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This study examines customer preferences for AI versus human services, influenced by insecure attachment and service context. We conducted three studies with 1039 participants across six service scenarios. Study 1 demonstrated that customers exhibiting traits of insecure attachment, both anxious and avoidant, showed a preference for AI services in high-contact scenario, such as hair restyling. However, this effect was not significant in low-contact scenario, such as simple hair cutting. Study 2 replicated and extended the findings of Study 1 by manipulating customers' states of attachment in both high-contact (developing fitness plans) and low-contact (correcting fitness postures) service scenarios. Study 3 constructed a conditional mediation model and found that social anxiety significantly mediated the relationship between insecure attachments and the preference for AI services in high-contact scenario, such as customizing personal health insurance plans. This was not the case, however, for low-contact service like standard auto insurance purchases. This research adds to the existing literature by highlighting the influence of psychological characteristics on attitudes towards social robots. The findings offer insights for firms planning to implement AI services, suggesting careful design of AI service scripts and nuanced market segmentation. • In high-contact services, people with both trait- and state-based insecure attachments significantly preferred AI services. • In low-contact services, neither trait nor state insecure attachments were significantly tied to AI services preference. • Social anxiety played a significant mediating role in high-contact services, but not in low-contact services. • Firms need more refined market segmentation when deploying AI services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) is recognized for its contribution to various psychopathologies, in particular anxiety and depression. Studies highlight the relevance of IU for Eating Disorders (EDs) however, potential factors contributing to IU in EDs remain unstudied. Methods Three hundred and forty-nine women with ED symptoms and 214 individuals without ED symptoms were recruited and compared on levels of IU, insecure (anxious and avoidant) attachment styles, extraversion and openness. Secondly, the contribution of these factors to IU were tested. Results Compared to the non-ED group, the ED group scored higher on IU, insecure attachment, and lower on extraversion and openness. Regression analyses confirmed that higher insecure attachment, and lower extraversion predicted higher IU scores in the ED group, and that insecure attachment predicted higher IU scores in the non-ED group. Conclusions Results confirm the relevance of IU to ED, and demonstrate that personality traits and insecure attachment styles contribute to IU in ED. Findings add to the growing literature on IU in ED and suggest that people with EDs may benefit from clinical interventions targeting IU.

The relationship between attachment and gender is well researched in social work, as is the influence of insecure attachment on drug misuse. However, discussion of the interrelationship among insecure attachment, gender, and drug misuse is sparse in the social work literature, with contradictory findings. The attachment literature indicates that males and females exposed to the same stressful events may differ in their reaction to stressors and to insecure attachments. Some studies find that gender differences emerge in infancy, others argue that they emerge from middle school and onward. Some authors report that attachment differences may be related to the fact that parents tend to use more emotional language with girls than boys, while other authors report that female children are more prone to discuss their emotions openly than male children. Regardless of the causal direction, there seems to be agreement that attachment is influenced by gender and that insecure attachment can have unique consequences for girls and women that are heretofore understudied. This conceptual paper provides an overview of the relationships between attachment, drug misuse, and gender in an effort to advance our understanding of the role gender plays in drug misuse among women. Recommendations are also discussed for attachment-based assessment and treatment approaches that may benefit women who misuse drugs and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article interprets Lynne Ramsay's film version of Lionel Shriver's novel about maternal ambivalence and school violence from a psychoanalytic perspective. As the film visualizes, through overlapping images of mother and son that merge timeframes of past and present, Eva's and Kevin's blurred psychic boundaries contribute to a dynamic between a mother and child that includes not only repetition and dependence, but also hate and murder. While their intersubjectivity does not cause Kevin's attacks at school and home, insecure attachment, maternal ambivalence, and the cultural fantasy of motherhood are psychosocial factors that should be explored in relation to teen aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Childhood trauma is associated with an increased risk for schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis. • Patients with schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis report higher levels of insecure attachment. • Anxious-preoccupied and fearful-avoidant attachment are the predominant types. • Attachment anxiety and severity of mother antipathy are associated with severity of hallucinations. • Attachment anxiety mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis. Childhood trauma (CT) is a comprehensive concept encompassing experiences of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, and neglect during childhood and adolescence. Patients with schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis (SSP) display higher rates of CT than healthy controls. Among the potential mediators of this association, insecure attachment has gained attention and empirical validation. The present study aimed to extend existing knowledge on this field by exploring the role of the two attachment dimensions, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, in the CT-SSP association. A clinical sample of 63 SSP inpatients was compared to a healthy control group on CT and attachment style measures. Correlations between CT, attachment dimensions and psychopathology were sought. Mediation analyses were also performed to examine whether attachment anxiety and/or attachment avoidance mediated the CT-SSP association. Patients displayed higher rates of CT and insecure attachment than controls. Attachment anxiety and severity of Mother Antipathy were linked to severity of hallucinations. Attachment anxiety was recognized as the sole mediator of the CT-SSP association. Our findings suggest that individuals with severe CT and increased attachment anxiety represent a risk population warranting early clinical attention, regular monitoring and tailored therapeutic interventions aimed at reducing the psychological impact of trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The associations between insecure attachment, negative parental behaviors, and social anxiety in childhood and adolescence have long been established theoretically and documented by empirical research. Still, it is clear that those associations operate through various moderators that should be addressed, among which are societal, economical, and cultural variables whose eff ect can be neither ignored nor overlooked. The vicissitudes of individual psychological development are shaped by environments, both physical and symbolic, in which those individuals are embedded: indeed, the cross-cultural studies that compared between Western and non-Western samples consistently reveal interrelatedness between secure/insecure attachments, parenting practices, and socioeconomic and cultural influences. In the light of the above, the present article addresses the interplay between insecure attachment, parental behaviors, and social anxiety in children as a multi-layered constellation of risk-factors which are informed by the broad network of socioeconomic and cultural dimensions. The integrative review of extensive body of literature demonstrates that this constellation cannot be complete without elucidating the role of fathers in parenting that may contribute to developing social anxiety, as well as without taking into consideration characteristics of cultures and society which shape and inform both parental practices and their perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been a controversial entity with various opinions about its clinical relevance as an independent mental disorder. This debate has also included discussions about the relationships between problematic gaming, various psychiatric disorders, and personality traits and dimensions. This paper outlines a developmental-theory based model of Internet gaming misuse inspired by the treatment of two adolescent inpatients. The two clinical vignettes illustrate distinct developmental pathways: an "internalized pathway" via the development of social anxiety, emotional and behavioral avoidance; and an "externalized pathway" with a low level of emotional regulation strategies and impulsivity. In both clinical cases, attachment issues played a key role to understand the specific associations of risk and maintaining factors for IGD, and gaming behaviors may be seen as specific forms of maladaptive self-regulatory strategies for these two youths. These clinical observations support the assumption that gaming use problematic in adolescents should be viewed with a developmental approach, including key aspects of emotional development that represent significant targets for therapeutic interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicidal ideation is a common health concern in primary care. Attachment theory indicates that subjects with higher anxiety and/or avoidance may be more susceptible to suicidal ideation. Therefore, the aim of our study was to examine the association of attachment anxiety, avoidance, and suicidal ideation in middle-aged to elderly, chronically ill primary care patients.Methods: The APRICARE Study comprised 207 patients aged 50-85 years with a minimum of three chronic diseases. Adult attachment, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation were measured via the self-report questionnaires Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-RD12) and Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9). Univariable and adjusted associations of suicidal ideation with ECR-RD12-attachment anxiety, ECR-RD12-attachment avoidance, and ECR-RD12-insecure adult attachment were examined via logistic regression analyses.Results: Suicidal ideation was present in 13% of all patients. ECR-RD12-anxiety was significantly associated with suicidal ideation (OR = 1.88, CI 1.44-2.44), while ECR-RD12-avoidance was not associated. In patients with suicidal ideation, 85% were insecurely attached compared to 63% in those without suicidal ideation - thus the OR for suicidal ideation in insecurely attached patients was 3.33 (CI = 1.10-10.04) with securely attached patients as reference. Further variables associated with suicidal ideation were depressive symptomatology, living alone (especially in men) and obesity (especially in women).Limitations: The study was cross-sectional in design, and suicidal ideation was assessed using a single item self-report measure.Conclusion: General practitioners should be aware of attachment styles in order to have a better chance to identify patients at risk for suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current pilot study, we examined whether insecure or disorganized attachment was associated with elevated inflammation (i.e. C-reactive protein [CRP]) in children with histories of child protective services (CPS) involvement, and whether early childhood CRP predicted body mass index (BMI) in middle childhood. Participants included 45 CPS-referred children and 39 low-risk comparison children, for whom we assessed levels of CRP in early childhood (Mean age = 4.9 years). For the CPS-referred children, who were drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study, we had attachment classifications (assessed during infancy with the Strange Situation) and BMI data (assessed during early and middle childhood); these data were not available for the low-risk comparison group. CPS-referred children who had insecure or disorganized attachments during infancy had higher levels of CRP in early childhood than CPS-referred children who had secure attachments, who had similar levels of CRP to low-risk comparison children. Among CPS-referred children, early childhood CRP predicted age 8 BMI, controlling for BMI at age 4. Findings offer preliminary support for the association between attachment quality and inflammation in early childhood, which may have implications for later physical health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the moderating effects of prevention-focus on the paths from the dimensions of insecure attachment (attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety) to depression. Two hundred twenty eight Korean college students completed the Experience in Close Relationship - Revised Scale; the Regulatory Focus Strategies Scale; and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Results revealed a significant moderating effect for prevention-focus on the path from attachment avoidance to depression, but not on the path from attachment anxiety to depression. They further suggest that different interventions are needed for different combinations of persons' insecure attachment dimensions and levels of prevention-focus. Counseling implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnoses characterized by severe, persistent and disabling grief have recently been added to the ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR as prolonged grief disorder. Adult attachment is widely assumed critical in the development, persistence, and treatment of prolonged grief, yet a meta-analysis on this topic is lacking. We conducted a systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42021220511) searching PsycInfo, Web of Science, and PubMed (final search: August 2022) to identify and summarize quantitative research examining relationships between adult attachment (i.e., attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, secure attachment, disorganized attachment) and prolonged grief symptoms. Thirty-one studies including 8347 bereaved adults were included. Attachment anxiety (r = 0.28, 95 % CI:0.23–0.32, k = 15) and attachment avoidance (r = 0.15, 95 % CI:0.05–0.26, k = 15) related positively to prolonged grief symptoms concurrently. We found no evidence of publication bias but did detect heterogeneity in effect sizes. Ten longitudinal analyses showed no evidence that insecure attachment styles increase prolonged grief symptoms. Attachment anxiety predicted better therapy outcomes. Insecure attachment styles are concurrently positively related to prolonged grief symptoms but do not increase grief severity. The role of adult attachment in contemporary grief theories may need reconsideration. Intensive longitudinal research should aim to clarify how dynamic changes in attachment to the deceased and others relate to changes in prolonged grief symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This meta-analysis systematically evaluates the strength and direction of the association between negative parent-related family interactions and child social anxiety, and identifies several influencing moderators. Two investigators independently searched international (PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science) and Chinese (CNKI, WanFang, and VIP) databases from their inception dates until March 5, 2023, for suitable articles. Of the 5771 identified records, 85 studies were selected based on inclusion of at least one of the following three dimensions of negative family interactions: insecure attachment (n = 27), parent-related family conflicts (n = 19), or negative parenting styles (n = 46). Meta-analyses showed that all three dimensions were significantly associated with child social anxiety (insecure attachment: r = 0.271, p < 0.0001; parent-related family conflicts: r = 0.226, p < 0.0001; negative parenting styles: r = 0.186, p < 0.0001). For all three dimensions, this association was stronger in children from East Asian culture than in those from European or American culture. In addition, age group, information source, and publication year also significantly moderated this association. Our findings will help guide further research and provide recommendations for the development of effective interventions for reducing social anxiety. • Three dimensions of negative family interactions were associated with child SA. • The association was stronger in East Asian culture than European American culture. • Age group, information source and publication year were also moderators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]