to the data. Findings indicated that adult attachment security accounted for 15% of the variance in the emotional abuse victimization of females, 9% of the variance in the sexual coercion victimization of females, and 7% of the variance in minor physical victimization of males. This may significantly impact risk factor assessment, and contribute to improved therapeutic intervention and increased understanding of the development and progression of relationship violence.

Cultural Attachment: From Behavior to Computational Neuroscience

Cultural attachment (CA) refers to processes that allow culture and its symbols to provide psychological security when facing threat. Epistemologically, whereas we currently have an adequate predictivist model of CA, it is necessary to prepare for a mechanistic approach that will not only predict, but also explain CA phenomena. Toward that direction, we here first examine the concepts and mechanisms that are the building blocks of both the prototypical maternal attachment as well as CA. Based on existing robust neuroscience models we associate these concepts and mechanisms with bona fide neurobiological functions to advance an integrative neurobiological model of CA. We further discuss the unresolved relationship of CA to other similar socio-cognitive concepts such as familiarity. Overall aim of the paper is to highlight the importance of integrating CA theory to computational approaches to culture and evolution (such as predictive processing computations explaining niche construction), as this will allow a dynamic interpretation of cultural processes.

IV. CO-CONSTRUCTION OF ATTACHMENT REPRESENTATIONS AND AFFECT-REGULATING COGNITIONS: THE ROLE OF MATERNAL ATTACHMENT SECURITY

This study focused on the role of maternal co-construction skills in building attachment relevant representations in early childhood. Thirty-four mothers and their 4- to 5-year-old children were presented with two co-construction tasks, one an attachment storytelling task, the other an affect discussion task about emotion-laden situations. Maternal co-construction skills were assessed with several scales that scored the quality of the co-construction partnership, the mother's skill in prompting elaboration, and helping build an explanatory framework. Mothers completed the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA) and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) as well. Results indicated that mothers' secure base script knowledge (ASA) was significantly related to communication effectiveness, encouraging elaboration of storylines, and using open-ended and why questions. Maternal AAI coherence showed similar relations to co-construction support.

Preschoolers' secure base script representations in relations to social competence, maternal narrative style and content in a Korean sample

A central notion of attachment theory is that the security experienced in the context of interactions with caregiver(s) is reflected in the individual's close interpersonal relationships and psychological adaptation throughout life. In this study, seventy-nine Korean preschoolers' secure base script representations were assessed to examine their relations with social competence, and maternal narrative style and content. Secure base script (SBS) was assessed using three stories from the Attachment Story Completion Task. Preschoo-lers' social competence was measured using maternal reports. Maternal narrative style and content were assessed using memory talk procedure. Results indicated that preschoolers with higher SBS scores were rated by their mothers as being more socially competent. Further, child SBS scores were significantly associated with maternal narrative style and content. Findings suggest that SBS representations are found among Korean preschoolers and SBS representations show a continuing connection to social competence and maternal narrative style and content.

Pregnancy denial and early infant development: a case-control observational prospective study

Background

The denial of pregnancy is the non-recognition of the state of the current pregnancy by a pregnant woman. It lasts for a few months or for the whole pregnancy, with generally few physical transformations. In this study, we will consider the denial of pregnancy as a late declaration of pregnancy (beyond 20 weeks of gestation) as well as a lack of objective perceptions of this pregnancy. The main objective of this study is to explore the relationship between pregnancy denial and the development of the infant (attachment pattern of the infant, early interactions of mother-infant dyads, and early development of the infant).

Methods

The design is a case-control prospective study, which will compare two groups of mother-infant dyads: a “case” group with maternal denials of pregnancy and a “control” group without denials of pregnancy. A total of 140 dyads (mother + infant) will be included in this study (70 cases and 70 controls) and followed for 18 months. The setting is a national recruitment setting with 10 centers distributed all over France. The follow-up of the “cases” and the “controls” will be identical and will occur over 5 visits. It will include measures of the infant attachment pattern, the quality of early mother-infant interaction and infant development.

Discussion

This study aims to examine the pathogenesis of pregnancy denial as well as its consequences on early infant development and early mother-infant interaction.

Trial registration

Clinical Trial Number: NCT02867579 on the date of 16 August 2016 (retrospectively registered).

Scripted knowledge about attachment and social competence in preschoolers: overview

The papers in this special issue of Attachment & Human Development address questions concerning relations between attachment representations and social competence during early childhood in samples from five different countries. All studies examined these questions using the concept of the "secure base script" that has been widely studied in samples of adults, adolescents, and school-age children. In all samples, the secure base script was scored from attachment-relevant narratives elicited from children in a doll-play task. Consistent with existing literatures, the secure base script score had positive and significant associations with adult ratings of child social competence, even in the presence of potential confounding covariates.

Secure base scripted knowledge and preschoolers' social competence in samples from Mexico and Peru

A central hypothesis in attachment theory poses that child-mother relationships have implications for children's social competence. A key task for researchers is that of investigating the pathways responsible for the association found between child attachment security and social competence. We studied whether children's secure base representations, defined as scripts, are associated with assessments of social competence in a preschool setting. We tested this association in samples from Mexico and Peru. Preschoolers' attachment representations were assessed via narratives gathered with the Attachment Story Completion Task. Teachers (in Mexico) and mothers (in Peru) provided questionnaire information about social competence. Attachment scripts predicted children's social competence in both samples. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory and research.

Commentary: the link between attachment and social competence in early childhood

The relationship between attachment and social competence in early childhood has been established by the broader literature, but has fallen short of providing specificity of developmental mechanisms bridging the two. This special issue proposes that secure base script knowledge built upon infant-caregiver experiences is the key link. The empirical articles provide support of this hypothesis across cultures sampled from four continents. All reproduce significant relations between children's secure base scripts and social competence, as well as other related social/cognitive variables. None of this would be possible if the authors had not developed new efficient scoring systems for assessing young children's script knowledge. They have not only provided a more sophisticated cognitive-based analysis of the relation between attachment and social competence, but new methodological tools to explore the relation in greater detail as well opening up the possibility of longitudinal studies and adapting the narrative techniques to assess peer-based scripts.

Preschoolers' secure base script representations predict teachers' ratings of social competence in two independent samples

Associations between attachment security, assessed as a secure base script (SBS), and teachers' social competence ratings were examined in two samples (one from the Midwest region and the other from the Southern region of the United States). Consistent with previous reports, significant associations between domains were obtained in both samples and after combining the two samples, r = .33, p < .001. The associations remained significant when child sex, age, and verbal intelligence were controlled. Findings are discussed with reference to relations between SBS scores and the covariates. Regarding sex differences, an existing literature suggests that girls, compared with boys, may be advantaged with respect to skills that could support higher scores on the task used to assess secure base scripts. In both samples, teachers rated girls as somewhat higher on scales of social competence and controlling for sex reduced the magnitude of associations between SBS and social competence, but the results remained significant in all tests.

Scripted attachment representations and adaptive functioning during early childhood

Attachment theorists have characterized children's internal working models, forged from early attachment relationship histories, as the link between earlier and later manifestations of competence. In this study, working models of attachment were measured as access to and use of the secure base script (SBS) to organize children's attachment relevant narratives (N = 139). Study goals were to assess relations between SBS use and a range of adaptive functioning domains including peer social competence, teacher/child relationships, effortful control, executive function, and verbal intelligence. Simultaneous path analyses using structural equations indicated that SBS use was significantly associated with each of these outcome domains. Findings were reproduced when effects of verbal intelligence, sex and age were controlled, except for effortful control. Results suggest that children's internalized attachment representations are intertwined with adaptive functioning during early childhood.

Assessing and quantifying the secure base script from narratives produced by preschool age children: justification and validation tests

Building on aframework presented by Bretherton and associates, Waters and associates argued that interaction sequences relevant to children's access to and use of asecure base for exploration during infancy/toddlerhood become internalized as script-like representations. For adults, these scripted representations are readily assessed using word-prompt lists d to elicit attachment relevant narratives. However, this method is not appropriate during early childhood. Waters and associates used stories from Bretherton's Attachment Story Completion Task for this purpose. However, the method they used to score secure base script use is not efficient for larger samples (e.g. over 50), and new approaches for scoring have been designed. We describe two approaches to story selection and scoring for access to and use of the secure base script. The two scoring methods show substantial and significant overlap and also have significant associations with other methods of measuring attachment security during early childhood.

Looking While Unhappy: A Mood-Congruent Attention Bias Toward Sad Adult Faces in Children

A negative mood-congruent attention bias has been consistently observed, for example, in clinical studies on major depression. This bias is assumed to be dysfunctional in that it supports maintaining a sad mood, whereas a potentially adaptive role has largely been neglected. Previous experiments involving sad mood induction techniques found a negative mood-congruent attention bias specifically for young individuals, explained by an adaptive need for information transfer in the service of mood regulation. In the present study we investigated the attentional bias in typically developing children (aged 6–12 years) when happy and sad moods were induced. Crucially, we manipulated the age (adult vs. child) of the displayed pairs of facial expressions depicting sadness, anger, fear and happiness. The results indicate that sad children indeed exhibited a mood specific attention bias toward sad facial expressions. Additionally, this bias was more pronounced for adult faces. Results are discussed in the context of an information gain which should be stronger when looking at adult faces due to their more expansive life experience. These findings bear implications for both research methods and future interventions.

II. MEASURES: SECURE BASE BEHAVIOR, CO-CONSTRUCTION, AND ATTACHMENT SCRIPTS

In order to examine the interplay between behavioral and cognitive representations of attachment during early childhood, we compiled both behavior-based and more cognitive-based attachment measures for this age range. The behavior-based measures were observational Q-set methodologies already established in the literature. Measures of attachment representations for the children and mothers were narrative-based procedures, that is, established storytelling tasks for obtaining attachment narratives from children and adults. For assessing maternal co-construction processes, we developed two new co-construction tasks that required joint storytelling of attachment relevant storylines in one case, and joint conversations about emotion-laden situations in the other. All of these measures are based on the central secure base construct of attachment theory. Behavioral measures assess secure base use and support. Attachment narratives collected from both children and parents are scored for secure base script knowledge. Maternal co-construction is assessed in terms of cognitive processes that enhance and promote attachment script knowledge.

ATTACHMENT AND MEMORY RESEARCH: REFLECTING ON A SHARED PAST AND A COLLABORATIVE FUTURE

This commentary applauds the authors of the monograph, The Mother-Child Attachment Partnership in Early Childhood: Secure Base Behavioral and Representational Processes, for their thorough and elegant exploration of the development of attachment working models in the preschool years in relation to maternal sensitivity and attachment representations, mother-child co-constructions of attachment-relevant stories, and children's own secure base behavior. These findings are set against a backdrop of children's memory development, with the recommendation that future research delves even younger to explore the development of attachment working models in children under 3 years. A second recommendation is to continue the work with older children, with a particular focus on the conversations they are having with caregivers about actual attachment-related experiences. This new research poses challenges, especially with at-risk samples. Fortunately, the stage is now set for attachment and memory researchers to come together to continue to map the development of attachment working models.

III. THE ORGANIZATION OF ATTACHMENT BEHAVIOR IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: LINKS WITH MATERNAL SENSITIVITY AND CHILD ATTACHMENT REPRESENTATIONS

This article investigated two central questions about mother-child attachment relationships during early childhood: (1) the association between maternal sensitivity and child attachment behavior (Study 1) and (2) the link between child attachment behavior and representations (Study 2). In Study 1, maternal sensitivity and child security were assessed in naturalistic contexts among 74 middle-class dyads, when children were about 3.5 and again 5.5 years of age, using the Maternal Behavior with Preschoolers Q-set (MBPQS) and the Attachment Q-set (AQS), respectively. Sensitivity and security were significantly related at each point in time and stable from 3.5 to 5.5 years of age. Furthermore, changes in sensitivity predicted changes in child security. In Study 2, the relationship between the organization of preschoolers' attachment behavior and the structure of attachment representations (secure base script knowledge) was assessed. Participants were 158 preschoolers between 3 and 5.5 years. Children's secure base behavior was described with the AQS, whereas their attachment script knowledge was assessed with the MacArthur Attachment Story Completion Task. The organization of children's secure base behavior was significantly, if modestly, associated with their knowledge of the secure base script.

I. INTRODUCTION: THE CO-CONSTRUCTION OF MOTHER-CHILD ATTACHMENT RELATIONSHIPS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Attachment relationships are formed, organized, and elaborated through interactions between an attachment figure and her/his child. The parent-child codetermination process that establishes their relationship in infancy extends and expands during the preschool years. A child's developing ability to use her/his mother as a secure base requires support, time, and practice during early childhood. Moreover, experiences with attachment figures provide information that children use to build internal representations of their relationship. Thus, the organization of attachment behavior is expected to be related to the structure of a child's attachment representations. Yet, questions about how the structure of those representations develop remain unanswered. In moving into the preschool years, we anticipate that building of mental representations of secure base support and use will be guided by parent-child co-construction processes. The child's improving language and advancing information processing skills increase the opportunities for verbally based interactions between caregiver and child. The mother-child co-construction process of secure base relationships includes now a verbal-representational component, but the nonverbal, behavioral building blocks remain in play as well.

THE MOTHER-CHILD ATTACHMENT PARTNERSHIP IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: SECURE BASE BEHAVIORAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL PROCESSES

The chapters in this monograph describe the transition of attachment representations from a predominantly sensorimotor, in the moment, experience for the infant/toddler to internalized, mental representations of attachment that are transportable to new social contexts, in which attachment figures may not be present. The chapters focus on means that parents use to help their child effect this transition in terms of both behavioral support for the child's secure base behavior and for cognitive skills that underlie the child's construction of mental models of attachment. The results cohere across studies and make a compelling case for Bowlby's notion that internal models of how attachment "works" are co-constructed through social processes during early childhood. Taken together, the results reported here constitute a milestone achievement for the attachment enterprise in terms of their theoretical and methodological rigor. These findings also justify Bowlby's confidence that cognitive psychology would become a critical disciplinary ally of attachment theory.

VIII. CONCLUSION: CO-CONSTRUCTING A SECURE BASE PARTNERSHIP: MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTIONS, COMMUNICATION, AND SCRIPT REPRESENTATIONS

Using the secure base construct, the evidence presented indicates that interactional experience continues to be a central factor in the organization of mother-child attachment relationships. The parent-child codetermination process that establishes their relationship in infancy expands during the preschool years. Furthermore, with the increasingly relevant role of language, parent-child verbal communication during this time plays an important part in structuring children's attachment behavior and knowledge. Parents help their children construe attachment-related information, control and regulate emotional experience, and guide behavior during attachment-related experiences. That is, during early childhood, parent and child continue the process of constructing a secure base partnership through their gradually more complex interactions that take advantage of children's behavioral, emotional, representational, and language advances. Although the studies are interrelated and contribute to a coherent understanding of attachment relationships during this time period, they represent small-scale studies. Further, some of the effect sizes presented are small. Thus, future research should include tests of replication as well as explorations of links to early and later development and parallel findings in more diverse samples.

The impact of marital withdrawal and secure base script knowledge on mothers' and fathers' parenting

The current study examines associations between marital conflict and negative parenting behaviors among fathers and mothers, and the extent to which internal working models (IWMs) of attachment relationships may serve as sources of risk or resilience during family interactions. The sample consisted of 115 families (mothers, fathers, and their 6-month-old infants) who participated in a controlled experiment. Couples were randomly assigned to engage in either a conflict or positive marital discussion, followed by parent-infant freeplay sessions and assessment of parental IWMs of attachment (i.e., secure base script knowledge). While no differences in parenting behaviors emerged between the conflict and positive groups, findings revealed that couple withdrawal during the marital discussion was related to more intrusive and emotionally disengaged parenting for mothers and fathers. Interestingly, secure base script knowledge was inversely related to intrusion and emotional disengagement for fathers, but not for mothers. Furthermore, only among fathers did secure base script knowledge serve to significantly buffer the impact of marital disengagement on negative parenting (emotional disengagement). Findings are discussed using a family systems framework and expand our understanding of families, and family members, at risk. (PsycINFO Database Record

Attachment styles, grief responses, and the moderating role of coping strategies in parents bereaved by the Sewol ferry accident

Background: Previous studies on the influence of different types of attachment on grief responses have yielded contradictory outcomes. Little research has been conducted to identify the psychological processes that moderate the relationship between attachment representations and patterns of grief in disaster-related grief. Objective: The present study examines the effects of different attachment types on the grief responses of parents bereaved by loss of a child in a ferry accident, along with the moderating role of coping strategies. Methods: Bereaved parents (n = 81) completed self-report questionnaires evaluating attachment, coping strategies, complicated grief, and shame/guilt. We performed correlational analyses to examine the associations among variables. We also conducted hierarchical regression analyses and simple slope analyses to examine the moderation effects of coping strategies. Results: Anxious attachment was associated with severe shame/guilt, and avoidant attachment correlated with complicated grief. Anxious attachment was positively associated with all types of coping strategies, and avoidant attachment was negatively related to problem- and emotion-focused coping. The use of problem-focused coping strategies was a significant moderator of the relationship between the avoidant attachment dimension and shame/guilt. Avoidant attachment had a significant effect on shame/guilt in groups with a high level of problem-focused coping. In contrast, none of the coping strategies significantly moderated the relationship between anxious attachment and grief response. Conclusions: The results suggest that people with highly avoidant attachment might be overwhelmed by shame and guilt when they try to use problem-focused coping strategies. This finding suggests that grief interventions should be organized with consideration of individual differences in attachment representations.

Attachment to Mother and Father at Transition to Middle Childhood

The present study investigated concordance between representations of attachment to mother and attachment to father, and convergence between two narrative-based methods addressing these representations in middle childhood: the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST) and the Secure Base Script Test (SBST). One hundred and twenty 6-year-old children were assessed by separate administrations of the MCAST for mother and father, respectively, and results showed concordance of representations of attachment to mother and attachment to father at age 6.5 years. 75 children were additionally tested about 12 months later, with the SBST, which assesses scripted knowledge of secure base (and safe haven), not differentiating between mother and father attachment relationships. Concerning attachment to father, dichotomous classifications (MCAST) and a continuous dimension capturing scripted secure base knowledge (MCAST) converged with secure base scriptedness (SBST), yet we could not show the same pattern of convergence concerning attachment to mother. Results suggest some convergence between the two narrative methods of assessment of secure base script but also highlight complications when using the MCAST for measuring attachment to father in middle childhood.

Personality Characteristics Associated With Romantic Attachment: A Comparison of Interview and Self-Report Methodologies

This study compared the personality attributes associated with self-report versus interview assessment of romantic attachment. Twenty-three-year-olds (N = 83) completed the Romantic Attachment Interview, the Experiences in Close Relationship Inventory, and measures of response bias, self-enhancement, and self-insight. Five psychologists evaluated the participants’ personality. Although both self-report and interview assessment were related to attachment-relevant personality attributes, interview assessment was slightly more likely to explain unique variance in personality, especially regarding intrapsychic attributes. Self-enhancement was negatively related to secure attachment and positively related to dismissing attachment. The opposite pattern emerged for self-insight. A subgroup of 12 vulnerable individuals who described themselves as securely attached on self-report was judged as dismissing according to interview assessment. These individuals scored low on self-insight and high on self-enhancement and psychological vulnerability. The results are discussed with reference to the relative strengths of different measures of romantic attachment and relations among dismissing attachment, self-enhancement, and narcissism.

The quality of maternal secure-base scripts predicts children's secure-base behavior at home in three sociocultural groups

The secure-base phenomenon is central to the Bowlby/Ainsworth theory of attachment and is also central to the assessment of attachment across the lifespan. The present study tested whether mothers' knowledge about the secure-base phenomenon, as assessed using a recently designed wordlist prompt measure for eliciting attachment-relevant stories, would predict their children's securebase behavior, as assessed by observers in the home and summarized with the Attachment Q-set (AQS). In each of three sociocultural groups (from Colombia, Portugal, and the US), scores characterizing the quality of maternal secure-base narratives elicited using the word-list prompt procedure were internally consistent, as indicated by tests of cross-story reliability, and they were positively and significantly associated with the child's security score from the AQS for each subsample. The correlation in the combined sample was r(129) = .33, p < .001. Subsequent analyses with the combined sample evaluated the AQS item-correlates of the secure-base script score.These analyses showed that mothers whose stories indicate that they have access to and use a positive secure-base script in their story production have children who treat them as a “secure base” at home. These results suggest that a core feature of adult attachment models, in each of the three sociocultural groups studied, is access to a secure-base script. Additional results from the study indicate that cross-language translations of the maternal narratives can receive valid, reliable scores even when evaluated by non-native speakers.

Evaluations and orientations in mother–child narratives as a function of attachment security: A longitudinal investigation

The present study examined the socialisation of children’s narrative ability across the preschool period, exploring the association between children’s and mothers’ narrative style and children’s attachment security. Fifty-six children and their mothers engaged in past event memory conversations about everyday shared past experiences when the children were aged 19, 25, 32, 40, and 51 months. At 19 months, mothers completed the Attachment Q-Set (Version 3.0) as a measure of children’s attachment security. Importantly, the results showed different patterns of narrative use and socialisation as a function of children’s attachment security. Specifically, securely attached children and their mothers used more evaluations over time, had a more consistent narrative style, and had more bidirectional influences. We clarify the narrative socialisation process and discuss the link between attachment and narrative.

Attachment security and narrative elaboration

A key means of getting to know someone is through the sharing of personal experience narratives, an ability that shows considerable individual variation. Past research has documented a relationship between narration in conversations between children and their mothers and attachment security. However, children's narrative contributions are often embedded in an ongoing conversation which may be structured differently by mothers who also have assessed the extent to which their children use them as a secure base. In the present project, these two measurements were independent. Children's narration to an attentive, but non-scaffolding, stranger was investigated to see whether that, too, would correlate with security as assessed by mothers. Participants were 32 4-year-old children and their mothers. The security of children's attachment to their mother was assessed using the revised parent-reported 90-item Q-Sort and correlated with two measures of narration. One was simple length in words of the three longest narratives told to a friendly stranger, and the other was a composite formed from specific scored narrative variables. Both narrative measures were significantly correlated with attachment security, even after partialling out the effects of gender, age, and receptive vocabulary.These results suggest that securely-attached children have internalized the inclination to disclose themselves by means of relating narratives of some length and have begun to generalize this to adults outside their family.

Origins of Secure Base Script Knowledge and the Developmental Construction of Attachment Representations

Increasing evidence suggests that attachment representations take at least two forms: a secure base script and an autobiographical narrative of childhood caregiving experiences. This study presents data from the first 26 years of the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 169), examining the developmental origins of secure base script knowledge in a high-risk sample and testing alternative models of the developmental sequencing of the construction of attachment representations. Results demonstrated that secure base script knowledge was predicted by observations of maternal sensitivity across childhood and adolescence. Furthermore, findings suggest that the construction of a secure base script supports the development of a coherent autobiographical representation of childhood attachment experiences with primary caregivers by early adulthood.

Secure Base Narrative Representations and Intimate Partner Violence: A Dyadic Perspective

This study aimed to understand the relationship between secure base phenomena and dating violence among couples. Within a relationship, a secure base can be defined as a balancing act of proximity-seeking and exploration at various times and contexts with the assurance of a caregiver's availability and responsiveness in emotionally distressing situations. Participants were 87 heterosexual couples. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was used to examine the relationship between each partner's scores on secure base representational knowledge and intimate partner violence. Findings demonstrated that women's secure base representational knowledge had a significant direct negative effect on the victimization of both men and women, while men's secure base representational knowledge did not have any significant partner or actor effects. Therefore, findings suggest that women with insecure attachments may be more vulnerable to being both the victims and the perpetrators of.

The Besançon Affective Picture Set-Adolescents (the BAPS-Ado): Development and validation

Emotional pictures are commonly used as visual stimuli in a number of research fields. Choosing relevant visual stimuli to induce emotion is fundamental in attachment and affective research. Attachment theory provides a theoretical basis for the understanding of emotional and relational problems, and is especially related to two specific emotions: distress and comfort. The lack of normalized visual stimuli soliciting these attachment-related emotions has led us to create and validate a new photographic database: the Besançon Affective Picture Set-Adolescents. This novel stimulus set is composed of 93 photographs, divided into four categories: distress, comfort, joy-complicity and neutral. A group of 140 adolescents rated the pictures with the Self-Assessment Manikin system, yielding three dimensions: valence, emotional arousal, and dominance. The pictures were also assessed, using a continuous scale, for different emotions (distress, hate, horror, comfort, complicity and joy). The ANOVAs for arousal and the Kruskal-Wallis tests for valence and dominance showed strong effects for category. However, for comfort and complicity, the dimensions of valence and dominance were not significantly different, while results for arousal showed no significant difference between complicity and distress. Our study provides a tool that allows researchers to select visual stimuli to investigate attachment-related emotion processing in adolescence.

Secure base representations in middle childhood across two Western cultures: Associations with parental attachment representations and maternal reports of behavior problems

Recent work examining the content and organization of attachment representations suggests that 1 way in which we represent the attachment relationship is in the form of a cognitive script. This work has largely focused on early childhood or adolescence/adulthood, leaving a large gap in our understanding of script-like attachment representations in the middle childhood period. We present 2 studies and provide 3 critical pieces of evidence regarding the presence of a script-like representation of the attachment relationship in middle childhood. We present evidence that a middle childhood attachment script assessment tapped a stable underlying script using samples drawn from 2 western cultures, the United States (Study 1) and Belgium (Study 2). We also found evidence suggestive of the intergenerational transmission of secure base script knowledge (Study 1) and relations between secure base script knowledge and symptoms of psychopathology in middle childhood (Study 2). The results from this investigation represent an important downward extension of the secure base script construct.

The Attachment Paradox: How Can So Many of Us (the Insecure Ones) Have No Adaptive Advantages?

Bowlby's (1969/1982) attachment theory has generated an enormous body of research and conceptual elaborations. Although attachment theory and research propose that attachment security provides a person with many adaptive advantages during all phases of the life cycle, numerous studies indicate that almost half of the human species can be classified as insecurely attached or insecure with respect to attachment. It seems odd that evolution left humans in this vulnerable position unless there are some advantages, under at least some conditions, to anxious and avoidant attachment styles. We argue that a social group containing members with different attachment patterns may be more conducive to survival than a homogeneous group of securely attached individuals. In making this argument, we extend the scope of attachment theory and research by considering a broader range of adaptive functions of insecure attachment strategies. We also present preliminary data to support our argument.

Longitudinal Influence of Paternal Distress on Children's Representations of Fathers, Family Cohesion, and Family Conflict

A parent's distress is known to color children's experiences of their families. Studies, however, have rarely focused on the levels of distress experienced by fathers, and in particular, as they affect the emotional experiences of their children. We examine the impact that fathers' experience of distress throughout their children's early years has on children's emerging narrative representations of father-child relationships and of family conflict and cohesion. In this longitudinal investigation, fathers of young children reported their distress on two occasions in relation to self, the marital relationship, and the family climate. Fathers also concurrently reported on their children's temperament, specifically negative emotionality. Children responded to story stem beginnings about challenging situations in the family and their narratives were scored for dysregulated negative-disciplinary and positive parental behaviors of fathers, family conflict themes, and family harmony themes. It was hypothesized that children of more distressed fathers would represent greater dysregulated fathering and higher levels of family conflict, and lower levels of positive fathering and family harmony than children of less distressed fathers. Further, the study examined whether this effect was mediated through the fathers' reports of their children's negative emotionality. Results partially supported the hypothesized direct and indirect effects. Children's narratives of negative-disciplinary fathering and family conflict were more common in boys when fathers reported greater distress, and temperament ratings fully mediated this effect. However, their narratives of positive fathering and family harmony were not significantly affected. That positive family features were preserved in children's narratives even in the face of greater father distress suggests that families may be able to build resilience to internalized distress through these positive narrative features.