From secure dependency to attachment: Mary Ainsworth's integration of Blatz's security theory into Bowlby's attachment theory

Family religiosity and climate: the protective role of personal interiorized religiosity in deviance propensity among justice-involved juveniles

According to the literature, religious commitment could be a protective factor against dangerous behaviors, such as criminal offending, unsafe sex, and substance use. Our study aims to investigate the influence of Family Religiosity and climate on anger dysregulation and deviance propensity in a sample of 214 justice-involved boys from Italian Youth Detention Centers (range 14-25). The sample was divided into religious (n = 102) and non-religious (n = 112) justice-involved juveniles. Participants filled in the following questionnaires: Deviant Behavior Questionnaire, Aggression Questionnaire, Family Communication Scale, Moral Disengagement Scale, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. We used a partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS_SEM) method to build our model and we found that Family Religiosity was positively associated with Family Climate which was negatively associated with Anger Dysregulation and Deviance Propensity, and Anger Dysregulation was positively related to Deviance Propensity. The multigroup analysis confirmed that for justice-involved juveniles who interiorized religious discipline and beliefs, Family Religiosity showed a positive association with Family Climate, which had a negative relationship with Anger Dysregulation, which strongly predicted Deviance Propensity. This result could be useful to promote new development goals and preventive activities and interventions based on positive religiosity values in juveniles' behavior.

The lateral habenula integrates age and experience to promote social transitions in developing rats

Social behavior deficits are an early-emerging marker of psychopathology and are linked with early caregiving quality. However, the infant neural substrates linking early care to social development are poorly understood. Here, we focused on the infant lateral habenula (LHb), a highly-conserved brain region at the nexus between forebrain and monoaminergic circuits. Despite its consistent links to adult psychopathology, this brain region has been understudied in development when the brain is most vulnerable to environmental impacts. In a task combining social and threat cues, suppressing LHb principal neurons had opposing effects in infants versus juveniles, suggesting the LHb promotes a developmental switch in social approach behavior under threat. We observed that early caregiving adversity (ECA) disrupts typical growth curves of LHb baseline structure and function, including volume, firing patterns, neuromodulatory receptor expression, and functional connectivity with cortical regions. Further, we observed that suppressing cortical projections to the LHb rescued social approach deficits following ECA, identifying this microcircuit as a substrate for disrupted social behavior. Together, these results identify immediate biomarkers of ECA in the LHb and highlight this region as a site of early social processing and behavior control.

Trauma and loss in the Adult Attachment Interview: Situating the unresolved state of mind classification in disciplinary and social context

This article examines how 'trauma' has been conceptualised in the unresolved state of mind classification in the Adult Attachment Interview, introduced by Main and Hesse in 1990. The unresolved state of mind construct has been influential for three decades of research in developmental psychology. However, not much is known about how this measure of unresolved trauma was developed, and how it relates to other conceptualisations of trauma. We draw on previously unavailable manuscripts from Main and Hesse's personal archive, including various editions of unpublished coding manuals, and on Main-Bowlby correspondence from the John Bowlby Archive at the Wellcome Trust in London. This article traces the emergence of the unresolved state of mind classification, and examines the assumptions about trauma embedded in the construct. These assumptions are situated both in the immediate context of the work of Main and Hesse and in terms of wider discourses about trauma in the period. Our analysis considers how a particular form of trauma discourse entered into attachment research, and in doing so partly lost contact with wider disciplinary study of trauma.

Harry Harlow's pit of despair: Depression in monkeys and men

Major depressive disorder is the most common mood disorder in the United States today and the need for adequate treatment has been universally desired for over a century. Harry Harlow, famous for his research with rhesus monkeys, was heavily criticized when he undertook his controversial experiments trying to find a solution for depression in the 1960s-1970s. His research, however, did not just evolve gradually from his earlier research into learning and into love. Recently disclosed hand-written notes show, for the first time, the severity of Harlow's depressions as he wrote in detail about his feelings and thoughts during his stay in a mental hospital in 1968. In these notes, Harlow repeatedly vowed to put every effort into finding a cure for depression. This may, for a large part, explain why he did not stop his rigorous animal experiments where critics argue he should have, and he eventually managed to book positive results.

Risk and resilience factors associated with traumatic loss-related PTSD in U.S. military veterans: Results from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study

PURPOSE

Sudden death of a loved one is the most prevalent potentially traumatic event worldwide, yet little is known about risk and resilience factors associated with traumatic loss-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

METHODS

Data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. military veterans were analyzed to identify sociodemographic, military, health and psychosocial correlates of traumatic loss-related PTSD.

RESULTS

Loneliness, somatic symptoms, and attachment style were the strongest correlates of PTSD symptom severity and positive screens for traumatic loss-related PTSD.

CONCLUSION

Loneliness, somatic symptoms, and attachment style may represent therapeutic targets to help mitigate traumatic loss-related PTSD in U.S. veterans.

Cultural spaces of popularized psychological knowledge: Attachment parenting in Turkey

The psychological concept of attachment is constantly evolving. Approximately 70 years after attachment theory was first introduced by John Bowlby in the late 1940s, the notion of attachment is still in flux with continually changing ideas of what it means to be a good parent. One path along which attachment as a concept is moving from academia to everyday life is the philosophy of attachment parenting which was first established in the US by William and Martha Sears. Ideas about attachment theory and attachment parenting are frequently accompanied by critical comments on “Western” cultures. This critical perspective on modernity, individualism, and autonomy is portrayed in the first part of this article. The second part traces attachment as a concept transferred to Turkey. Rather than studying academic work on attachment in Turkey, this article focuses on popularized versions of attachment theory which gain ground as part of the parenting philosophy of attachment parenting. This article analyzes parents’ blogs, websites, self-help books, fieldwork protocols, and interviews with parenting trainers and parents themselves. It focuses on how popular scientific use of attachment parenting in Turkey is accompanied by discussions of cultural identity, cultural values, and belonging. The article shows that attachment theory and parenting are used in quite diverse ways to comment on Turkish (parenting) culture, ranging from anglophile readings to more conservative appropriations of attachment theory as Anatolian education. These forms of popularizing attachment theory challenge the sociological concept of psychologization.

A tale of four countries: How Bowlby used his trip through Europe to write the WHO report and spread his ideas

Attachment theory, developed by child psychiatrist John Bowlby, is considered a major theory in developmental psychology. Attachment theory can be seen as resulting from Bowlby's personal experiences, his psychoanalytic education, his subsequent study of ethology, and societal developments during the 1930s and 1940s. One of those developments was the outbreak of World War II and its effects on children's psychological wellbeing. In 1950, Bowlby was appointed WHO consultant to study the needs of children who were orphaned or separated from their families for other reasons and needed care in foster homes or institutions. The resulting report is generally considered a landmark publication in psychology, although it subsequently met with methodological criticism. In this paper, by reconstructing Bowlby's visit to several European countries, on the basis of notebooks and letters, the authors shed light on the background of this report and the way Bowlby used or neglected the findings he gathered.

The nature of love: Harlow, Bowlby and Bettelheim on affectionless mothers

Harry Harlow, famous for his experiments with rhesus monkeys and cloth and wire mothers, was visited by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby and by child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim in 1958. They made similar observations of Harlow's monkeys, yet their interpretations were strikingly different. Bettelheim saw Harlow's wire mother as a perfect example of the 'refrigerator mother', causing autism in her child, while Bowlby saw Harlow's results as an explanation of how socio-emotional development was dependent on responsiveness of the mother to the child's biological needs. Bettelheim's solution was to remove the mother, while Bowlby specifically wanted to involve her in treatment. Harlow was very critical of Bettelheim, but evaluated Bowlby's work positively.

Epigenetic impact of the social and physical environment on brain and body

Modern biomedical scientists are often trapped in silos of knowledge and practice, such as those who study brain structure, function and behavior, on the one hand, and body systems and disorders, on the other. Scientists and physicians in each of those silos have not often paid attention to the brain-body communication that leads to multi-morbidity of systemic and brain-related disorders [eg. depression with diabetes or cardiovascular disease]. Outside of biomedicine, social scientists have long recognized the impact of the social and physical environment on individuals and populations but have not usually connected these effects with changes in underlying biology. However, with the rise of epigenetics, science and the public understanding of science is leaving an era in which the DNA sequence was thought to be "destiny" and entering an era where the environment shapes the biology and behavior of individuals and groups through its interactive effects on brain and body. It does so, at least in part, by shaping epigenetically the structure and function of brain and body systems that show a considerable amount of adaptive plasticity throughout development and adult life. This results in substantial individual differences even between identical twins. These individual differences are produced epigenetically by the two-way interaction between the brain and hormones, immune system mediators and the autonomic nervous system. Disorders, then, are often multimorbid involving both brain and body, such as depression with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It is therefore imperative to incorporate into "precision medicine" a better understanding of how these differences affect the efficacy of pharmacological, behavioral and psychosocial interventions. This article presents an overview of this new synthesis, using as an example emerging evidence about the linkages between systemic inflammation, insulin resistance and mental health and neurodegenerative diseases.

Attachment Disorders

The ability to form attachments with other human beings is an essential skill that typically begins early in life. The parent/caregiver-child relationship is the first crucial relationship that an infant forms, and the health of this relationship has a profound effect on the child's social and emotional development. Children who form secure relationships with their parent or other primary caregiver have fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviors, are more socially competent, and have better-quality friendships. Conversely, children with attachment disorders exhibit a varying capacity to form and sustain relationships and demonstrate emotional depth, they and experience a higher level of peer conflict. Children with insecure attachments have a greater likelihood for physical health morbidities and impaired social, psychological, and neurobiological functioning extending into adulthood. It is crucial that pediatric nurse practitioners implement practice behaviors to better identify children at risk for attachment disorders and link them with appropriate interventions. This continuing education article will explore attachment; and attachment theory; and attachment disorders in terms of types, risk factors, consequences, and treatment and will also provide implications for practice.

Attachment and the archive: barriers and facilitators to the use of historical sociology as complementary developmental science

This article explores historical sociology as a complementary source of knowledge for scientific research, considering barriers and facilitators to this work through reflections on one project. This project began as a study of the emergence and reception of the infant disorganized attachment classification, introduced in the 1980s by Ainsworth's student Mary Main, working with Judith Solomon. Elsewhere I have reported on the findings of collaborative work with attachment researchers, without giving full details of how this came about. Here, I will offer personal reflections arising from the process, and my work in what Hasok Chang has called history as "complementary science."

Perceived Weight Discrimination and School Connectedness Among Youth: Does Teacher Support Play a Protective Role?

BACKGROUND

Weight discrimination has been associated with poor academic performance and decreased school attendance. Little is known about weight discrimination and students' feelings of belonging to their school. This study examined the association between weight discrimination and school connectedness among adolescents. Teacher support was examined as a protective factor.

METHODS

Middle school students (N = 639; 57% white; Mean age = 12.16 years) completed a health behaviors survey. Weight discrimination from peers and/or good friends was dichotomized into never versus experienced weight discrimination. The mean of 5 school connectedness items assessed level of school connectedness. Teacher support was measured by taking the mean of 4 teacher support items. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine the association between weight discrimination and school connectedness. Teacher support was tested as a moderator.

RESULTS

Weight discrimination was associated with lower levels of school connectedness (p < .05). Teacher support was associated with higher levels of school connectedness (p < .001) but did not moderate the association between weight discrimination and school connectedness.

CONCLUSION

The association between weight discrimination and low levels of school connectedness is important as students spend most of their time at school and should benefit from the positive effects of feeling connected to school.

Effect of Attachment Styles to Parents on Sexual Dysfunction Domains of Married Women

INTRODUCTION

According to Bowbly attachment theory, attachment of a baby and its main care provider, influences on social growth and the baby's feelings throughout its life. The present study was performed aim to determine the effect of attachment style to parents on domains of sexual dysfunction in married women.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was carried out on two hundred married women who were fertile, and referred private and governmental gynecology clinics in Mashhad, Iran, in 2014. Data collection tools were three questionnaires; Demographic and marital questionnaire, Female sexual function index questionnaire, and Adult attachment style questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 20 (IBM© SPSS© Statistics version 20 using independent-samples t-test and logistic regression. The statistical tests were performed at the 95% confidence interval.

RESULT

Mean of safe attachment style to parents in all aspect of sexual dysfunction was significantly lower (p≤0.01), however, mean of distant attachment style to parents in all aspects of sexual dysfunction was significantly higher (p≤0.05).

CONCLUSION

Secure and distance attachment style to the mother showed maximum power of prediction for sexual dysfunction, which indicates the importance of attachment to parents and its impact on adult relationships.

BEFORE ATTACHMENT THEORY: SEPARATION RESEARCH AT THE TAVISTOCK CLINIC, 1948-1956

This article traces the formation of attachment theory to the pioneering research program of Bowlby and his colleagues at the Tavistock Clinic between 1948 and 1956. Through a discussion of the concepts and practices that informed Bowlby's program, I examine the efforts of his team to reconstruct psychoanalytic objects according to preventive objectives and operational criteria. I discuss how the exploratory techniques that Bowlby and his colleagues were developing during these years ultimately led to the establishment of a hybrid investigative framework, in which the prophylactic requirements of mental hygiene, the psychometric model of personality disturbances, the psychoanalytic theory of object relations, and a direct-observational methodology were brought to bear on the problem of the psychological consequences of early separation experiences. I further claim that this shift in investigative practice was crucial for the succeeding theoretical developments that eventually gave rise to the statistically validated constructs of attachment theory.