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© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.This paper prospected the evidence synthesized in meta-analyses on child–parent attachment to discuss its implications for the future of attachment research. Based on the 75 identified meta-analyses, effect size benchmarks may need to be adjusted to small (r = .10), medium (r = .20), and large (r = .30). Topics of attachment meta-analyses predominantly (53%) reflected interest in testing theory. Bibliometric analysis of scientific publications (k = 7,595) that cited these meta-analyses reflect waxing uptake in work on interventions, mental health, and attachment anxiety/avoidance and waning uptake in work on attachment relationships and representations, except for the subtopics of sensitivity and fathers. Prospects for scientifically rigorous research are to be found in engagement with stakeholders working to address important societal challenges. Promoting nurturing care and reducing harm in child welfare contain “Goldilocks-problems” that are amenable to incremental progress while simultaneously advancing theory and methods.

Unresolved loss/trauma in the context of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) has been theorised to result from dissociative processing of fear-related memories and ideas. To examine the plausibility of this model, this study tested hypothesised associations between unresolved loss/trauma and indicators of autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity. First-time pregnant women (N = 235) participated in the AAI while heart rate (interbeat interval; IBI) and indicators of parasympathetic reactivity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) and sympathetic reactivity (pre-ejection period; PEP, skin conductance level; SCL) were recorded. Using multilevel modelling, ANS reactivity was examined in relation to topic (loss/trauma versus other questions); discussion of actual loss/trauma; classification of unresolved/disorganised; and unresolved responses during the interview. Responses to loss/trauma questions and discussion of loss were associated with respectively larger and smaller IBIs. There was no moderation by unresolved/disorganised status. Unresolved responses about loss were associated with smaller IBIs. Participants classified as unresolved/disorganised showed decreasing PEP and blunted SCL throughout the whole interview. The findings suggest that unresolved speech about loss co-occurs with physiological arousal, although the inconclusive findings regarding parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system responses fail to clearly support the role of fear.

Generations of researchers have tested and used attachment theory to understand children’s development. To bring coherence to the expansive set of findings from small-sample studies, the field early on adopted meta-analysis. Nevertheless, gaps in understanding intergenerational transmission of individual differences in attachment continue to exist. We discuss how attachment research has been addressing these challenges by collaborating in formulating questions and pooling data and resources for individual-participant-data meta-analyses. The collaborative model means that sharing hard-won and valuable data goes hand in hand with directly and intensively interacting with a large community of researchers in the initiation phase of research, deliberating on and critically reviewing new hypotheses, and providing access to a large, carefully curated pool of data for testing these hypotheses. Challenges in pooling data are also discussed.

An unsettled question in attachment theory and research is the extent to which children’s attachment patterns with mothers and fathers jointly predict developmental outcomes. In this study, we used individual participant data meta-analysis to assess whether early attachment networks with mothers and fathers are associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Following a pre-registered protocol, data from 9 studies and 1,097 children (mean age: 28.67 months) with attachment classifications to both mothers and fathers were included in analyses. We used a linear mixed effects analysis to assess differences in children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms as assessed via the average of both maternal and paternal reports based on whether children had two, one, or no insecure (or disorganized) attachments. Results indicated that children with an insecure attachment relationship with one or both parents were at higher risk for elevated internalizing symptomatology compared with children who were securely attached to both parents. Children whose attachment relationships with both parents were classified as disorganized had more externalizing symptoms compared to children with either one or no disorganized attachment relationship with their parents. Across attachment classification networks and symptoms, findings suggest (a) a multiplicative effect when children have insecure or disorganized attachment to both parents, and (b) that mother-child and father-child attachment relationships may not differ in the roles they play in children’s development of internalizing and externalizing symptoms.

Women, as well as their partners, can experience childbirth in many different ways. A negative childbirth experience may have adverse effects on the entire family, resulting, for instance, in parental stress symptoms and a weakened parent-child relationship. Parental stress, without sufficient resources to compensate for it, may also in and of itself negatively influence the parent-child relationship. This study contributes to the current knowledge of the psychological effects of childbirth experience by using longitudinal data collected with both self-reports and observational measures, as well as multiple informants (i.e., mothers and partners). The aim of this study was to investigate whether 1) women’s retrospective birth experiences were related to maternal and paternal parenting stress, 2) birth experience was indirectly associated with child attachment via maternal stress, and 3) birth experience was directly related to child attachment. Data were collected from a mixed sample of community and at-risk primipara women (N = 1,364), as well as from their partners and children. Retrospective childbirth experience was measured 3 months postpartum with a latent factor consisting of five items asking about the feelings that women have about their childbirth. Parental stress was measured at 3 months postpartum for partners and 3 and 12 months postpartum for mothers using the adult domain of the parental stress index (PSI). Finally, parent-child attachment is observed in a subsample of 223 women and children at 12 months postpartum with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP). Results show that women’s birth experience was significantly related to both mothers’ and their partners’ parenting stress. However, birth experience was not related to child attachment, neither directly nor indirectly via maternal stress. These findings emphasize the long-lasting impact that childbirth may have on both parents. Future research is still needed to further investigate which protective factors may weaken the association between birth experience and parental stress.

Since the seminal 1992 paper by van IJzendoorn, Sagi, and Lambermon, putting forward the “The multiple caretaker paradox”, relatively little attention has been given to the potential joint effects of the role early attachment network to mother and father play in development. Recently, Dagan and Sagi-Schwartz (2018) have published a paper that attempts to revive this unsettled issue, calling for research on the subject and offering a framework for posing attachment network hypotheses. This Collaboration for Attachment Research Synthesis project attempts to use an Individual Participant Data meta-analyses to test the hypotheses put forward in Dagan and Sagi-Schwartz (2018). Specifically, we test (a) whether the number of secure attachments (0,1, or 2) matter in predicting a range of developmental outcomes, and (b) whether the quality of attachment relationship with one parent contributes more than the other to these outcomes.

The objective of this study was to explore how maternal mood during pregnancy, i.e., general anxiety, pregnancy-specific anxiety, and depression predicted parenting stress 3 months after giving birth, thereby shaping the child’s early postnatal environmental circumstances. To this end, data were used from 1073 women participating in the Dutch longitudinal cohort Generations2, which studies first-time pregnant mothers during pregnancy and across the transition to parenthood. Women filled out the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Questionnaire-revised (PRAQ-R), and Beck Depression Index (BDI) three times during pregnancy: at 12, 22, and 32 weeks gestational age. Three months postpartum, a parenting stress questionnaire was filled out yielding seven different parenting constructs. Latent scores were computed for each of the repeatedly measured maternal mood variables with Mplus and parenting stress constructs were simultaneously regressed on these latent scores. Results showed that trait anxiety and pregnancy-specific anxiety were uniquely related to almost all parenting stress constructs, taking depression into account. Early prevention and intervention to reduce maternal anxiety in pregnancy could hold the key for a more advantageous trajectory of early postnatal parenting.

Generations of researchers have tested and used attachment theory to understand children’s development. To bring coherence in the expansive set of findings, the field early on adopted meta-analysis, with 75 published since 1987. These meta-analyses are increasingly applied in research on disorder and intervention, and in self-report research on attachment anxiety and avoidance in adolescents. However, conventional approaches to meta-analysis have left thorny issues unresolved regarding the intergenerational transmission of individual differences in attachment. We discuss how attachment research has been addressing these challenges by collaborating to pooling data and resources in individual participant data meta-analyses, leading to novel insights and greater theoretical precision.

Objective. To experimentally test whether perceptions of cry stimuli and autonomic nervous system reactivity help to explain parenting self-efficacy (PSE). Design. First-time pregnant women (N = 151) completed a task during which they responded to infant cries. After each cry, they received performance feedback, which was manipulated to simulate an easy-to-soothe (80% success) and a difficult-to-soothe (20% success) infant. After responding to each infant, participants rated cry perception and PSE. Using continuous ambulatory recording, changes in heart rate, skin conductance level, pre-ejection period, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia were compared across conditions. Results. An increase in PSE followed the easy-to-soothe infant, whereas a decrease in PSE occurred after the difficult-to-soothe infant. These changes in PSE were not associated with autonomic reactivity during the task. Women with more negative perceptions of the cries had larger decreases in PSE during the task. Perceiving the difficult-to-soothe infant more negatively than the easy-to-soothe infant was related to larger decreases in PSE after the second series of cries. Conclusion. Negative cry perceptions were related to decreasing PSE. Negative perceptions of parenting duties may increase the saliency of parents' successes and failures. These findings are relevant to further testing mechanisms of change in PSE as well as the design of interventions to augment PSE. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Infant temperamental characteristics have been found associated with decreasing parenting self-efficacy(PSE) during the first year after birth, which has been generally interpreted as a child effect on the parent.To test direction of effects, PSE was assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy and twice after birthtogether with perceived infant temperament in a group of first-time pregnant women (N = 616).Cross-lagged path analysis showed that PSE, even when assessed prior to birth, predicted characteristicsof infant negative temperament. Infant negative temperamental characteristics were concurrently, but notprospectively, associated with decreased PSE. These findings indicate that perceptions of infant temperamentmay partly be shaped by parents' self-perception, rather than the other way around. © 2013 American Psychological Association.

In this reply, we respond to the critique by Barbaro, Boutwell, Barnes, and Shackelford (2017) in regard to our recent meta-analysis of intergenerational transmission of attachment (Verhage et al., 2016). Barbaro et al. (2017) claim that the influence of shared environment on attachment decreases with age, whereas unique environmental and genetic influences increase, which they felt was disregarded in our meta-analysis. Their criticisms, we argue, are based on a misunderstanding of the core tenets of attachment theory. Barbaro et al. (2017) unify parent-offspring attachment, attachment representations, and romantic-pair attachment under the same conceptual and empirical umbrella, even though these constructs serve different behavioral systems. We show that excluding the incompatible twin data on pair bonding from their analysis undercuts their argument. Statements about the role of the shared environment in attachment beyond early childhood are highly uncertain at this point. Importantly, even if the role of the shared environment were to wane with age, its effects may still be causally important in later childhood or adult outcomes, as either an indirect factor or as a factor influencing earlier developmental outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

This study tested experimentally whether the combination of a history of childhood abuse and confrontation with difficult infant temperament is associated with negative changes in parenting self-efficacy. First-time pregnant women (N = 243) participated in the Adult Attachment Interview, which was used to assess the occurrence of abuse by parents in childhood and unresolved representations, and completed a task asking them to respond to infant cries. Sixty of the 243 participants (25%) experienced childhood abuse, mostly physical or sexual. The task simulated infant temperamental difficulty by manipulating soothing success in order to reflect an easy-to-soothe (80% soothing success) and a difficult-to-soothe infant (20% soothing success). Both after baseline and after each of the two stimulus series women assessed their parenting self-efficacy. Women who reported childhood abuse did not differ from women who reported no childhood abuse in parenting self-efficacy at baseline or in response to the easy-to-soothe infant (relative to baseline), but decreased more in parenting self-efficacy following the difficult-to-soothe infant. Effects did not vary according to resolution of trauma. These findings suggest that in response to infant temperamental difficulty, women who experienced childhood abuse may more easily lose confidence in their parenting abilities, which underlines the importance of preparing at-risk women for the possible challenges that come along with parenthood.

Twenty years ago, meta-analytic results (k = 19) confirmed the association between caregiver attachment representations and child-caregiver attachment (Van IJzendoorn, 1995). A test of caregiver sensitivity as the mechanism behind this intergenerational transmission showed an intriguing "transmission gap." Since then, the intergenerational transmission of attachment and the transmission gap have been studied extensively, and now extend to diverse populations from all over the globe. Two decades later, the current review revisited the effect sizes of intergenerational transmission, the heterogeneity of the transmission effects, and the size of the transmission gap. Analyses were carried out with a total of 95 samples (total N = 4,819). All analyses confirmed intergenerational transmission of attachment, with larger effect sizes for secure-autonomous transmission (r = .31) than for unresolved transmission (r = .21), albeit with significantly smaller effect sizes than 2 decades earlier (r = .47 and r = .31, respectively). Effect sizes were moderated by risk status of the sample, biological relatedness of child-caregiver dyads, and age of the children. Multivariate moderator analyses showed that unpublished and more recent studies had smaller effect sizes than published and older studies. Path analyses showed that the transmission could not be fully explained by caregiver sensitivity, with more recent studies narrowing but not bridging the "transmission gap." Implications for attachment theory as well as future directions for research are discussed.

Caring for infants with negative reactive temperament may tax parents' confidence in their caregiving ability, or parenting self-efficacy (PSE). This may happen in particular in parents who interpret these signals as negative feedback on their performance. To test this hypothesis, 179 first-time pregnant women were presented a caregiving simulation that provided positive and negative feedback on their attempts to comfort a crying baby. According to their PSE resilience to negative feedback during the task, they were grouped in a high resilient and low resilient group. PSE was followed up at 32 weeks of pregnancy and 3 and 12 months after birth, while perceived temperament of the child was assessed at 3 and 12 months after birth. Results showed that among women with low resilience against negative feedback, perceived negative temperament was negatively associated with PSE at 3 months, whereas no such association was observed among women with high resilience against negative feedback. Implications of the concept of resilience for the study of PSE are discussed. Copyright

Background: High levels of prenatal maternal anxiety - either pregnancy-specific anxiety or general anxiety-may have detrimental effects on both the mother and her child. It is currently unknown how these two different expressions of anxiety influence each other over time during pregnancy. Aims: This study aimed to describe the relationship between state, trait and pregnancy-specific anxiety levels across pregnancy. Methods: Longitudinal data from three data-waves of a large-scaled sample of nulliparous normal risk pregnant women were used to display associations over time by means of autoregressive and cross-lagged panel models. Results: Cross-lagged, cross-time pathways from pregnancy-specific anxiety to state as well as trait anxiety were positively significant, while vice versa the most consistent links were found from trait anxiety to pregnancy-specific anxiety. Conclusions: We conclude that pregnancy-specific anxiety and general anxiety appear to influence each other over time, resulting in heightened anxiety for some soon-to-be mothers. © 2014 Informa UK Ltd.

Recently, Chan and McDermott (2007) found that relative to studying words once, taking an initial test increased recollection, whereas it did not affect familiarity. However, an open question remains what the effect is of testing on recollection and familiarity relative to restudying. We conducted four experiments to address this question. Experiment 1 was a replication of Chan and McDermott's third experiment. In Experiment 2, restudied words were compared with tested words. In Experiment 3 we replicated Experiment 2 with the exception that feedback was provided after each initial-test trial. Finally, in Experiment 4, stronger cues were used during the initial test without feedback. The results showed a recollection advantage of testing over restudying, but only when feedback was given during the test or when stronger cues were employed. Further, recognition decisions were more familiarity based for restudied words than for tested words. © 2011 Hogrefe Publishing.