Heidi N. Bailey

Childhood Maltreatment, Complex Trauma Symptoms, and Unresolved Attachment in an At-risk Sample of Adolescent Mothers

Abstract Associations between unresolved attachment, abuse history, and a wide range of trauma-related symptomatology were examined in an at-risk sample (N = 62). Fifty percent reported severe childhood physical and/or sexual abuse. An independent trauma interview elicited more reports of childhood sexual abuse than the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI); conversely, the AAI elicited more reports of physical abuse. Childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, and general maltreatment were associated with unresolved status. Furthermore, sexual abuse history and general maltreatment predicted unresolved loss, suggesting that they adversely affected the integration of other emotional and/or traumatic experiences. Women classified as Unresolved reported higher levels of dissociation, confusion regarding self-identity, and relationship problems. Findings complement and extend empirical support for the theorized association between dissociative processes and unresolved attachment.

Understanding the transmission of attachment using variable- and relationship-centered approaches

The interrelations of maternal attachment representations, mother-infant interaction in the home, and attachment relationships were studied in 99 adolescent mothers and their 12-month-old infants. A q-factor analysis was used to identify emergent profiles of mother and infant interaction. Traditional multivariate statistical analyses were complemented by a relationship-based approach utilizing latent class analysis. The results confirmed many theoretical predictions linking interaction with autonomous maternal representations and secure attachment, but failed to support a mediating role for maternal sensitivity. Strong associations were found between mothers displaying nonsensitive and disengaged interaction profiles, infants who did not interact harmoniously with the mother and preferred interaction with the visitor, unresolved maternal representations, and disorganized attachment relationships. Moreover, maternal nonsensitive and disengaged interaction in the home mediated the association between unresolved representations and disorganization. The results of the latent class analysis were consistent with these findings and revealed additional, empirically derived associations between attachment classifications and patterns of interactive behavior, some of which prompt a reconsideration of our current understanding of attachment transmission in at-risk populations.

Rumination and Emotions in Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury and Eating Disorder Behaviors: A Preliminary Test of the Emotional Cascade Model

OBJECTIVE This study examined relations between repeated rumination trials and emotions in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and eating disorder behaviors (EDBs) within the context of the emotional cascade model (Selby, Anestis, & Joiner, 2008). METHOD Rumination was repeatedly induced in 342 university students (79.2% female, Mage = 18.61, standard error = .08); negative and positive emotions were reported after each rumination trial. Repeated measures analyses of variance were used to examine the relations between NSSI and EDB history and changes in emotions. RESULTS NSSI history associated with greater initial increases in negative emotions, whereas EDB history associated with greater initial decreases in positive emotions. Baseline negative emotional states and trait emotion regulation mediated the relation between NSSI/EDB history and emotional states after rumination. CONCLUSION Although NSSI and EDBs share similarities in emotion dysregulation, differences also exist. Both emotion dysregulation and maladaptive cognitive processes should be targeted in treatment for NSSI and EDBs.

Understanding sensitivity: lessons learned from the legacy of Mary Ainsworth

On the basis of extensive home observations, Ainsworth proposed that a mother’s sensitivity to her infant’s signals is the primary determinant of attachment security. Although subsequent research has found a relationship between sensitivity and attachment security, the effect sizes are much smaller than those reported by Ainsworth. In addition to the amount of observation time that might account for the effect size difference, we consider Ainsworth’s focus on understanding the organizational structure of relationships. We coded 30 minute video records of interactions between 64 mother–infant dyads from semi-structured home observations conducted at 10 months of age. Coding consisted of writing a narrative summary of the interactions, annotating a completion of Ainsworth’s rating scales of acceptance, accessibility, cooperation and sensitivity and then describing the mother’s behavior using the Maternal Behaviour Q-set. Sensitivity scores derived from the Q-sort descriptions were robustly related (r = .65) to secure-insecure classifications in the Strange Situation conducted at 13 months. We reflect on the process of assessing Ainsworth’s construct of sensitivity.

Attachment anxiety and attentional control predict immediate and delayed emotional stroop interference.

Attachment anxiety has been associated with a hyperactivating response to threat. A modified emotional Stroop task was used to investigate temporal characteristics of the threat response by assessing response latencies to interpersonally threatening words (immediate interference) and two directly subsequent neutral filler words (delayed interference). Greater immediate and delayed interference to threatening words was observed (n = 125), with higher levels of attachment anxiety associated with immediate interference to threatening cues, and lower levels with delayed interference. Thus, attachment anxiety was related to the speed at which moderate perceived threat disrupted ongoing processes under top-down attentional control. Furthermore, top-down attentional control moderated the extent to which immediate or delayed interference was observed. Among participants who demonstrated relatively stronger top-down attentional control, immediate and delayed interference to threatening cues was minimal, suggesting that results involving emotional Stroop interference were primarily attributable to participants with relatively weaker top-down attentional control. The implications of these findings are considered within the broader context of performance-based and neuroimaging research, with suggestions for future applied research.

It takes two to talk: Longitudinal associations among infant–mother attachment, maternal attachment representations, and mother–child emotion dialogues

Research on the attachment-dialogue link has largely focused on infant–mother attachment. This study investigated longitudinal associations between infant–mother attachment and maternal attachment representations and subsequent mother–child emotion dialogues (N = 50). Maternal attachment representations were assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview when children were 3 months, infant–mother attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure at 13 months, and mother–child emotion dialogues were assessed using the Autobiographical Emotional Events Dialogue at 3.5 years. Consistent with past research, the three organized categories of infant–mother attachment relationships were associated with later mother–child emotion dialogues. Disorganized attachment relationships were associated with a lack of consistent and coherent strategy during emotion dialogues. Autonomous mothers co-constructed coherent narratives with their children; Dismissing and Preoccupied mothers created stories that were less narratively organized. Although the Unresolved category was unrelated to classifications of types of mother–child discourse, mothers’ quality of contribution to the dialogues was marginally lower compared to the quality of their children’s contributions to the emotion discussion. Secure children showed highest levels of child cooperation and exploration. Autonomous mothers displayed highest levels of maternal sensitive guidance during emotion dialogues. We provide preliminary evidence for role reversal in dialogues between Preoccupied and Unresolved mothers and their children.

The Roots of Depression in Early Attachment Experiences

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews attachment theory and research with an eye to those features that are most relevant to current accounts of depression and its developmental origins. The attachment relationship between infant and caregiver, which is the first human relationship, plays a significant role in placing an individual at risk for depression in adulthood. In doing so, the chapter identifies the place that attachment might fill in existing theories of vulnerability to depression and reviews the aspects of attachment theory that are likely to be most relevant to understanding the developmental processes proposed to underlie depression vulnerability. This background allows specification of those aspects of attachment that might contribute to risk for depression. Early attachment experiences and their cognitive, emotional, and social consequences are compelling candidate contributors to risk for depression in later life. Many aspects of insecure and, especially, disorganized attachment processes align with our understanding of the social and cognitive mechanisms that increase the risk of depression. Theoretical integration is supplemented with references to existing empirical evidence; where such evidence is lacking in this relatively uncharted area, critical questions and suggestions that need empirical validation and exploration are addressed

Preschool ambivalent attachment associated with a lack of vagal withdrawal in response to stress

The goal of the present study was to examine how quality of the child–caregiver attachment relationship related to children’s cardiac vagal reactivity in response to a novel social stressor. Children’s (N = 48; Mage = 3 years 9 months) cardiac data were collected as they participated in an ambiguous and potentially threatening social situation together with their mothers. Their degree of behavioral inhibition also was observed. Attachment classifications were assessed separately. Children classified as Secure showed vagal withdrawal from baseline to the stressor, whereas children classified as Ambivalent did not show vagal withdrawal in response to the stressor. There was a marginally significant moderation of attachment-related differences in vagal withdrawal by level of behavioral inhibition. Among highly behaviorally inhibited children, those classified as Ambivalent demonstrated little or no vagal withdrawal compared to their Secure counterparts. In contrast, no attachment-related differences were found among those who appeared less behaviorally inhibited. Findings are discussed in relation to children’s emerging self-regulation skills in the context of their attachment relationship.

New insight on intergenerational attachment from a relationship-based analysis

Research on attachment transmission has focused on variable-centered analyses, where hypotheses are tested by examining linear associations between variables. The purpose of this study was to apply a relationship-centered approach to data analysis, where adult states of mind, maternal sensitivity, and infant attachment were conceived as being three components of a single, intergenerational relationship. These variables were assessed in 90 adolescent and 99 adult mother-infant dyads when infants were 12 months old. Initial variable-centered analyses replicated the frequently observed associations between these three core attachment variables. Relationship-based, latent class analyses then revealed that the most common pattern among young mother dyads featured maternal unresolved trauma, insensitive interactive behavior, and disorganized infant attachment (61%), whereas the most prevalent adult mother dyad relationship pattern involved maternal autonomy, sensitive maternal behavior, and secure infant attachment (59%). Three less prevalent relationship patterns were also observed. Moderation analyses revealed that the adolescent-adult mother distinction differentiated between secure and disorganized intergenerational relationship patterns, whereas experience of traumatic events distinguished between disorganized and avoidant patterns. Finally, socioeconomic status distinguished between avoidant and secure patterns. Results emphasize the value of a relationship-based approach, adding an angle of understanding to the study of attachment transmission.

Reconsidering the links between sibship size, maternal sensitivity, and child attachment: A multidimensional interactive approach.

Despite being a well-documented predictor of children’s cognitive and social development, sibship has received remarkably little attention in the attachment and maternal sensitivity literature. The only study that has examined both sensitivity and attachment in relation to sibship found greater maternal sensitivity but no more secure attachment among first-born infants. In the current study, we sought to examine the same links while testing two related hypotheses: that sibship size relates only to some specific aspects of sensitivity, and that sibship size relates to sensitivity only among certain mothers, namely those who are at risk for suboptimal parenting because of an insecure attachment state of mind. We assessed three dimensions of maternal sensitivity at 12 months and child attachment at 15 and 25 months among 258 mother–infant dyads living in intact biparental families. Compared with mothers who had fewer children, those with more children were observed to be less accessible/available, less positive, but not less cooperative/attuned, when interacting with their infant. These links were moderated by maternal attachment state of mind, such that significant relations were observed only among mothers presenting a more insecure state of mind. Finally, sibship size was unrelated to attachment. These findings suggest that failure to consider different dimensions of sensitivity or important parental moderators may result in the erroneous conclusion that birth order and sibship size are inconsequential for parent–child relationships.