Chronic family adversity and infant attachment security.

Abstract

A beginning step in the prevention of psychopathology in children is the identification of conditions and events associated with a disproportionately high incidence of behavior problems. Rutter, Cox, Tupling, Berger and Yule (1975a, British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 493-509) have reported a dramatic increase in the probability of children's adjustment difficulties as a function of multiple family stressors. However, this association has never been tested with infants. Among instruments of infant behavior, attachment classification has been found to be a significant predictor of later adjustment problems, particularly among low-income samples. The present investigation examines the relation between six significant familial stressors and infant attachment security in a sample of 100 low-income parent-infant dyads. Family stressors included parental criminality, maternal depressive symptomatology, maternal personality risk, overcrowding in the home, and the quality of the relationship with a significant other. Cumulative family adversity was found to differentiate secure from insecure infants, but only among families with three or four stressors present. There also was moderate support for one hypothesis derived from attachment theory, namely that stressors more closely associated with maternal functioning are more common among families with insecurely attached infants. Conceptual links between stressors and attachment are discussed, including pathways by which chronic stressors may interfere with the formation and maintenance of secure mother-infant attachment relations.