Internal Working Models Of Attachment Research Articles

Exploring perceptions of genetic risk and the transmission of substance use disorders

BackgroundSubstance use disorders (SUDs) have been consistently shown to exhibit moderate intergenerational continuity (1–3). While much research has examined genetic and social influences on addiction, less attention has been paid to clients’ and lay persons’ perceptions of genetic influences on the heritability of SUD (4) and implications for treatment.MethodsFor this qualitative study, twenty-six structured Working Model of the Child Interviews (WMCI) were conducted with mothers receiving inpatient SUD treatment. These interviews were thematically analyzed for themes related to maternal perceptions around intergenerational transmission of substance use behaviours.ResultsFindings show that over half of the mothers in this sample were preoccupied with their children’s risk factors for addictions. Among this group, 29% spontaneously expressed concerns about their children’s genetic risk for addiction, 54% shared worries about their children’s propensity for addiction without mentioning the word gene or genetic. Additionally, 37% had challenges in even discussing their children’s future when prompted. These concerns mapped onto internal working models of attachment in unexpected ways, with parents who were coded with balanced working models being more likely to discuss intergenerational risk factors and parents with disengaged working models displaying difficulties in discussing their child’s future.ConclusionThis research suggests that the dominant discourse around the brain-disease model of addictions, in its effort to reduce stigma and self-blame, may have unintended downstream consequences for parents’ mental models about their children’s risks for future addiction. Parents receiving SUD treatment, and the staff who deliver it, may benefit from psychoeducation about the intergenerational transmission of SUD as part of treatment.

Social Anxiety from an Attachment Theory Perspective: The Mediating Role of Early Maladaptive Schema Domains and Rejection Sensitivity

Social anxiety is a common problem. Several factors play a role in the development and maintenance of social anxiety. Since relationship with parents is specifically an important factor, it is important to examine social anxiety from an attachment theory perspective. Studies indicate that early maladaptive schemas and rejection sensitivity may play a role in the relationship between attachment pattern and psychological distress. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the mediating role of early maladaptive schema domains and rejection sensitivity in the relationship between internal working models of attachment and social anxiety. The sample of the study consisted of 557 university students (199 male, 358 female) between the ages of 17-27 (M = 20.69, SD = 1.79). Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Relationship Scales Questionnaire, Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form 3, and Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire were administered to the participants. Results of the mediation analysis with Bootstrapping showed that Impaired Autonomy schema domain and rejection sensitivity mediated the relationships between attachment self-model and social anxiety. Moreover, schema domains of Impaired Autonomy, Impaired Limits and Unrelenting Standards, and rejection sensitivity mediated the relationship between attachment other-model and social anxiety. The current study may contribute to the literature by providing an understanding of how the relationship between attachment and social anxiety may emerge. Clinicians aiming to increase clients’ functionality and quality of life should/could focus on their clinical practice on the above early maladaptive schema domains and rejection sensitivity.

First data and translation of the Child Attachment Interview en Español.

The Child Attachment Interview (CAI) was designed to assess attachment representation in middle childhood-filling a gap between behavioral paradigms and adult interviews-and has demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in middle childhood and adolescence. To date, the CAI has not been available in Spanish, given the absence of an accepted translation and psychometric data. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, and assessment of attachment in an individual's native language is critical given differences in emotional processing, memory, and disclosure in first versus second languages. We translated the CAI (with consultation from its creator) utilizing standardized translation and back-translation procedures and examined its psychometric properties in a sample of Spanish-speaking high school students. In this study, we report on that process and data gathered from N = 94 Spanish-speaking adolescents in grades 9-12; 20% were double-coded and interrater reliability was acceptable. Findings support the single factor "Security-Dismissal" model, and relations between classifications and subscales were consistent with previous findings. Support for convergent and discriminant validity was provided for both classifications and subscales; however, concurrent validity varied across classifications and subscales. In sum, our translation demonstrates psychometric promise for the assessment of internal working models of attachment in Spanish-speaking high school students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Attachment, psychological health and interpersonal functioning: a comparison of clinical and non-clinical groups of people with intellectual disability

PurposeInsecure and unresolved attachments have been linked to poorer psychological health and interpersonal functioning for people with intellectual disabilities (IDs), but research in this area is limited, especially for adults. Studies using the Adult Attachment Projective (AAP) have been restricted to clinical samples, where insecure and unresolved attachments are typically more prevalent. The purpose of this study is to compare clinical and non-clinical groups of adults with IDs on the AAP, plus measures of psychological health and interpersonal functioning, to investigate whether group differences found in the typically developing population are also present for adults with IDs.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional, between-group design was used. Adults with IDs (clinical group n = 11 and non-clinical group n = 13) completed measures of attachment, psychological distress/positive well-being and interpersonal functioning. Attachment classifications were compared in the clinical versus non-clinical groups. Measures of psychological distress, positive well-being and interpersonal functioning were compared between those with insecure-organised versus unresolved classifications.FindingsNo participants were classified as secure, and there were high rates of unresolved attachment. There were no differences between clinical and non-clinical groups with regards to the distribution of insecure-organised (i.e. dismissing or preoccupied) versus unresolved classifications. There were no differences between groups with regards to psychological distress, positive well-being or interpersonal functioning. The authors consider limitations in the method of group differentiation and suggest further research to better understand the development of internal working models of attachment in this population.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of only three to examine attachment state of mind in adults with IDs using the AAP and the first to examine differences between clinical and non-clinical groups.

Parenting Styles and Moral Disengagement in Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Attachment Experiences

Research on parenting styles and attachment experiences has paid little attention to the dimensions of moral development. It is, therefore, interesting to explore the relationship between parenting styles, internal working models of attachment, and the development of moral skills, in terms of moral disengagement. The study involved 307 young people (aged 19-25 years), and the dimensions examined were: parental styles (measured by the PSDQ: Tagliabue et al., 2014); attachment styles (ECR: Picardi et al., 2002); moral disengagement (MDS: Caprara et al., 2006). Results showed that the authoritative parenting style is negatively correlated with the two measures of attachment styles (anxiety and avoidance) and moral disengagement. The authoritarian and permissive styles are positively correlated with the two measures of attachment styles (anxiety and avoidance) and moral disengagement. Results also revealed a significant indirect effect of the authoritative style (b = −0.433, 95% BCa, CI [−0.882, −0.090]) and authoritarian style (b = −0.661, 95% BCa, CI [.230, 1.21]) on moral disengagement through anxiety. A serial mediation of anxiety and avoidance on the relationship between permissive style and moral disengagement (b = .077, 95% BCa, CI [.0006, .206]) is significant.

The relationship between internal working models of attachment and marital satisfaction among older adults: An analysis based on couple data

The relationship between internal working models of attachment and marital satisfaction among older adults: An analysis based on couple data

Parenting Stress and Attachment Insecurity in Young Adulthood: A Social Relations Model.

We used the Social Relations Model to inspect the individual- and dyad-specific components of attachment among young adults and their parents, and examined relations between these components and parenting stress. Young adulthood is a transitional period in which the whole family is concerned with "launching" the young adult and exploring new ways to interact with and attach to one another. However, research on young adulthood attachment has primarily focused on young adults' attachment style rather than reciprocal attachments among family members. When the young adults were age 23, mothers, fathers, and young adults from 156 families reported their mutual attachment security. At ages 18 and 23, parents of the adolescent/young adult reported their parenting stress in interparental and parent-child relationship domains. Attachment in the families of young adults can be separated into three components: 1) actor effects (each family member's internal working model of attachment), 2) partner effects (characteristics of each family member as an attachment figure), and 3) relationship effects (dyad-specific attachment between family members). Increase of parenting stress in a family subsystem (dyad of family members) predicted attachment insecurity within the subsystem. Additionally, compensatory effects across family subsystems were observed. Attachment in the family during young adulthood is explained by family members' own characteristics as well as dyad-specific interactions and is predicted by parenting stress in family subsystems.

Attachment and prosocial behavior in middle childhood: The role of emotion regulation

There is a lack of research on the development of prosocial behavior in middle childhood. The current study addressed this gap through the application of attachment theory; attachment security has been shown to promote prosocial behavior in early childhood, and emotion regulation may be an important intervening variable in this association. A sample of 199 children (aged 6–12 years) reported on their attachment internal working models for the mother–child and father–child relationships, parents reported on child emotion regulation and emotional lability/dysregulation, and children completed a sticker donation task to assess their prosocial behavior. Child emotional lability/dysregulation served as an intervening variable in the association between father–child attachment security (communication and trust) and greater sticker donation. Mother–child and father–child attachment security was also associated with child emotion regulation, but emotion regulation was not associated with sticker donation. Findings suggest that secure attachment may foster prosocial behavior toward peers in middle childhood primarily by reducing dysregulated responses to the distress of others.

Does coding internal working models of attachment have to be so hard?

The Child Attachment Interview (CAI) has demonstrated promise in youth, yet widespread use is thwarted by the need for interview transcription, face-to-face training, and reliability certification. The present study sought to examine the empirical basis for these barriers. Thirty-five archival CAIs were re-coded by: (1) expert coders (i.e., trained and reliable) without access to transcripts, (2) trained coders who had not completed reliability training, and (3) novice coders who had no formal training. Agreement with consensus classifications was computed with the expectation of moderate agreement. Results supported coding by experts without transcription of the interview. Near-moderate agreement preliminarily supported the use of trained coders who have not attempted reliability certification with appropriate caveats. While moderate agreement was not achieved for novice raters, findings suggest that self-paced training options for the CAI may hold future promise. These contributions erode a number of significant barriers to the current use of the CAI.

Positive and negative life experiences and changes in internal working models of attachment - a comparative study.

One of the most important questions in personality psychology and psychopathology is whether working models of attachment change during lifetime. It is assumed that early childhood experiences influence the formation of secure or insecure internal working models of attachment The belief that attachment representations formed in childhood are relatively stable is no longer so obvious: new reports have appeared, according to which important life experiences may lead to a change in attachment style from insecure to secure or the other way around. The main aim of the present project was to investigate whether and in what manner positive and negative life experiences lead to changes in internal working models of attachment. The specific style of attachment to mother, father, partner, and friend was measured with the ECR-RS, while global attachment was assessed based on the SAAM and ECR-RS G. The number and intensity of positive and negative life experiences was assessed by means of the LES-M. We analyzed the results for a sample of 156 adults. The study revealed significant relations between the level of positive life experiences and global and specific styles of attachment to a friend and partner. However, no significant relationships were observed between the intensity of negative life events and attachment style. Between-group comparisons showed that in the group in which a change of attachment style from insecure to secure had taken place the experience of positive events was significantly stronger than in the group in which there had been no such change. The compared groups did not differ in the level of negative life experiences. The study supports the hypothesis about a change of global attachment style and selected specific aspects of insecure attachment to a secure style as a result of experiencing positive life events.

Latent classes in preschoolers' internal working models of attachment and emotional security: Roles of family risk.

Children's relationships inform their internal working models (IWMs) of the world around them. Attachment and emotional security theory (EST) emphasize the importance of parent-child and interparental relationships, respectively, for IWM. The current study examined (a) data-driven classes in child attachment and emotional security IWM, (b) associations between IWM classes and demographic variables, maltreatment, intimate partner violence (IPV), and maternal depressive symptoms, and (c) consistency in attachment and emotional security IWM classes, including as a function of maltreatment, IPV, and maternal depressive symptoms. Participants were 234 preschool-aged children (n = 152 experienced maltreatment and n = 82 had not experienced maltreatment) and their mothers. Children participated in a narrative-based assessment of IWM. Mothers reported demographics, IPV, and maternal depressive symptoms. Latent class analyses revealed three attachment IWM classes and three emotional security IWM classes. Maltreatment was associated with lower likelihood of being in the secure attachment class and elevated likelihood of being in the insecure dysregulated attachment class. Inconsistencies in classification across attachment and emotional security IWM classes were related to maltreatment, IPV, and maternal depressive symptoms. The current study juxtaposes attachment and EST and provides insight into impacts of family adversity on children's IWM across different family relationships.

Relationship between paternal adult attachment and adolescent anxiety: The chain-mediating effect of paternal psychological flexibility and father-adolescent attachment.

Grounded in family systems theory and the internal working model of attachment, the present study tested the effects of paternal adult attachment, paternal psychological flexibility and father-adolescent attachment on adolescent anxiety. In total, 906 pairs of fathers and their adolescents completed a set of questionnaires, including the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, Parental Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, and Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results revealed that paternal adult attachment avoidance had a positive impact on adolescent anxiety. The relationship between paternal adult attachment and adolescent anxiety was chain mediated by paternal psychological flexibility and father-adolescent attachment. The mediation effects contained two paths: the separate mediation effect of paternal psychological flexibility, and the chain mediation effect of paternal psychological flexibility and father-adolescent attachment. The results of the study show that the father's adult attachment can not only directly affect adolescent anxiety, but also indirectly affect adolescent anxiety through the paternal psychological flexibility and the quality of father-adolescent attachment. Fathers have an important effect on adolescent anxiety.

Moderating role of attachment in predicting performance with self and collective efficacies

The importance of individual and group resources for predicting performance is a well-known debate in the literature. This paper presents one of the first attempts to examine the concurrent and relative effects of internal (self) and external (collective) efficacies on performance. We argue that one of the underlying mechanisms that affect the importance of these resources depends on the individual’s internal working model of attachment. Study 1 examined the moderating role of employees' attachment orientations in the relative importance they ascribe to self and collective efficacies for predicting performance. Study 2 examined the moderating role of managers' attachment orientations in the importance they attribute to employees' self and collective efficacies in predicting their subordinates' performance. Two samples of employees (N = 143) and managers (N = 132) in high-tech industries participated in these studies. Findings indicate that both employees and managers evaluated self-efficacy as a better predictor of performance than collective efficacy. Moreover, the analysis of both employees' and managers' attachment orientations illuminates how self vs. collective efficacy contribute to performance predictions. Findings also underscore the contribution of attachment theory to performance predictions in the workplace.

Parent‐ and teacher‐rated emotion regulation strategies in relation to preschoolers’ attachment representations: A longitudinal perspective

AbstractThe current study's aim was to investigate longitudinally the extent to which individual differences in attachment influence children's general and emotion‐specific (anger, sadness, fear) regulatory skills. A sample of 229 preschool‐age children participated in this study. Children's internal working models of attachment and verbal abilities were assessed at baseline, whereas parents and teachers reported on children's use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies at both baseline and 7 months follow‐up. The results indicated that: (1) parent and teacher ratings of children's use of ER strategies exhibited low cross‐informant correlations; and (2) significant longitudinal patterns of attachment representation effects on ER were found in relation to co‐regulation and under‐regulation, but not for self‐regulation and over‐regulation. More precisely, securely attached children more frequently used teachers as a source of co‐regulation, particularly for anger and sadness, compared to avoidantly attached children. Furthermore, secure children were less likely to exhibit under‐regulation compared to preschoolers classified as disorganized or insecure avoidant, especially in relation to anger. These findings may be informative for designing parent and teacher trainings focused on enhancing children's ER skills and reducing the risk of psychopathology.

The influence of organizational death on work priorities and the moderating role of attachment internal working models.

Downturns in the global economy have caused even large organizations to cease to operate; a phenomenon often dubbed “organizational death”. Two studies focused on individual coping strategies in times of organizational death and the possible moderating role of attachment as a personality factor. Experiment 1 (N = 162) explored the effects of the saliency of organizational death on work priorities, and the moderating role of dispositional attachment orientation. Experiment 2 (N = 119) examined the interaction between dispositional attachment and the recall of an attachment event on work priorities. Participants reported their work priorities after being primed to imagine that their organization must either shut down or undergo an organizational crisis (or were assigned to a neutral control group), and completed the Experiences in Close Relationships scale to determine their attachment orientation. In Experiment 2, participants were also asked to recall a secure/insecure event after organizational death (or organizational crisis) priming to test the impact of external attachment event recall saliency and its interaction with dispositional attachment on work priorities. Dispositional avoidance (but not anxiety) moderated the effects of the organizational priming condition on work priorities. Recall of an attachment event interacted with dispositional avoidance (but not anxiety) on work priorities after organizational death priming. The saliency of organizational death mitigated the moderating role of individual differences on the effects of both dispositional orientation and priming of an attachment event on work priorities. Thus, a significant event that undermines one of the pillars of security in adulthood may lessen individual differences in work priorities following this exposure.

Attachment processes following traumatic loss: A mediation model examining identity distress, shattered assumptions, prolonged grief, and posttraumatic growth.

Sudden or violent death of a loved one poses unique challenges for the bereaved. Research has found such losses to be associated with higher levels of chronic psychological distress. The present study explored underlying mechanisms and risk and protective factors for both prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth, considering both human and divine attachment. In a mixed college and community sample of 374 traumatically bereaved adults, we examined associations between adult attachment to close others, adult attachment to God, identity distress, and shattered assumptions with the outcome variables of prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth. Correlations indicate that religious individuals' attachment patterns in close adult relationships were partially mirrored in their relationship with God. Regression analyses indicate a curvilinear relationship between prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth. Path analyses indicate significant associations between insecure attachment strategies and prolonged grief symptoms through the mediators of identity distress and shattered assumptions. Specifically, attachment anxiety in relation to close others and God, and attachment avoidance in relation to close others, were indirectly associated with prolonged grief. Attachment avoidance in relation to God was negatively associated with prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth, but there was no evidence for mediation. Faced with the traumatic loss of a loved one, the ability and desire to effectively access relationships facilitating emotional processing and cognitive reorganization is predicated on survivors' internal working model of attachment. These results inform the assessment and treatment of individuals bereaved through sudden or violent means. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Conceptual Analysis: A Social Neuroscience Approach to Interpersonal Interaction in the Context of Disruption and Disorganization of Attachment (NAMDA).

Humans are strongly dependent upon social resources for allostasis and emotion regulation. This applies especially to early childhood because humans—as an altricial species—have a prolonged period of dependency on support and input from caregivers who typically act as sources of co-regulation. Accordingly, attachment theory proposes that the history and quality of early interactions with primary caregivers shape children's internal working models of attachment. In turn, these attachment models guide behavior, initially with the set goal of maintaining proximity to caregivers but eventually paving the way to more generalized mental representations of self and others. Mounting evidence in non-clinical populations suggests that these mental representations coincide with differential patterns of neural structure, function, and connectivity in a range of brain regions previously associated with emotional and cognitive capacities. What is currently lacking, however, is an evidence-based account of how early adverse attachment-related experiences and/or the emergence of attachment disorganization impact the developing brain. While work on early childhood adversities offers important insights, we propose that how these events become biologically embedded crucially hinges on the context of the child–caregiver attachment relationships in which the events take place. Our selective review distinguishes between direct social neuroscience research on disorganized attachment and indirect maltreatment-related research, converging on aberrant functioning in neurobiological systems subserving aversion, approach, emotion regulation, and mental state processing in the wake of severe attachment disruption. To account for heterogeneity of findings, we propose two distinct neurobiological phenotypes characterized by hyper- and hypo-arousal primarily deriving from the caregiver serving either as a threatening or as an insufficient source of co-regulation, respectively.

Paternal coparenting behavior and adolescent prosocial behaviors: Roles of parent-child attachment, peer attachment, and gender

Based on family system theory and the internal working model of attachment, this study explored how and when paternal coparenting behavior is related to adolescent prosocial behaviors. Eight hundred and ninety Chinese adolescents from nuclear families filled out questionnaires regarding paternal coparenting behavior, prosocial behaviors, father-child attachment, mother-child attachment, and peer attachment. Results showed that (1) Positive paternal coparenting behavior (coparenting integrity and consistency) was positively associated with adolescent prosocial behaviors, while negative paternal coparenting behavior (coparenting conflict and bias) was not significantly associated with adolescent prosocial behaviors; (2) Coparenting integrity was positively related to father-child attachment, while coparenting conflict was negatively related to father-child attachment, which supported spillover effect in family system; coparenting integrity and consistency were both positively related to mother-child attachment, while coparenting conflict was negatively related to mother-child attachment, which supported crossover effect in family system; (3) Mother-child attachment and peer attachment sequentially mediated the association between coparenting integrity and adolescent prosocial behaviors only for girls but not boys; (4) Peer attachment mediated the association between coparenting consistency and prosocial behaviors in both boy and girl groups. The results stressed the role of positive paternal coparenting behaviors in adolescent prosocial behaviors and encouraged to enhance the coparenting practice to foster adolescent positive development.

Does childhood abuse really reduce empathy?:Internal working models of attachment as a mediator

Does childhood abuse really reduce empathy?:Internal working models of attachment as a mediator

Family Systems Thinking as a Guide for Theory Integration: Conceptual Overlaps of Differentiation, Attachment, Parenting Style, and Identity Development in Families With Adolescents

There is both the necessity and the capacity for unification across the discipline of family science. This article offers another step toward a comprehensive, integrated body of theory and research shared across our discipline. Specifically, we address how family systems thinking has been reflected in attachment, parenting, and adolescent identity literature, and we present bidimensional models and integrated spectrums emphasizing how levels of differentiation, adolescent internal working models of attachment, parenting styles, and adolescent identity statuses are conceptually intertwined as systemic intrapsychic and interpersonal processes. These theories and concepts, when considered as an integrated whole, invite theoretical complexity that advances the understanding of family processes and guides new research questions. We propose that family systems theory is a holistic framework that is ideal for integrating these concepts in a way that goes beyond highlighting their common factors. We conclude with the benefits and barriers to comprehensive integration across family science.