Background
Twin studies consistently point to limited genetic influence on attachment security in the infancy period, but no study has examined whether this remains the case in later development. ...This study presents the findings from a twin study examining the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences on attachment in adolescence.
Methods
The sample included 551 twin pairs aged 15 years recruited from the larger Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). Attachment was assessed using a semistructured interview, the Child Attachment Interview.
Results
We found robust associations between MZ twins' scores for Coherence and their overall security of attachment (r = .42, p < .001; kappa = .26, p < .001), but substantially lower associations for DZ twins (r = .20, p = .001; kappa = .09, p = .20), suggesting genetic influence on adolescent attachment (and substantial nonshared environment). Model‐fitting analyses confirmed this impression, indicating approximately 40% heritability of attachment and negligible influence of the shared environment.
Conclusions
The results suggest that genes may play an important role in adolescent attachment and point to the potentially distinct aetiological mechanisms involved in individual differences in attachment beyond early childhood.
Read the Commentary on this article at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12301
Read the Response to the Commentary at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12302
We were delighted to learn that Michael Rutter had written a commentary (Rutter, 2014) on our article (Fearon, Shmueli‐Goetz, Viding, Fonagy, & Plomin, 2014).
Read the full article at doi: ...10.1111/jcpp.12171
Read the Commentary at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12301
The Child Attachment Interview (CAI) is a well-established semi-structured interview, widely used to identify attachment representations in middle childhood and adolescence. The application of the ...Child and Adolescent Reflective Functioning Scale (CRFS) to CAI narratives allows for an assessment of child mentalization, considered a strong predictor of attachment security. The 2nd edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2) includes CAI and CRFS as valid and reliable assessment measures in order to assess the dominion of the Mental Functioning axis. The aim of the present paper is to investigate the informative power of CAI and CRFS for the overall understanding of mental functioning and personality in a PDM-2 framework. The present report includes the discussion of two clinical cases of school-aged children in applying the Psychodiagnostic Chart-Second Edition (PDC-2) to the CAI transcript. The first case concerns a young male, aged 10, suffering from Oppositional-Provocative Disorder (externalizing disorder), while the second case concerns a young female, aged 15, suffering from Somatic Symptoms Disorder (internalizing disorder). PDC-2 for children and adolescents was used. Data from the scoring of CAI and CRFS were combined with a systematic evaluation of the qualitative contents emerging from CAI transcripts. A detailed analysis suggests that both the CAI and CRFS are useful attachment-oriented measures, able to explore child's mental states, and together with the application of PDC-2 they provide an essential contribution in the understanding of developmental psychopathology. Implications of this innovative approach for clinical assessment, treatment design, and interventions are further discussed.
Research has established the quality of attachment as an important correlate and predictor of psychological well-being. Adolescence represents an important transitional period and is associated with ...considerable changes in psychosocial functioning and centrally in attachment relationships. However, measures of attachment are rarely examined for their psychometric properties in adolescence. In an attempt to address this limitation, the current study reports on the use of the Child Attachment Interview (CAI) in adolescents. Our broad aim was to explore the psychometric properties of the CAI classifications and subscales among adolescents with psychiatric disorder in the United States by (a) evaluating interrater reliability of the CAI, (b) examining the factor structure of the CAI subscales in adolescents, (c) examining relations between CAI classifications and subscales, (d) evaluating concurrent validity by assessing relations between the CAI and established questionnaire-based measures of attachment routinely used in adolescent samples, and (e) evaluating convergent validity by exploring relations between the CAI and parent- and self-reported psychopathology and peer relations. One hundred ninety-four inpatient adolescents were recruited. Analyses revealed adequate interrater agreement and revealed 3 factors that generally mirror those associated with the Adult Attachment Interview. Concurrent and convergent evidence to support the use of CAI attachment classifications and subscale scores in adolescents was provided.
Background Our aim was to determine whether child attachment to parents, parent attachment style, and morning cortisol levels were related to diabetes outcomes measured by average glycated hemoglobin ...(HbA1c), HbA1c variability over 4 years and time in range (TIR) in children with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Research design and methods 101 children with T1D and one of their parents were assessed at baseline for child attachment (Child Attachment Interview; CAI) and parent attachment (Relationship Structures Questionnaire; ECR-RS). Serum samples were collected for cortisol measurements before the interviews. HbA1c levels were measured during a 4-year follow-up period at regular 3-monthly visits, and data for TIR were exported from blood glucose measuring devices. Multivariate linear regression models were constructed to identify independent predictors of glycemic outcomes. Results More girls than boys exhibited secure attachment to their mothers. The results of the regression models showed that securely attached girls (CAI) had higher average HbA1c than did insecurely attached girls (B = -0.64, p = 0.03). In boys, the more insecure the parent's attachment style, the worse the child's glycemic outcome: the higher the average Hb1Ac (B = 0.51, p = 0.005), the higher the HbA1c variability (B = 0.017, p = 0.011), and the lower the TIR (B = -8.543, p = 0.002). Conclusions Attachment in close relationships is associated with glycemic outcomes in children with T1D, and we observed significant differences between sexes. A sex- and attachment-specific approach is recommended when treating children with less favorable glycemic outcomes. Special attention and tailored support should be offered to securely attached girls in transferring responsibility for diabetes care and at least to male children of insecurely attached parents to prevent suboptimal glycemic control. Further studies in larger samples and more daily cortisol measurements may help us better understand the links between stress response, attachment and T1D. Keywords: Attachment, Childhood and adolescence, Diabetes control, Time in range, Cortisol
The Child Attachment Interview Shmueli-Goetz, Yael; Target, Mary; Fonagy, Peter ...
Developmental psychology,
07/2008, Letnik:
44, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
While well-established attachment measures have been developed for infancy, early childhood, and adulthood, a "measurement gap" has been identified in middle childhood, where behavioral or ...representational measures are not yet sufficiently robust. This article documents the development of a new measure-the Child Attachment Interview (CAI)-which seeks to bridge this gap. The CAI is a semistructured interview, in which children are invited to describe their relationships with their primary caregivers. The coding system is informed by the Adult Attachment Interview and the Strange Situation Procedure, and produces 4 attachment categories along with a continuous measure of attachment security based on ratings of attachment-related dimensions. The main psychometric properties are presented, including interrater reliability, test-retest reliability, and concurrent and discriminant validities, both for normally developing children and for those referred for mental health treatment. The CAI correlates as expected with other attachment measures and predicts independently collected ratings of social functioning. The findings suggest that the CAI is a reliable, valid, and promising measure of child-parent attachment in middle childhood. Directions for improvements to the coding system are discussed.
Background/Objective:
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is among the most common chronic diseases in children/adolescents, and the incidence continues to rise worldwide. Different environmental factors have been ...evaluated in the etiology. In the present study, we investigated the role of attachment examining whether insecure attachment to carers or carers' own attachment insecurity was related to a higher risk of T1D in children.
Methods:
We included 101 children with T1D (mean age 11.8 years), 106 healthy controls (11.6 years), and one of their carers. We assessed children's attachment using the Child Attachment Interview and carers' attachment using the Relationship Structures Questionnaire. We constructed binary multinomial logistic regression models using attachment to mothers, carers' attachment representations, and stressful life-events as T1D predictors.
Results:
Higher carer attachment anxiety was associated with the child's T1D diagnosis (
p
< 0.05;
R
2
= 0.0613) while security of attachment to mothers showed no significant association. When mothers' education was included in the model, both attachment anxiety in higher educated mothers and stressful life events showed a significant association with the child's T1D (
p
< 0.001;
R
2
= 0.293).
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that higher attachment-related anxiety in carers with high education and stressful life events are associated with T1D in children.
Relatively little is known about the role of maternal functioning in terms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, attachment style and resilience as predictive factors for ...treatment outcome when offspring are diagnosed with ADHD.
To investigate whether maternal functioning is associated with treatment outcome in children with ADHD.
The study formed part of a larger naturalistic observational study of children with ADHD. A battery of self-report measures was used to assess selected factors in maternal functioning at the point of referral (baseline data); adult ADHD-symptoms, adult attachment style and adult resilience. Associations between these domains and child treatment response were subsequently examined in a 1-year follow up.
Maternal ADHD-symptoms and degree of resilience were significantly correlated to symptom reduction in offspring diagnosed with ADHD. However, the association between maternal attachment style and child treatment response as measured by the ADHD-RS did not reach statistical significance.
To our knowledge, this is the first study to consider potential protective factors along with risk factors in maternal functioning and the impact on child treatment outcome. The study contributes to our knowledge of the potential role of maternal functioning in treatment outcome for children with ADHD.
Background
Research has pointed to secure attachment as a possible key factor of resilience in adulthood.
Objective
We aimed to investigate the role of secure attachment as a potential core feature ...in the properties of resilience.
Methods
We conducted a systematic review in accordance with PRISMA guidelines followed by a meta-analysis.
Results
Thirty-three studies were included in the review, and 10 of these, including 2305 subjects, were used for meta-analysis. The raw correlation coefficients ranged from .20 to .57, which indicated weak to moderate correlations between resilience and attachment. The synthesized correlation coefficients indicated that the correlations were significant and highly unlikely to be due to random variation. All studies are also reported on qualitatively.
Conclusions
In both of our meta-analyses and in the narratively reported studies, we found that secure attachment is associated with the presence of resilience.
While attachment assessments developed for infancy and adulthood are well established, no such gold standard measure exists for school years, where measures are not yet sufficiently robust. ...Nevertheless, the last decade has witnessed some progress in this field with the development of the Child Attachment Interview (CAI), a semistructured interview designed to access children’s mental representations of their attachment relationships. This study aimed to test the validity and reliability of the CAI for an Italian population, using a normative group and a clinical group of disruptive behavior disorder and somatic symptom disorder patients. A total sample of 311 Italian children (213 normative and 98 clinical) aged 8 to 15 years completed a battery of measures assessing attachment, verbal IQ, and symptomatology. The psychometric properties of the CAI alongside other children (Kerns Security Scale, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment) and parents (Adult Attachment Interview) attachment measures in normative sample, as well as the distribution of attachment patterns in normative and clinical samples, were examined. The results revealed the CAI to have adequate interrater and test–retest reliability, as well as discriminant, and convergent validity. Significant differences in the CAI’s distribution of attachment patterns for normative and specific clinical groups were found. Taken together, the findings show that the CAI Italian version is a reliable and valid measure for assessing attachment in school years and beyond.
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