Search

Significant links exist between one's perception of available social support and mental health outcomes, including during the transition to motherhood. Yet, attachment theory posits that individuals do not benefit equally from social support. As such, we examined the influence of attachment representations (i.e., secure base script knowledge) as they potentially moderate links between social support and psychological distress in a 1-year longitudinal study of an ethnically diverse (56% White) sample of infant-mother dyads. We hypothesized that higher social support would predict lower maternal psychological distress and this relation would be strongest in those with higher secure base script knowledge. Results indicated that maternal perceptions of social support were significantly negatively correlated with psychological distress. Analyses revealed that secure base script scores significantly moderated these associations. Interestingly, for those high in script knowledge, low social support predicted greater psychological distress. For those low in script knowledge, social support was unrelated to psychological distress. This pattern suggested that those who expect care (i.e., high secure base script knowledge) but receive minimal support (i.e., low perceived social support) find motherhood uniquely dysregulating. Practitioners may do well to examine individuals' attachment expectations in relation to their current social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Methods Results Conclusions Are individual differences in attachment security inborn or shaped by the social environment? In infancy and early childhood, the evidence points to a substantial role of the environment, but a large twin study in early adolescence showed considerable heritability. Here we examined the twin heritability of attachment in middle childhood. We hypothesized that in middle childhood some heritability would emerge. Furthermore, we expected a role for cognitive and language abilities in explaining variance in attachment in middle childhood, partly related to the measurement of attachment, and we therefore examined associations with IQ.This pre‐registered study included 415 same‐sex twin pairs (52% girls, 58% monozygotic) between 8 and 11 years old (M = 9.59, SD = 0.79). Participants were recruited from an experimental cohort‐sequential study including two age‐overlapping longitudinal cohorts. Secure Base Script Knowledge was assessed with the Middle Childhood Attachment Script Assessment . Zygosity of the twins was determined using DNA samples. In the younger cohort, cognitive development was assessed with the Dutch version of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence . In the older cohort, the Dutch version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children was used .Significant additive heritability (38%) was found in the absence of a common environment component. This result diverges from findings in infancy and early childhood and aligns with the results in early adolescence.The gene–environment correlation hypothesis suggesting that older children more actively shape their experiences in social contexts may offer a plausible explanation for the heritability of attachment in middle childhood. In middle childhood this mechanism might tip the balance toward a larger role for additive genetics. Larger longitudinal twin studies are needed to replicate the heritability of attachment after preschool age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how children’s secure base script knowledge and friendship quality were related to bullying and victimization experiences and their emotional, academic, and behavioral adjustment. Participants were 581 children (49.6% males) aged 9 to 13 years old and one of their main caregivers (74% mothers, 23.6% fathers, 2.4% legal guardians) recruited through cluster sampling in Singapore. Most of the children were ethnic Chinese (58.2%), along with Malays, Indians, and Others (e.g. Eurasians). Children’s secure base script knowledge was related to less bullying and victimization, which in turn was related to greater positive emotional state, better academic achievement, less aggression, and fewer social problems. Friendship quality did not add unique variance, highlighting the central protective role of attachment representation in the context of school bullying. The findings provide support for the security-competence link in an Asian context, and point to the importance of enhancing children’s familial experiences as part of preventive efforts in combating school bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research suggests that secure base script knowledge is categorically distributed in middle childhood but becomes dimensionally distributed from late adolescence onward, potentially indicating a developmental shift in the nature of secure base script knowledge. Secure base script knowledge may initially be sparse, giving rise to categorical individual differences, while increased relational experiences later in development might contribute to more elaborated secure base script knowledge and dimensional individual differences. However, the cross-sectional nature of prior research limits inferences about developmental changes. To address this, we conducted a three-year, three-wave longitudinal study with a Western European sample transitioning from middle childhood to adolescence. At Wave 1 (n = 599, Mage = 10.30), secure base script knowledge was categorically distributed. By Wave 2 (n = 435, Mage = 11.30), distribution was ambiguous, and by Wave 3 (n = 370, Mage = 12.09), individual differences were dimensional. These results suggest a developmental shift in secure base script knowledge during the transition into adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, researchers have operationalized Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)‐derived attachment representations as reflecting individual differences in secure base script knowledge (AAIsbs) – the degree to which individuals show awareness of the temporal‐causal schema that summarizes the basic features of seeking and receiving effective support from caregivers when in distress. In a series of pre‐registered analyses, we used AAI transcripts recently re‐coded for AAIsbs and leveraged a new follow‐up assessment of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development cohort at around age 30 years (479 currently partnered participants; 59% female; 82% White/non‐Hispanic) to assess and compare the links between AAIsbs and traditional AAI coding measures at around age 18 years and self‐reported romantic relationship quality in adulthood. Higher AAIsbs predicted better dyadic adjustment scores in adulthood (r = 0.17) and this association remained significant controlling for other AAI‐derived coding measures, as well as sociodemographic and cognitive functioning covariates. Findings extend previous evidence pointing to the predictive significance of AAIsbs for multiple adult functioning domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attachment theorists claim that the quality of parental support is internalized as a mental representation of early relationship experiences. Increasingly, the content of attachment representations is evaluated by studying the extent to which adults demonstrate knowledge of the secure base script, either in the context of the attachment script assessment (ASA) or during the Adult Attachment Interview (AAIsbs). Preliminary evidence from a high‐risk sample showed that AAIsbs was more strongly associated with the quality of antecedent caregiving than was the more traditional approach to the measurement of adult attachment focused on the coherence of adults' AAI discourse. Drawing on new coding of data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), we found that AAIsbs around age 18 years was significantly predicted by observations of maternal (r = 0.21) and paternal (r = 0.12) sensitivity assessed prospectively through age 15 years, and with attachment security in the first 3 years of life (r = 0.08). AAIsbs was also associated with existing measures of adult attachment (rs = 0.31–0.42). Pre‐registered analyses revealed that AAIsbs performed in a manner roughly comparable to traditional, though more labour‐intensive approaches to coding the AAI. Based on all available evidence from the SECCYD and the pragmatic challenges and advantages of different narrative methods for assessing adult attachment representations, researchers seeking to measure attachment representations should strongly consider the strengths of the ASA in term of practicality, performance, and adaptability to various age groups across development. Highlights: The present report examines the extent to which secure base script knowledge, as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAIsbs) has its origins in early caregiving experiences, and to report how AAIsbs performs in comparison to existing measures of adult attachment, in a large scale, normative‐risks sample of adolescents.Data were drawn from the newly re‐coded AAIs from the NICHD Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development.Overall, the AAIsbs system performs as well as traditional AAI measures, but researchers looking to examine adult attachment representations should consider using the Attachment Script Assessment both for its empirical and pragmatic advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tried to replicate the finding that receiving care increases children’s oxytocin and secure state attachment levels, and tested whether secure trait attachment moderates the oxytocin and state attachment response to care. 109 children (9-11 years old; M = 9.59; SD = 0.63; 34.9% boys) participated in a within-subject experiment. After stress induction (Trier Social Stress Test), children first remained alone and then received maternal secure base support. Salivary oxytocin was measured eight times. Secure trait and state attachment were measured with questionnaires, and Secure Base Script knowledge was assessed. Oxytocin levels increased after receiving secure base support from mother after having been alone. Secure state attachment changed less. Trait attachment and Secure Base Script knowledge did not moderate oxytocin or state attachment responses to support. This might mean that, regardless of the attachment history, in-the-moment positive attachment experiences might have a beneficial effect on trait attachment development in middle childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, attachment representations are being assessed via secure base script knowledge - the degree to which individuals show awareness of the temporal-causal schema that summarizes the basic features of seeking and receiving effective support from caregivers during times of need. Limited research has assessed the links between secure base script knowledge and aspects of adult functioning and the role that secure base script knowledge may play in accounting for associations between early caregiving quality and adulthood functioning. We used follow-up assessments of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development cohort (N = 585) to examine whether secure base script knowledge at age 18 years: (a) is associated with later romantic relationship quality, depressive symptoms, and body mass index (BMI) at age 26 years, and (b) mediates expected associations between the quality of maternal and paternal sensitivity across the first 15 years of life and age-26 outcomes. More access to, and elaborated knowledge of the secure base script predicted less extreme hostility with romantic partners, and better emotional and physical health. Moreover, secure base script knowledge mediated the links between early maternal and paternal sensitivity and both later romantic partner hostility and depressive symptoms, but not BMI.

Research in mental attachment representations that has the most conceptual and empirical breakthroughs is focused in designing assessment instruments based on narratives. From an interdisciplinary perspective, within the fields of psychology and linguistic, this study explores the relationship between the narrative quality, the level of manifestation of the secure base attachment script and the educational level in stories created by 56 mothers of Bogotá, Colombia. Two instruments were used: The Secure Base Attachment Script Assessment (ASA) and the Narrative Quality Assessment (ECAN). The results showed positive and significant associations between the 3 variables of the study: narrative quality, attachment script level and mothers' education level. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed significant differences in narrative quality between the secure base prompt word stories and the non-secure base (neutral) prompt word stories, and in narrative quality and coherence (pragmatic, global and local). The results are discussed from a psychological, linguistic, and socioeducational perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report describes the development and validation of a new coding system for the Current Relationship Interview (CRI) that assesses individual differences in secure base script knowledge with respect to adult romantic partners. Drawing on data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 116) a coding system was developed to parallel the secure base script coding system for the Adult Attachment Interview. Specifically, CRIs conducted in adulthood were re-coded for the extent to which the interviews reflected script-like expectations that romantic partners are available and provide effective support in times of distress (CRIsbs). CRIsbs was moderately associated with the traditional coding system for the CRI and showed concurrent and/or predictive validity in relation to observed and self-reported romantic relationship quality as well as interview ratings of the effectiveness with which adults engaged in romantic relationships. Theoretical and practical benefits of the CRIsbs coding system are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waters, Ruiz, and Roisman (2017) recently published evidence based on the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA) that sensitive caregiving during childhood is associated with higher levels of secure base script knowledge during the Adult Attachment Interview (AAIsbs). At present, however, little is known about the role of variation in atypical caregiving, including abuse and/or neglect, in explaining individual differences in AAIsbs. This study revisited data from the MLSRA (N = 157) to examine the association between experiencing abuse and/or neglect in the first 17.5 years of life and secure base script knowledge measured at ages 19 and 26 years. Several aspects of abuse and/or neglect experiences were assessed, including perpetrator identity, timing, and type. Regressions revealed that childhood abuse and/or neglect was robustly associated with lower AAIsbs scores in young adulthood, above and beyond previously documented associations with maternal sensitivity and demographic covariates. Follow-up analyses provided evidence that the predictive significance of abuse for secure base script knowledge was specific to perpetration by parental figures, rather than non-caregivers. Exploratory analyses indicated that abuse and/or neglect: (a) in middle childhood and adolescence (but not infancy and early childhood) and (b) physical abuse (but not sexual abuse or neglect) were uniquely associated with lower AAIsbs scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing evidence that attachment representations abstracted from childhood experiences with primary caregivers are organized as a cognitive script describing secure base use and support (i.e., the secure base script). To date, however, the latent structure of secure base script knowledge has gone unexamined--this despite that such basic information about the factor structure and distributional properties of these individual differences has important conceptual implications for our understanding of how representations of early experience are organized and generalized, as well as methodological significance in relation to maximizing statistical power and precision. In this study, we report factor and taxometric analyses that examined the latent structure of secure base script knowledge in 2 large samples. Results suggested that variation in secure base script knowledge--as measured by both the adolescent (N = 674) and adult (N = 714) versions of the Attachment Script Assessment--is generalized across relationships and continuously distributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a subsample (N = 673) of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) cohort, this article reports data from a follow-up assessment at age 18 years on the antecedents of secure base script knowledge, as reflected in the ability to generate narratives in which attachment-related difficulties are recognized, competent help is provided, and the problem is resolved. Secure base script knowledge was (a) modestly to moderately correlated with more well-established assessments of adult attachment, (b) associated with mother-child attachment in the first 3 years of life and with observations of maternal and paternal sensitivity from childhood to adolescence, and (c) partially accounted for associations previously documented in the SECCYD cohort between early caregiving experiences and Adult Attachment Interview states of mind (Booth-LaForce & Roisman, 2014) as well as self-reported attachment styles (Fraley, Roisman, Booth-LaForce, Cox, & Holland, 2013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]