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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.

We examined the prototype v. revisionist models of attachment stability with a five-wave, 6-year, longitudinal study of attachment security from middle childhood to adolescence in a White Western European sample (N = 157; Wave 1 M[subscript age] = 10.91, SD = 0.87; 52% female). Attachment was assessed using both questionnaire (Experiences in Close Relationships) and narrative-based measures (Attachment Script Assessment). In addition, a set of potential moderators of prototype-like stability were examined. Results indicated that data from both attachment assessments best fit the prototype model. Moderator analyses indicated that male sex significantly undermined the influence of an attachment prototype and parent-child conflict and parental divorce enhanced the influence of an attachment prototype on stability.

The role of early child care experiences on the development of the mother--child attachment relationship has been studied extensively. However, no prospective studies of early child care have addressed how these experiences might be reflected in the content of attachment representations during adolescence and beyond. The goal of this study was to estimate relatively precise associations between child care quality, child care quantity, and type of care in the first 54 months of life and the content of adolescents' attachment representations around age 18 years (N = 857; 51% female; 78% White, non-Hispanic; mean income-to-needs ratio = 4.13), leveraging data from the longitudinal National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. We identified a small positive association between the observed quality of early child care (but not quantity or type of care) and secure attachment states of mind as measured by the Adult Attachment Interview (but not the Attachment Script Assessment) at age 18 years that was robust to demographic covariates and observations of maternal and paternal sensitivity during childhood. We observed no significant interactions among child care variables. Associations between early child care experiences and indicators of adolescent attachment were likewise not moderated by maternal sensitivity from infancy to midadolescence or by maternal reports of child temperament in early childhood.

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]

Attachment representations are increasingly operationalized as secure base script knowledge —one's level of awareness of the temporal-causal schema that summarizes basic features of seeking and receiving effective support from caregivers when in distress. A method was recently developed to assess secure base script knowledge during the Adult Attachment Interview (AAIsbs), though its predictive validity for mental health outcomes is largely unknown. A series of pre-registered analyses, leveraging two large, longitudinal cohorts to assess the associations between AAIsbs and depression in emerging adults revealed that higher AAIsbs at age 18 years in the normative-risk sample, but not in a higher-risk cohort, predicted fewer depressive symptoms at age 30 years. In general, these associations were robust to concurrent depressive symptoms, sociodemographic and cognitive functioning covariates, and other traditional attachment representation measures. Findings support the importance of considering schematic attachment representations in developing interventions to improve young adults' well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coherence of autobiographical narratives is suggested to be reflective of individuals' mental health. However, inconsistencies in results are regularly observed. Therefore, in this study, the Narrative Coherence Coding Scheme (NaCCS) by Reese et al. ("Journal of Cognition and Development," 12, 424-462) was deconstructed and every dimension of coherence was recoded into singular constituting subcomponents. Our new fine-grained scoring scheme allowed us to investigate which particular subcomponents of coherence may be important in the relation to mental health. Data showed that both structural as well as thematic elements of coherence, with in particular the number of emotional elaborations, were important in the association with mental health. Therefore, we recommend for future research to use this specific coding scheme, including most notably the number of emotional elaborations, in order to obtain the most accurate prediction of mental health, to test the replicability of these preliminary findings and to guide targets for narrative-based interventions.

There is limited research examining stability and change in attachment security in middle childhood. The current study addresses this gap using data from a 3-year longitudinal study. Specifically, we examined stability and change in secure base script knowledge during middle childhood using a sample of 157 children (Wave 1 mean age [M[subscript age]] = 10.91, standard deviation [SD] = 0.87) assessed at 1-year intervals across 4 waves. Secure base script knowledge was moderately stable over time, as script scores were significantly correlated between each wave. We also investigated the impact of life stress on change in secure base script knowledge within individuals across waves. The results demonstrated that daily hassles (minor and frequently occurring stressful life events) but not major (more severe and infrequent) stressful life events predicted change in script knowledge. Implications for attachment-based interventions and, more broadly, the stability of attachment security are discussed.

Under the leadership of its founding editor, Dante Cicchetti, Development and Psychopathology has been recognized for decades as the foremost journal integrating developmental theory and clinical research programs. Contributors have often highlighted the implications of attachment theory and research for understanding developmental processes and pathways, and as a testing ground for intervention strategies. In this paper we reflect on the strengths and limitations of the traditional developmental perspective. We suggest that behavioral, cognitive, and emotional development are better understood as a process of bricolage (construction within constraints). This perspective is illustrated in an analysis of change mechanisms, and behavioral and representational changes, in attachment development from pre-locomotor infancy to later adulthood. Special emphasis is placed on ordinary learning and cognitive processes, rather than those specific to attachment, and on the roles that socialization pressures and changing circumstances play in shaping the course of attachment development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leveraging data from a longitudinal study of Chinese families (n = 364), this research aims to understand the role of secure base script knowledge as a cognitive mechanism by which early caregiving experiences inform adolescents' friendship quality and feelings of loneliness. Results showed that observed maternal sensitivity at 14 and 24 months old was negatively associated with adolescents' self‐reported conflicts with close friends (β = −0.17, p = 0.044) at 15 years old, and this association was partially mediated by their secure base script knowledge assessed at 10 years old. Further, secure base script knowledge moderated the link between adolescents' friend conflict and feelings of loneliness (β = −0.15, p = 0.037). The results support a cognitive script perspective on the association between early caregiving experiences and later socio‐emotional adjustment. Furthermore, this study adds to the developmental literature that has previously focused on more stringent and authoritarian aspects of parenting in Chinese families, thereby contributing to our understanding of how sensitive and supportive parenting practices contribute to socio‐emotional development outside of Western contexts. Research Highlights: Maternal sensitivity during infancy and toddlerhood has a long‐term association with adolescents' friendship quality and adolescents' secure base script partially explains the association.First evidence to demonstrate that the secure base script in attachment relationships mediates the association between early maternal caregiving and socio‐emotional development in Chinese adolescents.Adolescents lacking secure base script knowledge are particularly vulnerable to feelings of loneliness when facing high levels of conflict in close friendships. [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]

Attachment theory suggests that early experiences with caregivers are carried forward across development in the form of mental representations of attachment experiences. Researchers have investigated at least two representation-based constructs when studying attachment and successful adaptation in adulthood: (a) coherence of autobiographical discourse/memories and (b) knowledge of the secure base script. Here, we present data examining the unique contributions of coherent discourse regarding childhood caregiving experience and secure base script knowledge in a prospective high-risk longitudinal study, the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. The current study included three indicators of the quality of romantic relationships: (a) observed quality of interaction with romantic partners, (b) self-reported relationship satisfaction, and (c) interview-rated effectiveness of romantic engagement. Parent-child relationship quality was also assessed across three key outcomes: (a) infant attachment security, (b) observations of supportive parenting, and (c) interview-rated supportive parenting. When examining both attachment representations simultaneously, each representation-based construct was uniquely associated with different relationship quality indices. Specifically, secure base script knowledge was uniquely associated with infant attachment security in the next generation, and coherence of discourse was uniquely associated with observations of romantic relationships quality and interview-rated supportive parenting.

This study examined the predictive significance of maternal sensitivity in early childhood for electrophysiological responding to and cognitive appraisals of infant crying at midlife in a sample of 73 adults (age = 39 years; 43 females; 58 parents) from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. When listening to an infant crying, both parents and nonparents who had experienced higher levels of maternal sensitivity in early childhood (between 3 and 42 months of age) exhibited larger changes from rest toward greater relative left (vs. right) frontal EEG activation, reflecting an approach-oriented response to distress. Parents who had experienced greater maternal sensitivity in early childhood also made fewer negative causal attributions about the infant's crying; the association between sensitivity and attributions for infant crying was nonsignificant for nonparents. The current findings demonstrate that experiencing maternal sensitivity during the first 3½ years of life has long-term predictive significance for adults' processing of infant distress signals more than three decades later.

The functionalist approach claims that autobiographical memory functions could be part of narrative identity. If so, the use of memory functions in personal narratives should be as stable as other properties of narrative identity. Testing this claim, the present study elicited repeated narratives and functional self-ratings for turning point and low point memories from 145 undergraduates (68.90 % female) in a two-wave eight-month longitudinal study. Stability of memory functions in specific memories was conceptualized in terms of mean-level and rank-order stability. Results showed little mean-level stability, yet substantial rank-order stability for memory functions regardless of assessment. The later use of the same memory functions in repeated narratives was predicted by baseline of functions at T1, age of event, valence, and frequency of rehearsal. Combining these results with theories on autobiographical memory and narrative identity suggests that memory functions might be a stable property of narrative identity hitherto overlooked. [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]

Recent work examining the content and organization of attachment representations suggests that 1 way in which we represent the attachment relationship is in the form of a cognitive script. This work has largely focused on early childhood or adolescence/adulthood, leaving a large gap in our understanding of script-like attachment representations in the middle childhood period. We present 2 studies and provide 3 critical pieces of evidence regarding the presence of a script-like representation of the attachment relationship in middle childhood. We present evidence that a middle childhood attachment script assessment tapped a stable underlying script using samples drawn from 2 western cultures, the United States (Study 1) and Belgium (Study 2). We also found evidence suggestive of the intergenerational transmission of secure base script knowledge (Study 1) and relations between secure base script knowledge and symptoms of psychopathology in middle childhood (Study 2). The results from this investigation represent an important downward extension of the secure base script construct.

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.

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]

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).