From trust in caregivers’ support to exploration: The role of openness to negative affect and self‐regulation

Attachment theory assumes that trust in caregivers’ support and exploration are closely related. Little research tried to investigate this link, nor focuses on mechanisms that might explain this association. The present studies examined whether trust is related to exploration through a serial indirect effect of openness to negative affect and self‐regulation. In Study 1, 212 children, aged 8–13, completed questionnaires assessing trust, openness to negative affect, self‐regulation and exploration. The results showed that trust predicted exploration, but only to the extent to which openness to negative affect and self‐regulation were involved too. Study 2 refined these findings (n = 59, aged 9–12) using a behavioral measure of openness to negative affect and exploration, and with mother‐reported self‐regulation. Replicating this serial indirect effect of openness to negative affect and self‐regulation with multiple informants and methods, the present studies advance our understanding of how trust might foster exploration in preadolescence.     

The Role of Attachment and Maladaptive Emotion Regulation Strategies in the Development of Bulimic Symptoms in Adolescents

Following the theoretical propositions of the Emotion Regulation model of attachment, the current study investigated whether attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance might play a differential contributing role in the development of bulimic symptoms, through assumed differences in adopting specific maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in a sample of adolescents. Developmentally appropriate self-report questionnaires were administered to a community sample of 397 adolescents (Mean age: 14.02; 62.7% female) and this at 2 time points with a 1-year time lag. Results provided longitudinal evidence for the Emotion Regulation model of attachment in confirming the differential contributing role of the attachment dimensions on the development of bulimic symptoms in a sample of adolescents. More specifically, attachment anxiety seemed to be related to bulimic symptoms through rumination, while attachment avoidance through emotional control. These results may have clinical implications for assessment and treatment of bulimic symptoms in adolescents.     

Attachment‐related expectations and mother‐referent memory bias in middle childhood

Understanding the cognitive processing of attachment‐relevant information has become a major focus of attachment research. Previous research demonstrated links between attachment and memory for attachment‐related information, but results were contradictory and did not control for mood‐effects. The current study aimed to provide a conceptual framework to capture inconsistencies. A straightforward memory bias hypothesis was derived and tested. Fifty children (aged 10–12) completed questionnaires assessing confidence in maternal support and depressive symptoms, and a memory task in which they recalled positive and negative words that referred to previous interactions with mother. Less confidence in maternal support and more depressive symptoms were linked to a more negative mother‐related memory bias. The effect of confidence in maternal support remained marginally significant when controlling for depressive symptoms, explaining the initial effect of depressive symptoms. These findings support attachment theory's hypothesis that attachment‐relevant information is processed in an attachment expectation‐congruent way.     

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Children and Adolescents: Can Attachment Theory Contribute to Its Efficacy?

Meta-analyses consistently demonstrate that cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) provides effective evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents with emotional and behaviour problems. Also consistent across meta-analyses is the observation that CBT treatment effects are often medium in size. This observation has instigated a search for factors that could help explain the limited treatment effects and that could be focused upon to enhance CBT treatment outcomes. The current qualitative review focuses on the parent–child attachment relationship as one factor that could be relevant to enhance CBT treatment effects. This review first acknowledges reasons why CBT has historically not been attracted to attachment theory and its postulates. Second, recent evidence is examined to evaluate whether attachment can be approached from a cognitive schema perspective. Subsequently, research is described showing how restoring attachment relationships could result in large treatment effects. Finally, this evidence is integrated in a model of attachment assessment and intervention that might be compatible with CBT. In sum, this review suggests that restoring trust in insecure parent–child attachment relationships can be integrated within CBT and could contribute to its treatment outcomes.     

In Which Situations Do Adolescents Seek Parental Support and What Do They Need?

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Throughout development, the conditions that elicit children’s support seeking behaviour change hand in hand with maturation and changing developmental...     

The role of depressogenic personality and attachment in the intergenerational similarity of depressive symptoms: a study with early adolescents and their mothers

Parental depression has been identified as a risk factor for psychopathology in children, and for child depression in particular. Increasingly, research is addressing the underlying psychological processes that may explain the intergenerational similarity of depressive symptoms. In the present study, we aim to investigate the role of two theoretically relevant vulnerability factors in this intergenerational similarity, that is, (a) dimensions of depressogenic personality (i.e., sociotropy and autonomy) and (b) dimensions of attachment (i.e., anxiety and avoidance). Results in a sample of early adolescents and their mothers show significant intergenerational similarity in both sets of vulnerabilities. Moreover, the intergenerational similarity of both vulnerability factors was found to account for the association between mothers' and children's depressive symptoms. Within each generation there were also meaningful and specific associations between dimensions of depressogenic personality and dimensions of attachment, with sociotropy being primarily related to anxiety and with autonomy being primarily related to avoidance.     

Attachment Representation Moderates the Effectiveness of Behavioral Parent Training Techniques for Children with ADHD: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Microtrial

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Behavioral parent training is an evidence-based intervention for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but knowledge on...     

Child personality and parental behavior as moderators of problem behavior: variable- and person-centered approaches

Parenting x Child Personality interactions in predicting child externalizing and internalizing behavior were investigated in a variable-centered study and a person-centered study. The variable-centered study used data from a 3-year longitudinal study of 600 children 7 to 15 years old at Time 1 and 512 children 10 to 18 years old at Time 2. Parents rated child personality (five factor model), negative control, positive parenting, and child problem behavior, whereas children rated parental behavior. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses showed significant Parenting x Child Personality (benevolence and conscientiousness) interactions, principally for externalizing behavior. The interactions were largely replicable across informants and across time. The person-centered study, which classified participants into 3 types, showed that negative parental control was more related to externalizing behavior for undercontrollers than for resilients. Negative parental control enhanced internalizing behavior for overcontrollers.     

Dirty work,dirty worker? Stigmatisation and coping strategies among domestic workers

Domestic work can be perceived to be ‘dirty work’ in several ways: it is associated with dirt handling, low occupational prestige, and domestic workers have a servile relationship to their clients/employers. This stigma may negatively affect domestic workers' sense of self, and thus coping strategies appear to be critical. In this article, we explore the coping strategies that moderate the relation between the stigma of dirty work and domestic workers' sense of self, based on the analyses of 43 interviews with domestic workers in Belgium. By using a social stress approach in which stigma is considered a stressor, our results reveal a range of maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies that contribute to a negative or a more positive sense of self. Four main categories of coping strategies are discussed: confronting or countering perceptions and behaviours, occupational ideologies, social weighting and defensive tactics. The first two categories are adaptive coping strategies; the last two can be adaptive or maladaptive. We also reveal that workers used adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies simultaneously, leading to mixed implications for their sense of self.     

Attachment Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Middle Childhood: the Role of Repetitive Thinking about Negative Affect and about Mother

Two studies with two independent samples aimed to investigate whether repetitive thinking about negative affect (RTna) and repetitive thinking about mother (RTm) can be mechanisms in the association between attachment anxiety and depressive symptoms in middle childhood. In Study 1 (N = 381) and Study 2 (N = 157) 9- to 12-year-olds completed self-report questionnaires measuring attachment, RTna and depressive symptoms. In Study 2, additionally, a questionnaire was developed to measure RTm, and a compound score for self- and mother-reported depressive symptoms was calculated. Results showed positive associations between attachment anxiety, RTna and RTm, and self-reported depressive symptoms and depressive symptoms agreed upon by mother and child. RTna and RTm mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and these depressive symptoms. RTm mediated this relationship even beyond RTna for the multi-informant compound score. Thus, RTna and RTm seem to be independent mechanisms explaining the association between attachment anxiety and depressive symptoms in middle childhood.