lecture 4 -consequence of attachment

Question 1

attachments influence on future behaviours
social
cognitive

Answer 1

social - relationships outside the home, with peers
cognitive -children’s cognitive abilities

Question 2

continuity of attachment
is attachment classification stable across life?

Answer 2

yes
-grossman 1988 - 87% of securely attached were still securely attached
-waters et al 2000 - 72%

not so much
Lewis et al (2000)
-38% of insecure maintained classification
-57% of secure maintained classification

insecure attachment is a little more flexible.
-debated topic but suggested there is some attachment

Question 3

continuity of attachment,
-is it because ..?

Answer 3

-early experience determines later behaviour ?
-current experiences (similar to early experience) determines behaviour

Question 4

NICHD early child care research network (2006)
looked at influence of ?
-at what ages

Answer 4

looked at influence of
-attachment ratings (15 month old)
-longitudinal parenting ratings
-changes in parenting
on
-social skills
-internalising and externalising problems
-at 4, 5,6 years old

Question 5

NICHD early child care research network (2006)
results
- effect of attachment on social adjustment
-attachment history predicted effect of change in parenting
for insecure and secure children

Answer 5

had a strong effect of attachment on social adjustment
* But parenting measures modulated this effect.

Attachment history predicted effect of change in parenting
* when there is Decline in parenting quality- there is also decline in functioning for insecure children
* for insecurley attached children, Improvement in parenting- improved functioning for insecure children
* No real effect for secure children

Question 6

are day care kids more likely to be insecurley attached
-belsky 1988
-alternative explanations

Answer 6

-infants in child care
more likely to be insecure attached
-and be less likely to comply with adults

alternative explanations
-day care fosters independence
-mistaken for poor behaviour in testing

Question 7

multi centre study nichd
childcare
2006
-measured?
-outcomes?

Answer 7

0began in 1991 (cohort were 1 month old)
-1364 infants began study, 1073 children still in study 2000-2004 (9-13 year olds)

measured
-quantity of childcare, quality of childcare, quality of homecare

outcomes
-cognitive measures, social measures
-emotional development (attachment)
-health and physical growth

Question 8

results of multi centre nicdh study
quality of day care on
-internalising and externalising behaviours
-social compliance
-secure/insecure attachment

Answer 8

-higher quality care meant children showed less internalising and externalising behaviours
-showed more social compliance (nichd 1998)

-children in lower quality care showed more insecure attachment
-only in the case where children with low sensitivity mothers (nichd 1999)

higher quality care associated with better mother child intereactions

-‘higher quality care’ children produced more positive interactions with peers (nichd 2001)

Question 9

results of multi centre nicdh study
quantity of day care
-secure/insecureattachment
-problem behaviour
-school readiness

-are family variables or childcare variables stronger?

Answer 9

-more than 10 hours a week lead to increased risk of insecure attachment , only of maternal sensitivity was weak nichd 2001

-problem behaviour at 4-5 years
-related to hours in day care (independent of quality care nichd 20030

-school readiness at 3 years old affected in
-children who are in day care before 9 months (brooks gunn 2002)
-worse if over 30 hours of day care

-family variables much stronger influence than childcare variables

Question 10

further data from the nichd childcare cohort

-belsky et al 2007
-what did they examine
-what did they find

Answer 10

-examined childrens functioning from 4 and a half to 12 years old
-increased quality of early childcare lead to higher vocab scores
-increased amount of time in centre based care predicted externalising difficulties
-not the case for other forms of childcare

-but again parenting variables more important

Question 11

disruption of attachment
infants in institutions
-harlows motherless monkeys
-children in orphanages

Answer 11

Harlow’s motherless monkeys
-socially isolated
-became socially and sexually dysfunctional as adults

children in orphanages
-became apathetic
-long term emotional difficulties (tizard and rees ,1975)

Question 12

-romanian orphanages
-zeanah et al 2005

Answer 12

-studies done in Romanian orphanages
-found chronic understaffing, poor conditioned

zeanah et al 2005
-‘institiutional children’ (IC) versus community children
-62% of IC disorganised , vs 22% community
-18.9% of IC secure (74% community)

higher incidence of reactive attachment disorder
-increased social withdrawal /inhibited behaviour
-increased indiscriminately social / dis-inhibited behaviour

Question 13

infants in institutions
after adoption- chrisholm 1998
-attachment security

Answer 13

after adoption
-attachment security improved from 11 months to 39 months
-still showed increased insecurity
-shows of indiscriminate friendliness did not decrease (were too friendly with anyone and too trusting with strangers)

Question 14

rutter et all 2001
-children adopted in Britain before 3 and a half years at 6 years

Answer 14

-found evidence of attachment problems and cognitive impairment
-24% free of any dysfunction

Question 15

abuse and maltreatment definitions

Answer 15

• any intentional harm to a minor ( i.e under 18 years old ), including harm that is physical , emotional or sexual and neglect (US dept of health)
  -four categories : physical , sexual, neglect, emotional

Question 16

incidence of abuse cases

Answer 16

2.7 in 1000 children (england)
30,200 children (england) substantiated and registered cases
492,108 children (usa) substantiated and registered cases)

Question 17

maltreatment and attachment
-effect of maltreatment on attachment

Answer 17

-95% of maltreated children are insecure attached (cicchetti and toth 2006)
-82% of maltreated children were classified as disorganised (compared to 19% in non maltreated sample)

Question 18

maltreatment and attachment
-due to?

Answer 18

due to
-insensitive child rearing practices
-fear (not having secure base)
-depressive symtomps in mother
-parentification of child

Question 19

consequences of maltreatment
-emotional regulation
-viewing and understanding emotions
-social information processing

Answer 19

emotional regulation
-extreme or blunted affects in infants (gaensbuger and hiatt,1984)
-increased distress viewing conflict (hennessy 1994)

viewing and understanding emotions (pollack 2000)
-neglect: difficulty differentiating emotional expressions
-physically abused : hyper vigilance for angry emotion

social information processing (dodge, 1995)
-increased hostility bias

Question 20

consequences of maltreatment
-toddler and pre school children
-peer relations

Answer 20

Toddler and pre-school children (Cicchetti & Toth, 2005)
* Little internal state speech
* Delayed theory of mind
* Girls show more shame and less pride

• Peer Relations
• More anti social behaviour
• Less pro-social behaviour (Slazinger, 1993)
• More likely to cause distress to and are disliked by their peers (Dodge,1994)

Question 21

intergenerational transmission of attachment
-meta analysis of 13 studies findings

Answer 21

The pattern of a correspondence between mother and infant attachment is generally agreed throughout the literature

• A meta-analysis of 13 studies found a high correspondence (75%) between secure attachment in mothers and infants (van IJzendoorn, 1995)

Question 22

potential mechanisms of this intergenerational transmission of attachment styles

Answer 22

-Ability/resources to sensitively respond to the needs of the child
- Impact on perceptions/expectations of the child
-Direct impact on emotional recognition
:Mothers with unresolved trauma/loss had reduced activation in the amygdala when viewing their own infant’s distressed face, but not that of unknown infants(Kim et al., 2014

Question 23

intergenerational transmission of trauma
lyengar et al 2014

Answer 23

Explored mothers (n=47) with ‘unresolved trauma’ and effects on theirinfants’ attachment styles.

.* Interested in the process of reorganisation (where adults with insecure attachment change their understanding of past experiences towards greater resolution)

• Maternal attachment measured through a modified AAI (capturing attachment style and presence/absence of reorganisation)
• Infant attachment measured through SSP

Question 24

intergenerational transmission of trauma
lyengar et al 2014
results

Answer 24

Results:

• 100% of mothers with unresolved trauma were classified as having insecure attachment
• Infants of mothers with unresolved trauma were more likely to be insecurely attached (over 75%) compared to mothers with no unresolved trauma (45%)
• ‘Reorganizing’ mothers were more likely to have securely attached infants than mothers who were not reorganising
• Preliminary evidence of clinical significance