Adult Attachment Interview Transcripts Research Articles

Longitudinal associations between attachment representations coded in the adult attachment interview in late adolescence and perceptions of romantic relationship adjustment in adulthood

AbstractIncreasingly, 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.

Attachment, Trauma, and Mentalization in Intimate Partner Violence: A Preliminary Investigation.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been examined from a range of theoretical perspectives, including attachment theory, with the aim of assessing psychosocial risk factors. Previous research has shown that a child's exposure to violence in the family is a major predictor of IPV victimization later in life. Furthermore, research on abused and traumatized adult samples has shown high frequencies of unresolved/disorganized attachment styles. In particular, disorganized attachment is associated with major problems of affect regulation and deficits in mentalizing ability. The present research had three aims: (a) to assess the childhood traumatic experiences of female victims of IPV; (b) to investigate and identify the attachment patterns of female victims of IPV; and (c) to examine reflective functioning and prementalistic modes in female victims of IPV, in relation to attachment and trauma. A sample of 31 women, recruited through anti-violence centers, were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire. The Complex Trauma Questionnaire and the Reflective Functioning Scale (RFS) were also applied to the AAI transcripts. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Coding was conducted by two trained coders and certified as reliable for the AAI and RFS. Clinicians completed the Modes of Mentalization Scale (MMS) to assess participants' mentalization style. The data showed a high percentage of women with insecure attachment and lower reflective functioning. The results are discussed in terms of their clinical and theoretical implications-particularly their application to psycho-forensics, through the development of preventive programs and interventions for IPV. Efforts to understand the etiology of IPV and to intervene to prevent recidivism are fundamental in reducing this public health threat.

More than words: Computerized text analysis of child welfare professionals’ Adult Attachment Interviews

ABSTRACTStudying the attachment representations of child welfare workers can benefit workers and the vulnerable populations they serve. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is the most widely used and well-validated measure of adult attachment but is also costly and time-consuming to score. Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), a text-analysis software program, has the potential to lessen the burden of AAI scoring, making it a lower-cost, faster option for providing basic attachment representation information. In the current study, we explore the use of the LIWC in the AAI transcripts of 239 child welfare professionals. Findings indicate that subsets of LIWC categories could distinguish the AAI transcripts of individuals coded as dismissing, preoccupied, and secure-autonomous in attachment. Further, a subset of LIWC categories predicted AAI classification. Specifically, discriminant function analysis revealed two functions, activation and incoherence, that accurately classified 66.2% of AAI transcripts. Implications for the child welfare workforce are discussed.

Life Themes and Attachment System in the Narrative Self-Construction: Direct and Indirect Indicators.

The narration is the instrument that allows individual to organize his experience through a process of attribution and sharing of meaning within social interactions and to translate the extraordinary in normativity. As regards the narrative content there are “narrative genres” that impose thematic constraints on the way of narrating, but these also allow creative variations. According to the theoretical-clinical hypothesis of Life Themes (LTs), Love, Value, Power, Freedom, and Truth are shared attractors of meaning recurring in Life Stories. The influence of attachment system on the development of autobiographical narratives is shown in literature. This article presents a qualitative study of the specific dimensions and valences of the LTs in the adult attachment narratives. The study is part of a broader research project that aims to systematize the theoretical model of LTs in the narrative Self-construction, to study its connections and applications in the field of attachment theory, and to build a useful operative tool in the clinical assessment of patients’ stories. We also aimed to study the occurrence of the LTs in the Adult Attachment Interview transcripts, preliminarily exploring possible connections with Internal Working Models. 40 AAI transcripts of 20 men and 20 women (mean age was 33 years old), selected from a larger non-clinical sample employed in an adult attachment study, were analyzed using a phenomenological exploratory approach. For the research design we used a qualitative methodology that ensure a deep and intensive, rather than extensive, analysis, focusing on the complexity of meanings and discussing the results within the research group. Several indicators of LTs have been identified and the interpersonal dimensions were explored. An additional Theme emerged from the recurrence of some indicators: Ethic and Justice. In Dismissing subjects’ narrations the theme Value (in terms of being valued) emerges mostly, while in the Preoccupied ones the theme Power (in terms of impositions received), accompanied secondarily by Value and Freedom, occurs more frequently. The most frequent thematic indicators in the F group are related to Love and Truth. Clinical implications of an explicative model of critical Themes are discussed.

Comparing Main, Goldwyn, and Hesse (Berkeley) and Crittenden (DMM) coding systems for classifying Adult Attachment Interview transcripts: an empirical report

ABSTRACTFew studies have compared different systems in classifying Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) transcripts. In this study, the AAI was administered to 90 Italian parents (45 couples), and the AAI transcripts were independently classified according to Main, Goldwyn, and Hesse’s (Berkeley) and Crittenden’s (Dynamic-Maturational Model [DMM]) criteria. The two classification systems were not significantly associated, with some limited convergent results only when the interviews resulted in organized (Berkeley) and normative (DMM) attachment classifications. Otherwise, the Berkeley system identified more secure individuals than the DMM system, and many texts judged secure on the Berkeley system were identified as insecure on the DMM system. Since the Berkeley and the DMM systems rest on remarkably different conceptualizations of the nature and functioning of the attachment behavioral system (e.g. fear is conceived as organizing in the DMM and as potentially disorganizing in the Berkeley), the attachment classifications resulting from their applications should not be considered measurements of the same phenomena.

Feeling Worse Before Feeling Better: A Case of Increased Disorganized Mental States Following Group Psychotherapy

ABSTRACTIs group therapy effective if it results in members revealing greater unresolved/disorganized mental states related to childhood trauma? That is, do patients have to more fully experience partially disavowed trauma before they get better? We found a small proportion of patients whose pre-treatment Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) transcripts were not coded as Unresolved/Disorganized at the start of group treatment, but were coded as such at the end. In one case report, we examined pre- and six months post–AAI transcripts and group therapy interactions to document the emergence of an unresolved/disorganized mental state. Despite the increase in disorganization, the patient showed some symptom improvement and improved reflective functioning. The 16-week psychodynamic group therapy allowed the patient to reflect on her traumatic experiences and their impact on her life. However, this also resulted in a disorganizing effect on her mental state. Longer-term therapy may be necessary to improve interpersonal functioning and affect regulation in patients who experienced early trauma.

Are maternal reflective functioning and attachment security associated with preadolescent mentalization?

This study investigated the impact of maternal reflective functioning (RF) and attachment security on children’s mentalization. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was administered to mothers in a sample of 41 mother–preadolescent dyads. AAI transcripts were rated in terms of the Berkeley AAI System (Main and Goldwyn, 1998) and the Reflective Functioning Scale (RFS; Fonagy et al., 1998). Preadolescent mentalization was assessed using a semi-structured interview adapted from O’Connor and Hirsch (1999) and also by analyzing mental-state talk produced during an autobiographical interview. Relationships between maternal RF and children’s mentalization were analyzed, with consideration given to the different RFS markers and references to positive, negative, and mixed-ambivalent mental states. Children’s mentalization was positively correlated with the mother’s RF, particularly the mother’s ability to mentalize negative or mixed-ambivalent mental states. No significant differences in mentalization were observed between children of secure and insecure mothers.

Mentalizing Abilities in Preadolescents’ and Their Mothers’ Autobiographical Narratives

This study aims to investigate the association between the mental state talk of mothers and their preadolescent children, with the hypothesis that an intergenerational transmission of mentalizing abilities may extend beyond early childhood. The participants were 41 mother−preadolescent child nonclinical dyads. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and the Child Attachment Interview (CAI) were administered to the mothers and their children, respectively, to evaluate the frequency and the quality of their mental state talk. The AAI transcripts were coded according to the Reflective Functioning Scale. Analyses revealed a clear albeit complex relationship between the mentalizing abilities of mothers and their preadolescent children. The correlations between the mental state talk of mothers and children were generally limited. In contrast, children’s use of mental terms was significantly predicted by maternal education and maternal reflective functioning, whereas the production of markers of uncertainty in children was associated with the mothers’ use of markers of uncertainty.

Hostile-Helpless state of mind as further evidence of adult disorganized states of mind in neglecting families

This study aimed to assess disorganized states of mind in a sample of neglecting and at-risk of neglecting mothers using the recently developed Hostile-Helpless (HH) coding system (Lyons-Ruth et al., 2006) for the Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1998). The relation between HH states of mind and mothers’ childhood traumas was also examined. Participants were 70 neglecting mothers and at-risk of neglecting mothers. Childhood traumas were assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. HH states of mind were coded from Adult Attachment Interview transcripts by two reliable coders. Results revealed a high prevalence of disorganized states of mind in this sample. Forty-five mothers were classified HH, representing 64% of the entire sample. Most mothers reported at least one form of childhood trauma, with a mean of 2.9 different forms of trauma. Mothers classified HH reported having been emotionally abused, sexually abused and physically neglected more frequently than non-HH mothers. There was no difference between neglecting and at-risk of neglect mothers on HH states of mind and childhood experiences of trauma. These findings are in line with theorization on maltreating mothers’ psychological background and they provide further empirical support to the validation of the HH classification system with at-risk populations.

AAI coherence predicts caregiving and care seeking behavior: Secure base script knowledge helps explain why

Previous research has demonstrated significant links between the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and secure base use and support in marital interactions. The mechanisms underlying such findings have not been examined in detail. This paper examines the hypothesis that script-like attachment representations shape both attachment narratives and attachment-related caregiving behavior and thus helps explain the correlation between them. Crowell et al. (2002) reported that AAI transcript coherence is significantly related to adults’ caregiving and care seeking in couple problem solving interactions. In a random selection of 60 cases from that study, we assessed the extent to which interviewees conceptualized their early attachment experiences in terms of a secure base script. A series of regression analyses demonstrated that approximately 80% of the correlation between AAI coherence and laboratory caregiving and care seeking reported by Crowell et al. (2002) is accounted for by secure base script knowledge. Scoring secure base script knowledge from AAI transcripts is a useful step toward understanding links between early experience, adult attachment representations, and adults’ ability to provide and seek support in close relationships.

Review of Assessing adult attachment: A dynamic-maturational approach to discourse analysis.

Assessing Adult Attachment: A Dynamic-Maturational Approach to Discourse Analysis, by Patricia McKinsey Crittenden and Andrea Landini. New York, NY, W. W. Norton & Co., 2011. 440 Pages (ISBN 978-0-393-70667-3, US $42.40 Hardcover) Reviewed by GENEVIEVE TARDIF DOI: 10.1037 /a00267 52 This book, released in the spring of 201 1, is dedicated to mental health practitioners and researchers who are interested in knowing more about a new way of coding the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) according to Crittenden's dynamic-maturational model (DMM). The AAI (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985, 1996) is a semistructured interview that takes between 60 to 90 minutes to administer and involves about 20 questions about general and specific recollections of childhood relationships with attachment figures. The DDM-AAI method presented here assesses the pattern of attachment of the speaker both in terms of how the individual behaves while considering dangerous topics and the underlying basis of this behaviour in the mental processing of information. To fully understand the reason for such a book, one needs to know that the theoretical model presented by the authors differs in some fundamental ways from the one used as the foundation for the AAI, which affects the goals of assessment and the analysis of transcripts. For example, Crittenden's DMM model puts an emphasis on the effects of danger rather than the benefits of security. Exposure to danger is assumed to be the essential condition that elicits attachment behaviour, and across repeated experiences, leads to organized self-protective (p. 15). What is new in Crittenden model's of discourse analysis is that the tool is not aimed at assessing the patterns of attachment of the speaker to predict infants' patterns of attachment (the intergenerational transmission of attachment), but instead at identifying the strategies used by the individual to face exposure to danger. Finally, the discourse analysis takes into account the distortions of the mental processing of information, especially those related to feelings, thoughts, and behaviour. With this book, Crittenden and Landini first introduce the DMM model and die attachment styles that it comprises. This will help readers understand the general guidelines for the classification of AAI transcripts using Main and Goldwyn's original coding system, which is the most widely used. They then explain their DMM model, which allows for the expansion of the original system into adulthood among people who suffer from different forms of psychopathology. This book suggests ways of making sense of seemingly incomprehensible behaviours, such as pedophilia, familial violence, aggression, and suicide. It helps understand how individuals adapt to danger, and how certain strategies used to protect the individual from danger can lead them to adopt survival behaviours dangerous to themselves and to those around them, especially to their partners and children. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the presentation of the analysis model and consists of four chapters. After the overview of the main ideas of the book presented in chapter 1 (Introduction), chapter 2 focuses on the history of the AAI and outlines briefly each of the classifications. In chapter 3, the authors introduce information processing theory, which they then apply to established attachment patterns. In chapter 4 the constructs used in the discourse analysis are presented. Crittenden and Landini's final analysis is based on three components: 1) interpersonal relationships as facilitators of protection and comfort, 2) patterns of mental processing of information about risk, and 3) strategies of self-protection. This second section contains a detailed presentation of the classification system of attachment styles. It defines the three patterns and subpatterns associated with the three major styles. Specifically, the Dynamic-Maturational method uses six compulsive Type A subpatterns (A3- 8) and six obsessive Type C subpatterns (C3-8). …

Recovering an emerging self: Exploring reflective function in recovery from adolescent‐onset psychosis

This paper investigates (1) the processes involved in how young people with adolescent-onset psychosis adapt to psychosis and (2) how processes of reflective function (RF) influence the adaptation process. This study used a qualitative design to inductively construct hypotheses about processes of adaptation and to deductively explore the influence of RF on adaptation. Eight young people (aged 18-21) who had experienced clinically significant psychosis and attended a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) first-episode psychosis service participated in two interviews: (1) grounded theory open interview; (2) Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Grounded theory methodology was used to investigate young people's experiences of adaptation to psychosis. Fonagy's manual of RF was used to identify passages with different levels of RF in the adaptation narratives and to assign an overall rating of RF with regard to attachment states of mind to AAI transcripts. Links between adaptation themes and RF were examined qualitatively across participants. Two main themes relating to adaptation and adolescent individuation emerged. Moderate RF was linked to primarily positive adjustment and successful individuation following psychosis. Impaired RF was associated with unresolved adaptation and blocked individuation post-psychosis. Level of RF appeared to moderate adaptation and individuation processes post-psychosis and should be considered in the delivery of psychological therapies.

Attachment and psychopathology in a community sample

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID-I) and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) were administered to 60 women participating in a study (n = 226) of mother – child interaction. These women were not referred to the study for psychiatric care. The 60 women interviewed with the AAI were selected from the first 190 women who completed the SCID-I, so that 30 received a diagnosis and 30 did not. Analyses indicated that psychopathology diagnoses were associated significantly with mental representations of attachment classified in the AAI. The non-autonomous groups had increased likelihood of SCID diagnosis, compared to the autonomous group. While 32% of women with autonomous AAI transcripts received SCID diagnoses, 63% of women with Dismissing, 100% of woman with Preoccupied, and 65% of women with Unresolved transcripts received diagnoses. Secondary analyses indicated that Dismissing classifications were associated with Axis I diagnoses and Preoccupied classifications with affective disorders. Of note was that among women with Unresolved classifications, underlying secure attachment was associated with low risk of psychopathology, while underlying anxious attachment was associated with elevated risk of diagnosis. These findings support the premise from attachment theory that early relationships affect patterns of interpersonal expectations and behavior and affect regulation.

Attachment representations of deaf adults.

The primary goal of this study was to examine the feasibility of using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) with 50 culturally Deaf adults. Modifications to the standard protocol included using a visual-spatial language (American Sign Language) rather than a spoken language (English), as well as coding and procedural variations from the standardized protocol. Results suggested that the adapted AAI interview and coding processes provided an effective assessment of the state of mind regarding the attachment of Deaf individuals. The expectation that Deaf participants would be less coherent in their AAI transcripts and therefore less likely than hearing individuals to be classified as Autonomous was not supported. The distribution of the classifications of this Deaf sample was not different from existing normative distributions. Moreover, there was no evidence that early separation from parents associated with attendance at a residential school for the Deaf resulted in attachment formations with residential counselors or teachers at the school.

Adult attachment representation and computer-assisted language measures: what can we learn from the therapeutic cycle model for the Adult Attachment Interview and vice verse?

In this study, we examined the relationship between adult attachment representation, coded with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and its linguistic components, assessed by computer-assisted language measures for emotion-abstraction patterns. N=40 subjects completed AAI transcripts; n=20 were classified as “secure”, n=10 as “dismissing”, and n=10 as “preoccupied”. The AAI coding focuses on the structural quality of discourse. Our basic assumption was that comparing different adults' state of mind with respect to attachment, security is indicated by undistorted free cognitive and emotional processes, insecurity, that is, dismissing and preoccupied, is marked by significant interference from cognitive or affective sources. The aim was to test whether linguistic measures can contribute to a construct validity of the attachment categories. Further, we were expecting that different topics in the AAI-questions (e.g. separation, illness, metacognition) would activate different linguistic variables and could contribute to a thematically relevant construct validity for the language measures. The results showed that, on the one hand, the text analytic approach has been found to be useful to differentiate between the complex attachment categories on an objective level. On the other hand, the semistructured AAI with 18 questions seemed to be a suitable instrument to contribute to a construct validity of the disparate language measures.

Adult Attachment Interview, Thematic Analysis, and Communicative Style in Families with Substance Use Disorder

The paper examined the Adult Attachment Interview with special reference to thematic and semantic analysis in line with the discourse study (van Dijk, 1997). The hypothesis was that correspondence between the communicative organization of speech and the mental representations of the attachment experiences would be substantial. Eight Adult Attachment Interview transcripts of fathers with a heroin addicted young son were analyzed at two levels, (a) thematic analysis to individuate the topics of their talk applying the structural and semantic study of discourse and (b) enunciative analysis of speech to define their linguistic patterns utilizing a set of linguistic micro- and macro-units. Results showed nine main topics in the Adult Attachment Interview, each of which was characterized by a distinctive linguistic profile. In this perspective this device seems to be effective not only for discriminating attachment styles between subjects but also to identify differences within subjects belonging to the same attachment pattern.

The Organized Categories of Infant, Child, and Adult Attachment: Flexible Vs. Inflexible Attention Under Attachment-Related Stress

From an evolutionary perspective, a central mechanism promoting infant survival is the maintenance of proximity to attachment figures. Consequently attachment figure(s) represent the infant's primary solution to experiences of fear. Aspects of the development of the field of attachment are outlined within this context, beginning with Bowlby's ethological/evolutionary theory, and proceeding to Ainsworth's early descriptions of infant-mother interaction in Uganda and Baltimore. Using a laboratory procedure called the strange situation, Ainsworth identified three organized patterns of infant response to separation from and reunion with the parent. Narratives derived from videotaped strange situation behavior of infants in each category (secure, avoidant, and resistant/ambivalent) are provided, together with a discussion of the prototypical sequelae of each category (e.g., school behavior, and separation-related narratives and drawings at age six). The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and the move to the level of representation are also described. AAI transcripts are presently analyzed according to the speaker's capacity to adhere to Grice's maxims of rational cooperative discourse, and three organized AAI categories, or states of mind with respect to attachment, have been identified (secure-autonomous, dismissing, and preoccupied). When the interview is administered to parents who have been seen with their infants in the strange situation, each AAI category has repeatedly been found to predict that infant's strange situation response to that parent. Illustrations of the discourse characteristic of each category are provided, and it is noted that individuals with apparently unfavorable life histories are found to have secure offspring, providing that their history is recounted coherently. Like infant strange situation behavior, differences in adult security as identified through discourse patterning are interpreted in terms of attentional flexibility or inflexibility under attachment-related stress.

The relation of attachment status, psychiatric classification, and response to psychotherapy.

The relation of patterns of attachment and psychiatric status was studied in 82 nonpsychotic inpatients and 85 case-matched controls using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). AAI transcripts rated (masked to case vs. control status and treatment) were classified using M. Main and R. Goldwyn's (1991) system. Psychiatric patients, diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.) I and II structured interviews, were more likely to be classified as preoccupied and unresolved with respect to loss or abuse. On Axis I, anxiety was associated with unresolved status, and AAI scales were able to discriminate depression and eating disorder. On Axis II, borderline personality disorder (BPD) was linked to experience of severe trauma and lack of resolution with respect to it. BPD patients were also rated significantly lower on a scale measuring awareness of mental states. Preliminary outcome results suggest that individuals rated as dismissing on the AAI are more likely to show improvements in psychotherapy.

The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its significance for security of attachment

Epidemiologists and psychoanalysts have been equally concerned about the intergenera-tional concordance of disturbed patterns of attachment. Mary Main's introduction of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) has provided the field with an empirical tool for examining the concordance of parental and infant attachment patterns. In the context of a prospective study of the influence of parental patterns of attachment assessed before the birth of the first child upon the child's pattern of attachment to that parent at 1 year and at 18 months, the Anna Freud Centre—University College London Parent-Child Project reported a significant level of concordance between parental security and the infant's security with that parent. In the context of this study, a new measure, aiming to assess the parent's capacity for understanding mental states, was developed and is reported on in this paper. The rating of Reflective-Self Function, based upon AAI transcripts, correlated significantly with infant security classification based on Strange Situation assessments. The philosophical background and clinical importance of the measure are discussed. Les épidémiologues et les psychanalystes sont tout aussi bien concernés et intéressés par la concordance intergénérationnelle de patterns d'attachement perturbés. L'introduction qu'a faite Mary Main de l'Interview d'Attachement Adulte a fourni un outil empirique pour l'examen de la concordance des patterns d'attachement parental et infantile. Dans le contexte d'une étude future de l'influence des patterns d'attachement parental évaluée avant la naissance du premier enfant sur le pattern d'attachement de l'enfant envers ce parent à l'ǎge d'un an et à dix-huit mois, le Centre Anna Freud, University College Londres, Parent-Child Project, a signalé un niveau significatif de concordance entre la sécurité parentale et la sécurité du nourrisson avec ce parent. Dans le contexte de cette étude, une nouvelle mesure, ayant pour but d'évaluer la capacité du parent à comprendre les états mentaux a été développée et fait l'objet d'un rapport dans ce travail. L'évaluation de l''“Observing Self Function,” basée sur la transcription de l'Interview d'Attachement Adulte, correspondait de manière signicative à la classification de la sécurité du nourrisson basée sur les évaluations de Situation Etrange. L'arrière-plan philosophique et l'importance clinique de la mesure sont discutés.