Search

Aims: Based on interviews with leading researchers and researcher-clinicians in fields allied to attachment research, this paper describes participants’ perceptions of contemporary attachment research in the developmental tradition. Method: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 research leaders in applied disciplines cognate to attachment research. Results: Participants perceived attachment research as having played a foundational role for developmental science, including highlighting the importance of a developmental perspective and attention to early caregiving experiences. They also identified important contemporary strengths in developmental attachment research, including the observational acuity and insightfulness of its measures, its attention to dyadic processes in contrast to much of biomedicine, the development of a number of attachment-based interventions with well-articulated mechanisms of action, and the capacity of developmental attachment concepts to resonate with clinical and popular audiences. However, participants suggested that the developmental tradition is also perceived as having a comparatively high ‘cost of entry’, and consequently they warned that it has become somewhat separated from wider developmental science, with its growing prominence of biological research, scalability of methods, and less reliance on theory. Conclusions: Participants perceived both strengths and weaknesses to contemporary developmental attachment research. However they felt that the classic concerns of developmental attachment research were placing the field potentially at odds with current trends in developmental science.

Unresolved states of mind regarding experiences of loss/abuse (U/d) are identified through lapses in the monitoring of reasoning, discourse, and behavior surrounding loss/abuse in response to the Adult Attachment Interview. Although the coding system for U/d has been widely used for decades, the individual indicators of unresolved loss/abuse have not been validated independently of the development sample. This study examined the psychometric validity of U/d, using individual participant data from 1,009 parent-child dyads across 13 studies. A latent class analysis showed that subsets of commonly occurring U/d indicators could differentiate interviewees with or without unresolved loss/abuse. Predictive models suggested a psychometric model of U/d consisting of a combination of these common indicators, with disbelief and psychologically confused statements regarding loss being especially important indicators of U/d. This model weakly predicted infant disorganized attachment. Multilevel regression analysis showed no significant association between ratings of unresolved other trauma and infant disorganized attachment, over and above ratings of unresolved loss/abuse. Altogether, these findings suggest that the coding system of U/d may have been overfitted to the initial development sample. Directions for further articulation and optimization of U/d are provided.

Funder: Project Digitaal op bezoek bij mensen met beperkingen, Funder: Academische Werkplaats Leven met een verstandelijke beperking, Tranzo, Tilburg University, Funder: Academische Werkplaats EMB, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Funder: Academische Werkplaats's Heeren Loo ‐ VU, Funder: Academische Werkplaats Sociale relaties en gehechtheid, Bartiméus ‐ VU, BACKGROUND: During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people with disabilities living in home care facilities could not receive visitors. The use of virtual social contact has been recommended by health authorities. This systematic review examined the scientific evidence of the use and feasibility of information and communication technology (ICT) for social contact by people with intellectual disabilities living in care facilities, and potential effects on well-being. METHODS: Five databases were searched using traditional systematic screening and machine-learning supported screening. Findings are presented in a narrative synthesis using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Nine studies were included. We described three themes: means of ICT used for social contact; effects on well-being; and benefits, barriers, and preconditions. CONCLUSIONS: Engaging in virtual social contact may be feasible for people with severe to mild intellectual disabilities, but there is little concrete evidence that this can be used as an alternative for in-person contact.

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.