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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Attachment representations in 6-year-olds: related longitudinally to the quality of attachment in infancy and mothers' attachment representations.

A new method to assess attachment representations in children by applying a story completion procedure in doll play (SCPDP) is presented. Transmission and continuity of attachment were tested in 28 German families by using the Strange Situation procedure (SS) with the mother and her infant, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) with the mother when the child is 5 years old, and the attachment representations (SCPDP) of the 6-year-olds. Relying on the twofold distinction (secure/insecure), results revealed a significant continuity of attachment from 1 to 6 years of age, and a correspondence between maternal AAI and child's attachment quality in SS, as well as a correspondence between maternal AAI and the 6-year-olds' attachment representations. Using configural frequency analysis, we found continuity in patterns of security and insecurity when looking across the measures of infant and pre-school attachment and maternal adult attachment. Processes underlying the high match of mothers' and children's attachment representations are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Report of the APSAC task force on attachment therapy, reactive attachment disorder, and attachment problems.

Although the term attachment disorder is ambiguous, attachment therapies are increasingly used with children who are maltreated, particularly those in foster care or adoptive homes. Some children described as having attachment disorders show extreme disturbances. The needs of these children and their caretakers are real. How to meet their needs is less clear. A number of attachment-based treatment and parenting approaches purport to help children described as attachment disordered. Attachment therapy is a young and diverse field, and the benefits and risks of many treatments remain scientifically undetermined. Controversies have arisen about potentially harmful attachment therapy techniques used by a subset of attachment therapists. In this report, the Task Force reviews the controversy and makes recommendations for assessment, treatment, and practices. The report reflects American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children's (APSAC) position and also was endorsed by the American Psychological Association's Division 37 and the Division 37 Section on Child Maltreatment.

Child↗
PubMed1995

Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: a meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview.

About a decade ago, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985) was developed to explore parents' mental representations of attachment as manifested in language during discourse of childhood experiences. The AAI was intended to predict the quality of the infant-parent attachment relationship, as observed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation, and to predict parents' responsiveness to their infants' attachment signals. The current meta-analysis examined the available evidence with respect to these predictive validity issues. In regard to the 1st issue, the 18 available samples (N = 854) showed a combined effect size of 1.06 in the expected direction for the secure vs. insecure split. For a portion of the studies, the percentage of correspondence between parents' mental representation of attachment and infants' attachment security could be computed (the resulting percentage was 75%; kappa = .49, n = 661). Concerning the 2nd issue, the 10 samples (N = 389) that were retrieved showed a combined effect size of .72 in the expected direction. According to conventional criteria, the effect sizes are large. It was concluded that although the predictive validity of the AAI is a replicated fact, there is only partial knowledge of how attachment representations are transmitted (the transmission gap).

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Prenatal attachment and other correlates of postnatal maternal attachment to twins.

PURPOSE: To determine the relationship of prenatal attachment and other selected perinatal contextual variables (method of delivery, maternal self-reported health, depression, infant birthweight, need for neonatal intensive care unit [NICU] admission) to postnatal attachment in mothers of twins. SUBJECTS: Two hundred fourteen women were initially recruited from a national mothers of twins support group for a study of maternal prenatal attachment. Of the 168 women who agreed to be contacted after delivery, 142 returned completed questionnaires (82.7% response rate), with 139 study-eligible women included in the analysis for this report. STUDY DESIGN: Correlational design with longitudinal follow-up at 1 month after expected delivery date. METHODS: Self-administered, mailed questionnaires completed by women with twin gestations prenatally and postnatally 1 month after their expected delivery dates. Descriptive analysis, correlations, and regression equations were performed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The Maternal Attachment Inventory. PRINCIPLE RESULTS: A modest correlation was found between prenatal and postnatal attachment ( r = 0.38, P < 0.001). Prenatal attachment and postpartum depression explained 26.1% of the variance in postnatal attachment ( F = 5.06, P < 0.001). Depression, method of delivery, and need for admission to the NICU had moderator effects on the relationship between prenatal attachment and postnatal attachment. The addition of these interaction terms nominally increased the adjusted R 2 to explain 27.9% to 29.6% of the variance in postnatal attachment. CONCLUSIONS: Although the study findings support a modest relationship between prenatal and postnatal attachment in mothers of twins, maternal depression was also significant in explaining postnatal attachment. Postpartum depression, having a cesarean delivery, and the experience of a NICU admission for 1 or both twins further influenced the relationship between prenatal attachment and postnatal attachment. When fostering attachment in mothers of twins, nurses should assess for symptoms of depression and pay particular attention to those women who have an infant requiring a NICU admission.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Attachment representation and cortisol response to the adult attachment interview in idiopathic spasmodic torticollis.

OBJECTIVE: The study investigates individual differences in the mental representation of attachment and their impact on the cortisol response to psychosocial stress in idiopathic spasmodic torticollis (IST). It was hypothesized (a) that in IST insecure attachment is more prevalent than in a non-clinical control group and (b) that subjects with dismissing attachment respond with higher physiological arousal to a specific stimulus activating the attachment behavioural system than subjects with secure attachment. METHOD: 20 patients with IST and 20 healthy controls matched for age and sex underwent the Adult Attachment Interview, an hour-long, semiclinical interview on attachment experiences. During the interview salivary cortisol levels were monitored. The subjects' mental state with regard to attachment was classified using the attachment Q-sort method. Anxiety and depression were measured as potential covariates of the adrenocortical stress response. RESULTS: Compared to the non-clinical group, dismissing attachment was strongly overrepresented in IST. In IST, but not in the healthy control group, dismissing attachment correlated with an elevated cortisol response to the interview. CONCLUSION: In clinical, but not in non-clinical samples dismissing attachment may be associated with increased vulnerability to psychosocial stress. The factors contributing to this interaction are not yet fully elucidated.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Investigation of the role of signal transduction in attachment of ocular melanoma cells to matrix proteins: inhibition of attachment by calmodulin antagonists including tamoxifen.

We investigated the role of signal transduction systems in the attachment of human uveal melanoma cells to matrix proteins. Ocular melanoma cells established from primary tumours attached rapidly to all substrates examined. Preferred substrates of attachment were collagens type I, III and IV and fibronectin rather than laminin, gelatin, arginine-glycine-aspartine, vitronectin, poly-L-lysine or plastic. All cells showed rapid attachment to the preferred substrates (80% within 10 min). Manipulation of intracellular cyclic AMP or protein kinase C activity had relatively little effect on cell attachment. In contrast, attachment was significantly reduced by manipulating either intracellular calcium or calmodulin. After 15 min at 37 degrees C, the calcium ionophore ionomycin (5 microM) reduced attachment to 25%, and TMB8 (50 microM), which can reduce intracellular calcium, reduced attachment to 60%. The experimental calmodulin antagonist J8 (25 microM), a substituted naphthalene sulphonamide, reduced attachment to 40%. Similarly tamoxifen (25 microM), which has calmodulin antagonist activity in vitro, reduced attachment to 55%. Both J8 and tamoxifen inhibited cell attachment to a wide range of matrix proteins, suggesting that this effect on attachment is not dependent on the presence of specific adhesion receptors. Reduction of ocular melanoma tumour cell/matrix interactions through manipulation of intracellular calcium or calmodulin may therefore merit further investigation as a possible approach to reducing metastatic spread.

Calcium↗
PubMed2005

Adult attachment, alexithymia, and symptom reporting: an extension to the four category model of attachment.

OBJECTIVE: A previous study using a three-category attachment model found that avoidant attachment was associated with increased symptom reporting, and that this relationship was largely mediated by negative affectivity and alexithymia. The present study aimed to advance on these findings by using a four-category model of attachment to determine which aspect of avoidant attachment (fearful or dismissing) is related to symptom reporting, and via which mediating variables. METHOD: One hundred and forty-two male and female undergraduates, aged 17-44, completed questionnaire measures of attachment style, alexithymia, self-esteem, positive and negative affectivity, and symptom reporting. RESULTS: Fearful and preoccupied attachment styles, negative affectivity, and alexithymia were all significantly associated with increased symptom reporting, while the dismissing attachment style was not. Regression analyses showed that the relationship between fearful attachment and symptom reporting was partly, but not fully, mediated by alexithymia and negative affectivity, while that between preoccupied attachment and symptom reporting was mediated mainly by negative affectivity. Low self-esteem was associated with symptom reporting only via its association with negative affectivity. CONCLUSIONS: Fearful and preoccupied attachment styles are both associated with symptom reporting via a negative model of the self and increased negative affectivity, but alexithymia is an additional predictor of symptom reporting in individuals with fearful attachment. This difference is thought to be linked to the model of others developed in early interactions with caregivers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Attachment behaviours and parent fixation in people with dementia: the role of cognitive functioning and pre-morbid attachment style.

This study replicates and extends exploratory research into the occurrence of attachment behaviours and parent fixation amongst people with dementia. Relationships between cognitive functioning, pre-morbid attachment style, attachment behaviours and parent fixation were examined. Fifty-three people with dementia, living in residential or nursing homes, completed the Standardised Mini-Mental State Examination and were interviewed about their parents. A family member or friend rated pre-morbid attachment style and care staff made observations of attachment behaviour. Results indicated that parent fixation occurred more often in participants with lower levels of cognitive functioning. Parent fixation was not related to pre-morbid attachment style. The occurrence of overt attachment behaviour was inconsistently associated with both high and low levels of cognitive functioning, at different times of the day. Participants with an avoidant attachment style exhibited more overt attachment behaviour than participants with a secure attachment style. Findings are interpreted in terms of attachment theory and the clinical and research implications of the study are discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

Forming attachments in foster care: infant attachment behaviors during the first 2 months of placement.

This study investigated the development of attachment relationships in 38 foster infant-caregiver dyads over the first 2 months of placement. We used the Parent Attachment Diary to measure foster infants' daily attachment behaviors, the Adult Attachment Interview to examine foster parents' attachment states of mind, and Ainsworth's Strange Situation to capture attachment classifications. We examined differences in diary scales (secure, avoidant, resistant, and coherence) as they related to age at placement and foster parent attachment, using hierarchical linear modeling and analyses of variance. The results indicated infants with autonomous foster parents and infants placed at younger ages showed higher early and overall levels of secure behavior, less avoidant behavior, and more coherent attachment strategies compared to infants placed with nonautonomous foster parents. Changes in attachment behaviors over time were not predicted by the models; however, there was a significant decrease in the daily coherence of attachment behaviors associated with Strange Situation disorganization. Finally, we found significant concordance between the diary and Strange Situation scales for secure and avoidant behaviors.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2006

Testing attachment point theory: diatom attachment on microtextured polyimide biomimics.

This paper explores diatom attachment to a range of laser etched polyimide surfaces to directly test 'attachment point theory'. Static bioassays were conducted on microtextured polyimide surfaces using four diatom species, Fallacia carpentariae, Nitzschia cf. paleacea, Amphora sp. and Navicula jeffreyi with cell sizes ranging from 1-14 microm. The microtextured polyimides were modelled from natural fouling resistant bivalve surfaces and had wavelengths above, below and at the same scale as the diatom cell sizes. Diatoms attached in significantly higher numbers to treatments where the numbers of attachment points was highest. The lowest diatom attachment occurred where cells were slightly larger than the microtexture wavelength, resulting in only two theoretical points of attachment. The results support attachment point theory and highlight the need to address larval/cell size in relation to the number of attachment points on a surface. Further studies examining a range of microtexture scales are needed to apply attachment point theory to a suite of fouling organisms and to develop structured surfaces to control the attachment and development of fouling communities.

Biomimetic Materials↗
PubMed1993

Attachment of human bone cells to tissue culture polystyrene and to unmodified polystyrene: the effect of surface chemistry upon initial cell attachment.

Cell culture studies have often been used in the determination of the suitability of biomaterials as surfaces for the attachment and growth of cells. For such studies of surfaces for potential use in bone implants, cells derived from bone may be maintained in culture on tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS). We have determined the contribution that serum fibronectin (FN) or vitronectin (VN) make to the attachment and spreading of cells cultured from explanted human bone (bone-derived cells) during the first 90 min following seeding on culture surfaces. The attachment of bone-derived cells to TCPS was simulated two-fold by the addition of 10% (v/v) fetal bovine serum (FBS) to the seeding culture medium. The roles of FN and VN were determined by selective removal of the FN or VN from the FBS prior to addition to the culture medium. FBS from which the VN had been removed did not have this stimulatory activity. In contrast, the attachment of bone-derived cells onto TCPS from medium containing FN-depleted serum (which contained VN) was the same as when intact FBS was used. There was incomplete attachment of bone-derived cells (27% of cells) when seeded in medium containing FBS depleted of both VN and FN. Our results show that for human bone-derived cells, the attachment onto TCPS of cells planted in medium containing FBS during the first 90 min of culture is principally as a result of adsorption onto the surface of serum VN. As unmodified polystyrene (PS) has also been used previously as a model biomaterial surface, PS was compared to TCPS for attachment of the bone-derived cells. Attachment of bone-derived cells to TCPS was twice that onto PS, both when the medium was serum-free and when it contained FBS. Bone-derived cells attached to TCPS or PS onto which purified VN or FN had been precoated, with VN adsorbed onto PS being as effective as was VN adsorbed onto TCPS. With FN, there was an effect of the polystyrene surface chemistry which was evident in that suboptimal concentrations of FN had a slightly higher potency when adsorbed onto TCPS than did the same concentrations of FN coated onto PS. When preadsorbed onto TCPS, the potency of FN for attachment of bone-derived cells was at least equal to that of VN.

Bone and Bones↗
PubMed2000

Role of MAP kinases p42erk-2/p44erk-1 in cementum-derived attachment-protein-mediated cell attachment.

Cementum-derived attachment protein (CAP) is a collagenous protein which promotes the attachment and spreading of periodontal cell types. We examined the role of the MEK/MAPK pathway in CAP-mediated fibroblast attachment. Human gingival fibroblasts were labeled with 35S-methionine, and the effect of MAP kinase pathway inhibitor PD98059 on attachment and spreading on CAP-coated dishes was examined. Effect on cell proliferation on CAP-coated plates was determined by [3H]-thymidine uptake. Attachment of human gingival fibroblasts to CAP-containing surfaces activated extracellular-signal-regulated kinases (ERK) ERK-2 and ERK-1. In the absence of serum, the ERKs were activated 15 min after attachment, reaching peak levels after 3 hours, and the activity was sustained for at least 12 hours. The enzyme levels were inhibited in cells treated with PD98059. The PD98059 did not significantly affect the kinetics of fibroblast attachment or the number of cells attaching to CAP-coated plates. However, cell spreading was retarded. DNA synthesis as indicated by [3H]-thymidine uptake was not significantly affected. In contrast to PD98059, attachment, spreading, and [3H]-thymidine uptake were inhibited by the protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor genestein. Our results indicate that the MEK/MAPK pathway participates in CAP-mediated fibroblast spreading, but cell attachment and proliferation do not appear to require ERK-2.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Assessing attachment: convergent validity of the adult attachment interview and the parental bonding instrument.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether or not the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) can provide information about parent-child attachment that is comparable to information obtained from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), a more complex measure of attachment. METHOD: One hundred and thirty emotionally and/or behaviourally disturbed adolescents (73 male, 57 female; ages 13-19 years, x = 15.3 +/- 1.47 years) participating in a study of attachment and suicidality completed the PBI and the AAI. Data from these measures were compared within participants. RESULTS: Maternal care and overprotection on the PBI differed significantly by AAI attachment classification (F3,122 = 2.79, p = 0.012), with autonomous participants showing the most optimal and unresolved participants the least optimal PBI results. Maternal love and maternal involvement/role reversal on the AAI were significant predictors of maternal care and maternal overprotection, respectively, on the PBI (R2 = 0.15; R2 = 0.16). These predictions improved when AAI scales measuring idealisation and involving anger towards the mother were included in the regression analyses (R2 = 0.35; R2 = 0.20). Autonomous participants on AAI showed the highest scale correlations across instruments. CONCLUSIONS: Attachment information obtained from the PBI and the AAI is comparable in participants with optimal attachment histories, but not in participants showing idealisation or anger towards their mothers. Caution is, therefore, advisable when using the PBI to obtain attachment information in clinical samples where suboptimal attachment histories are likely.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Associations among adult attachment representations, maternal sensitivity, and infant-mother attachment in a sample of adolescent mothers.

Associations among adolescent attachment organization, maternal sensitivity, and infant attachment organization were examined prospectively in 74 teenaged mother-infant dyads. Pregnant teenagers' attachment organizations predicted both sensitivity and infant-mother attachments. Mothers classified autonomous (F) in the prenatal period showed higher levels of sensitivity at both 3 and 9 months than mothers classified dismissing (Ds), preoccupied (E), or unresolved (U). Correspondence between maternal attachment (F vs. Ds/E/U) and infant attachment (secure [B] vs. avoidant [A]/resistant [C]/disorganized [D]) was observed in 58 of 74 (78%) dyads. Exact 4-group (Ds/E/F/U and A/B/C/D) agreement was observed in 50 of 74 (68%) families. In contrast, associations between maternal sensitivity and infant attachment were not significant, leading to questions about the processes that link attachment representations, maternal behavior, and infant attachment in adolescent mothers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

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↗