The report of the APSAC Task Force on Attachment Therapy, Reactive Attachment Disorder, and Attachment Problems.
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Advisory Committees↗
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The report of the APSAC Task Force on Attachment Therapy, Reactive Attachment Disorder, and Attachment Problems.
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Advisory Committees↗
The use of attachment theory in a clinical situation: secure attachment, anxious attachment.
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Anxiety, Separation↗
[Snap attachment, double attachment and precision attachment (II)].
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Denture Precision Attachment↗
Comparison of the attachment rates of males of the ticks Amblyomma hebraeum and A. variegatum to cattle, sheep and rabbits in the absence of aggregation-attachment pheromone.
Losses in domestic ruminants caused by heartwater (Cowdria ruminantium infection) in Zimbabwe and Mozambique are greater when the vector is Amblyomma hebraeum than when the vector is A. variegatum. It has been suggested that the epidemiology of the disease may be influenced by the rates at which unfed adults of these two tick species attach to uninfested hosts (i.e. in the absence of the male-produced aggregation-attachment pheromone [AAP]). In this study we confined unfed males of A. hebraeum and A. variegatum on uninfested cattle, sheep and rabbits and recorded their attachment rates. Males of both species attached more rapidly on cattle than on sheep or rabbits. Males of A. hebraeum attached more rapidly than males of A. variegatum on all three host species. The differences in the attachment rates between the two species were much greater on sheep and rabbits than on cattle. The findings suggest that in the absence of AAP, pioneer males of both tick species may attach to cattle, and pioneer males of A. hebraeum may also attach to sheep. The differences in the attachment rates of A. hebraeum and A. variegatum provide a possible explanation for observed differences in the epidemiology of heartwater associated with these two vector species.
Analysis of Variance↗
Periodontal-derived cells attach to cementum attachment protein via alpha 5 beta 1 integrin.
A specific collagenous cementum attachment protein (CAP) has been identified in human cementum which promotes selective cell migration towards and attachment of various periodontal derived cell populations to root surfaces in vitro. The CAP is known to support attachment of periodontal-derived cell via an RGD motif, which suggests an integrin-mediated mode of attachment. The purpose of the present study was to ascertain which integrin(s) are involved in the attachment of periodontal-derived cells to CAP. The integrins examined comprised subunits of the major receptors for fibronectin (alpha 5) and collagen (alpha 2, alpha 3), as well as the common beta 1 subunit which is present in many extracellular matrix receptors. The wells of 48-well non-tissue culture treated plates were coated with CAP (2 micrograms/ml). For negative and positive controls the wells were coated with bovine serum albumin and fibronectin (5 micrograms/ml), respectively. Human gingival fibroblasts and periodontal ligament fibroblasts were labeled with [3H]-proline, incubated with anti-integrin antibodies and added to the precoated wells. Attachment was assessed after incubating the cells for 1 h at 37 degrees C in the presence of the antibodies. Antibodies to alpha 5 and beta 1 inhibited the attachment of both human gingival fibroblasts and human periodontal ligament fibroblasts to CAP, while anti alpha 2 and alpha 3 antibodies did not affect the attachment. The binding of the fibroblasts to fibronectin was also inhibited by anti-alpha 5 and beta 1 antibodies, both of which are components of the "classical" fibronectin receptor and remained unaffected by the addition of anti-alpha 2 and alpha 3 antibodies. Proteins migrating in SDS-polyacrylamide gels in positions similar to the alpha 5 and beta 1 integrin subunits were present in fractions bound to a column of CAP coupled to Sepharose CL-4B. These results indicate that the attachment to CAP of the periodontal-derived cells, human gingival fibroblasts and human periodontal ligament fibroblasts, is mediated primarily via the integrin alpha 5 beta 1.
Animals↗
Attachment of Burkholderia pseudomallei to pharyngeal epithelial cells: a highly pathogenic bacteria with low attachment ability.
Respiratory infections are initiated by the attachment of bacteria to pharyngeal epithelial cells. We studied the attachment of Burkholderia pseudomallei to pharyngeal epithelial cells. After one, two, three, and four washes, there were 22.6+/-8.9, 15.7+/-7.0, 6.8+/-3.1, and 4.6+/-1.1 (mean+/-SD) attached bacteria/cell, respectively. If the bacterial concentration was maintained at 1 X 10(8) colony-forming units (cfu)/ml and three washes were done, at concentrations of 2.5 x 10(4), 5 X 10(4), and 1 x 10(5) cells/ml there were 9.9+/-3.6, 3.3+/-0.8, and 2.5+/-1.1 attached bacteria/cell, respectively. If the cell concentration was kept at 2.5 x 10(4) cells/ml and three washes were done, at bacterial concentrations of 1 x 10(5), 1 X 10(6), 1 X 10(7), 1 x 10(8), and 1 x 10(9) cfu/ml, there were 0.3+/-0.3, 0.6+/-0.6, 1.0+/-0.2, 5.1+/-2.3, and 9.6+/-1.9 attached bacteria/cell, respectively. There were 4.8+/-1.9, 5.5+/-2.5, 5.6+/-1.9, and 6.4+/-2.6 attached bacteria/cell at 0, 30, 120, and 240 min of incubation, respectively. Pharyngeal cells from 10 persons (seven men and three women, mean+/-SD age = 30.7+/-8.1 years, 12 experiments with a single isolate) showed that there were 7.8+/-4.3 attached bacteria/cell. It was found that the efficiency of attachment of this bacteria was very low (7.0+/-3.3 bacteria/cell). Electron microscopy revealed that there were no fimbriae but a thin capsular polysaccharide layer on the surface of B. pseudomallei. Attachment to pharyngeal epithelial cells appeared to be mediated by this structure.
Adult↗
Annotation: attachment disorganisation and psychopathology: new findings in attachment research and their potential implications for developmental psychopathology in childhood.
BACKGROUND: The past 10 years have seen a fruitful line of enquiry building on identification of previously unclassifiable patterns of infant-mother interaction. A critical review of these new findings in attachment theory, highlighting their potential relevance to child psychopathology, is presented. METHOD: Selective literature review relating to disorganised attachment in childhood. RESULTS: Disorganised patterns of attachment have only relatively recently been described. They show characteristic patterns of evolution in development. There is evidence that disorganised attachments are associated with specific forms of distorted parenting, which are distinct from general parental insensitivity and are associated with unresolved loss or trauma in the caregiver. There are also links with aspects of neurodevelopment vulnerability in the child. Attachment disorganisation is a powerful predictor of a range of later social and cognitive difficulties and psychopathology. CONCLUSIONS: The identification of disorganised attachment has greatly increased the potential relevance of attachment theory to general clinical work. However, the concept raises many methodological and theoretical issues. Among issues needing further exploration is the way in which attachment disorganisation relates to children's general mental states and may be affected by cognitive functioning and developmental impairment.
Adolescent↗
Pathological attachment and attachment style in late adolescence.
Attachment theory is frequently invoked to account for patterns of adaptation within relationships. West and Sheldon derived a measure of dysfunctional adult attachment from Bowlby's theory. Four patterns are identified: compulsive self-reliance; caregiving; care-seeking; and angry withdrawal. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of this promising measure, and to assess its ability to predict symptomatology relative to measures of attachment style. Participants included 209 late adolescents who were involved in committed relationships. They responded to categorical and continuous measures of attachment style and various measures of symptomatology and college adjustment. The four dimensions of pathological attachment showed strong internal consistency and few gender differences. Compulsive care-seeking, angry withdrawal and compulsive self-reliance were particularly strong predictors of psychiatric symptomatology and insecure attachment style. Attachment pathology and insecure attachment style predicted symptomatology similarly, though variations were evident depending on how style was assessed. This study is the first to provide evidence of convergent, discriminant and predictive validity for this measure. Directions for future research are noted.
Adolescent↗
In search of shared and nonshared environmental factors in security of attachment: a behavior-genetic study of the association between sensitivity and attachment security.
The current article presents results from a twin study of genetic and environmental components of maternal sensitivity and infant attachment and their association. The sample consisted of 136 twin pairs from 2 sites: Leiden, the Netherlands, and London, UK. Maternal sensitivity was assessed in the home at 9-10 months, and infant attachment security was observed in the laboratory at 12 months. The study yielded little evidence that genetic factors are involved in variations between twins in maternal sensitivity ratings but did find that shared variance in maternal sensitivity was able to account for some of the similarity between twins in attachment security. Weak nonshared associations between sensitivity and attachment appeared to suppress the magnitude of the correlation between attachment and sensitivity in twin children. The results could indicate that the attachment security of one twin may depend on the relationship the parent has with the other twin. The results are brought to bear on the validity of attachment theory as a theory of primarily shared environmental effects in children's development and the continuing challenge posed to attachment theory by within-family differences in socioemotional processes.
Adult↗
Impact of attachment styles on dream recall and dream content: a test of the attachment hypothesis of REM sleep.
We tested the hypothesis (McNamara 1996; Zborowski and McNamara 1998) that dream recall and dream content would pattern with interpersonal attachment styles. In study I, college student volunteers were assessed on measures of attachment, dream recall, dream content and other psychologic measures. Results showed that participants who were classified as 'high' on an 'insecure attachment' scale were significantly more likely to (a) report a dream, (b) dream 'frequently', and (c) evidence more intense images that contextualize strong emotions in their dreams as compared with participants who scored low on the insecure attachment scale. In study II, 76 community dwelling elderly volunteers completed measures of attachment, and dream recall. Participants whose attachment style was classified as 'preoccupied' were significantly more likely to report a dream and to report dreams with higher mean number of words per dream as compared with participants classified as 'securely' attached or as 'avoidant' or as 'dismissing.' Dream recall was lowest for the avoidant subjects and highest for the preoccupied subjects. These data support the view that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and/or dreaming function, in part, to promote attachment.
Adult↗
The attachment script representation procedure in an Italian sample: associations with adult attachment interview scales and with maternal sensitivity.
This study provides data supporting the reliability and validity of an Italian version of the adult attachment script representation task, designed by Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh (2004). Specifically, we tested hypotheses concerning positive relations between attachment scriptedness scores and two other representational measures, derived from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). In addition, we tested the hypothesis that secure base script scores should predict maternal sensitivity in the context of mother - infant interaction. Thirty-one mothers completed narrative protocols and received scriptedness scores using the Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh (2004) criteria. Prior to the attachment script assessment, mothers had been assessed using the AAI and had been observed in the context of infant - mother interactions to assess maternal sensitivity. Assessment of instrument reliability was satisfactory (Cronbach's alpha >.70) and both hypotheses were supported; the attachment scriptedness score (based on 4 attachment narratives) was positively and significantly associated with the AAI coherence score, the continuous security score derived from the AAI State of Mind scales, and with maternal sensitivity. These data extend to another socio-cultural milieu, previous findings supporting reliability, convergent, and predictive validity of the attachment script representation task as a measure of adult attachment.
Educational Status↗
Quality of infants' attachments to professional caregivers: relation to infant-parent attachment and day-care characteristics.
75 infants (mean age 15 months) were observed 3 times in the Strange Situation with their professional caregivers, mothers, and fathers. Sensitivity of these attachment figures to the infant's signals during free play, as well as a number of day-care characteristics, were assessed. Attachment classification distribution of infant-caregiver dyads did not differ significantly from infant-mother or infant-father attachment classification distributions. The quality of infant-caregiver attachment was independent of both infant-mother and infant-father attachments. About 10% of the infants had 3 insecure attachments. Professional caregivers observed with more than 1 infant did not have similar types of attachment classifications to all infants with whom they were observed. Infants who were securely attached to their professional caregivers spent more hours per week in day-care, and came from a middle-class background. Their caregivers appeared to be younger and more sensitive during free play than caregivers with whom the infants developed an insecure relationship.
Child Day Care Centers↗
Soft object and pacifier attachments in young children: the role of security of attachment to the mother.
A longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate the hypothesis that a healthy mother-infant relationship is a prerequisite for the development of a child's attachment to a blanket or other soft object. Security of attachment to mother was measured at 12 months with the Strange Situation Test and at 30 months with the Attachment Q-Sort. Most of the children with soft object attachments were rated as securely attached to their mothers at both ages. Children with pacifier attachments, on the other hand, were less often rated as securely attached and were more likely to show changes in security classification between 12 and 30 months. The results are discussed in terms of necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for the development of attachments to inanimate objects.
Anxiety↗
Attachment, autonomy, intimacy: some clinical implications of attachment theory.
This paper reviews the origins and current state of attachment theory, especially as relevant to the practice of psychotherapy. It is suggested that attachment experience becomes internalized as self-narrative around the age 3-5, and that these self-narratives form the basis of reflexive self-function and autobiographical competence in later life, as revealed by the Adult Attachment Interview. It proposes that the fundamental aims of psychotherapy can be characterized as the search for intimacy and autonomy, arising on the basis of parental attunement and containment of healthy protest, of which analogues are to be found in adult psychotherapy. A 'triangle of attachment' is introduced at whose apices are attachment, detachment and 'non-attachment' respectively. Attachment, which arises out of a secure base, provides the starting point for intimacy; the capacity for healthy protest and therefore detachment is the basis of autonomy; from non-attachment comes the capacity to reflect on oneself and so to disidentify with painful or traumatic experience.
Adult↗
Activation of the attachment system in adulthood: threat-related primes increase the accessibility of mental representations of attachment figures.
Three studies explored the effects of subliminal threat on the activation of representations of attachment figures. This accessibility was measured in a lexical decision task and a Stroop task following threat- or neutral-word primes, and was compared with the accessibility of representations of other close persons, known but not close persons, and unknown persons. Participants also reported on their attachment style. Threat primes led to increased accessibility of representations of attachment figures. This effect was specific to attachment figures and was replicated across tasks and experiments. Attachment anxiety heightened accessibility of representations of attachment figures even in neutral contexts, whereas attachment avoidance inhibited this activation when the threat prime was the word separation. These effects were not, explained by trait anxiety. The discussion focuses on the dynamics of attachment-system activation in adulthood.
Adult↗
Osteoblasts induce osteopontin expression in response to attachment on fibronectin: demonstration of a common role for integrin receptors in the signal transduction processes of cell attachment and mechanical stimulation.
Osteopontin is a predominant integrin binding protein of bone and its expression has been shown to be induced by mechanical stimuli within osteoblasts (Toma et al. [1997] J. Bone Miner. Res. 12:1626-1636). The present studies examined if the cell adhesion would mimic the mechano-transduction that stimulated opn mRNA expression and whether integrin receptors were involved in these processes. Osteopontin mRNA expression was induced three- to four-fold, 24 hours after embryonic chicken calvaria osteoblast attachment to fibronectin (FN), however no induction was observed if the cells were plated on tissue culture plastic alone. Osteopontin mRNA induction in response to cell attachment on FN was dependent on new protein synthesis and the activation of a tyrosine protein kinase(s) but unlike mechano-induction was independent of the maintenance of the cell's microfilament structure. Integrin receptor(s) were shown to be involved in mediating the signal transduction processes of both cell attachment and mechanical stimulation since incubation of osteoblasts with the integrin binding peptide RGDS partially blocked the induction of opn expression in response to both stimuli. Interestingly, incubation of the osteoblasts that were adherent on tissue culture plastic alone with the RGDS peptide lead to an induction in opn expression suggesting that integrin occupancy by itself was sufficient to initiate the signal transduction process that induced opn expression. In order to assess the role of integrin occupancy vs. focal adhesion complex formation that accompanies cell attachment, in the signal transduction process that induces opn expression, receptor clustering was stimulated pharmacologically with bombesin or lysophosphatidic acid in osteoblasts attached to tissue culture plastic. Neither compound in the absence of occupancy of the integrin receptors was capable of stimulating opn expression in attached cells, however if the cells were placed in suspension pharmacological mediation of receptor clustering and integrin occupancy were additive in their effect of inducing opn expression. These data demonstrate that induction of opn expression by mechanical stimuli and cell attachment are commonly mediated through integrin receptor(s). However, when cells are attached receptor clustering alone which accompanies focal adhesion formation was incapable of mediating signal transduction suggesting that receptor occupancy was a prerequisite to the signal transduction process that leads to the induction of opn mRNA expression.
Animals↗
Multiple attachment mechanisms of corneal epithelial cells to a polymer--cells can attach in the absence of exogenous adhesion proteins through a mechanism that requires microtubules.
The initial adhesion of epithelial cells is recognized as a critical determinant in the epithelialization of a polymer. Previously, the attachment of a variety of cell types to a polymer has been shown to be mediated by fibronectin and/or vitronectin that adsorb onto the polymer surface from the serum used to supplement the culture medium. Such an attachment reaction, dependent upon exogenous cell-adhesive proteins, is likely to involve the actin cytoskeleton and integrin receptors on the cell surface. In the current study, we have examined the attachment of recently isolated corneal epithelial cells to tissue culture polystyrene in the absence of such exogenous cell-adhesive proteins. Under these circumstances, there is an alternative mechanism of attachment operative between corneal epithelial cells and the polymer surface which is essentially independent of the adsorption of serum-derived fibronectin and vitronectin. This is an unusual phenomenon not previously observed with other normal cell types. The presence of cycloheximide inhibited this alternative attachment mechanism in corneal epithelial cells, indicating the role of newly synthesized proteins in this reaction. Additionally, we found that cell attachment to the polymer surface in the absence of cell-adhesive proteins was substantially inhibited by the presence of demecolcine, but not by cytochalasin B, thereby demonstrating the involvement of microtubules rather than actin microfilaments in this reaction. In the presence of serum-derived fibronectin and vitronectin, the attachment of corneal epithelial cells to a polymer may involve dual attachment mechanisms.
Actins↗