Parental loss of family members within two years of offspring birth predicts elevated absorption scores in college

Naomi I Gribneau Bahm,Robbie Duschinsky,Erik Hesse

doi:10.1080/14616734.2016.1181096

Naomi I Gribneau Bahm, Robbie Duschinsky + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2016.1181096

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Abstract

ABSTRACTLiotti proposed that interactions during infancy with a parent suffering unresolved loss could lead to vulnerabilities to altered states of consciousness. Hesse and van IJzendoorn provided initial support for Liotti’s hypothesis, finding elevated scores on Tellegen’s Absorption Scale - a normative form of dissociation - for undergraduates reporting that their parents had experienced the loss of family members within two years of their birth. Here, we replicated the above findings in a large undergraduate sample (N = 927). Additionally, we investigated mother’s and father’s losses separately. Perinatal losses, including miscarriage, were also considered. Participants reporting that the mother or both parents had experienced loss within two years of their birth scored significantly higher on absorption than those reporting only perinatal, only father, or no losses. While not applicable to the assessment of individuals, the brief loss questionnaire utilized here could provide a useful addition to selected large-scale studies.

Highlights

During the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI protocol; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984, 1985, 1996), speakers are classified as Unresolved/disorganized when – asked to discuss loss or abuse experiences – they exhibit brief lapses in the monitoring of speech or reasoning (AAI scoring and classification system; Main, Goldwyn, & Hesse, 2003)
Disorganized attachment status across multiple studies have been found in a recent meta-analysis focusing largely on non-English-speaking countries (Settee, Coppola, & Cassibba, 2015)
As Hesse and van IJzendoorn (1998) had defined parental loss, 182 participants (19.6%) had a parent who had experienced a loss near the time of their birth, and the mean Tellegen’s Absorption Scale (TAS) score for these participants was 4.69 (SD = 0.88; minimum 2.65, maximum 6.74)

Summary

Introduction

During the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI protocol; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984, 1985, 1996), speakers are classified as Unresolved/disorganized (hereafter Unresolved) when – asked to discuss loss or abuse experiences – they exhibit brief lapses in the monitoring of speech or reasoning (AAI scoring and classification system; Main, Goldwyn, & Hesse, 2003). In the most recent and most comprehensive meta-analysis conducted to date (N = 4819; Verhage et al, 2016), Unresolved versus non-Unresolved classifications continued to yield significant effect sizes predicting infant Disorganized attachment status for both published and unpublished data (though weaker in the latter case). A meta-analysis utilizing both systems to examine the power of frightening parental behaviour to mediate the relations between Unresolved parental states of mind and infant Disorganized attachment reported substantial but incomplete mediation (Madigan et al, 2006), while a more recent study has reported full mediation (Jacobvitz, Hazen, Zaccagnino, Messina, & Beverung, 2011). In corroboration with Liotti’s proposal, Carlson (1998) reported that Disorganization with the mother predicted dissociative phenomena during middle childhood and adolescence in the Minnesota high-risk sample (Carlson, 1998; see Ogawa, Sroufe, Weinfeld, Carlson, & Egeland, 1997)

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