1,721,073 research outputs found
Examining Ecological Constraints on the Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment Via Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis
No full textParents’ attachment representations and child–parent attachment have been shown to be associated, but these associations vary across populations (Verhage et al., 2016). The current study examined whether ecological factors may explain variability in the strength of intergenerational transmission of attachment, using individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis. Analyses on 4,396 parent–child dyads (58 studies, child age 11–96 months) revealed a combined effect size of r =.29. IPD meta-analyses revealed that effect sizes for the transmission of autonomous-secure representations to secure attachments were weaker under risk conditions and weaker in adolescent parent–child dyads, whereas transmission was stronger for older children. Findings support the ecological constraints hypothesis on attachment transmission. Implications for attachment theory and the use of IPD meta-analysis are discussed
Il mentalizzare in un gruppo di adolescenti adottati tardivamente: uno studio-pilota
No full textIntroduzione. La mentalizzazione rappresenta uno dei costrutti di maggiore interesse in ambito clinico (Allen e Fonagy, 2008). La letteratura di riferimento ha messo in luce, da un lato, il collegamento tra un cattivo funzionamento riflessivo (FR) e alcuni disturbi psicologici in età adulta ed evolutiva (Sharp e Venta, 2012), dall’altro, ha individuato nella funzione riflessiva un possibile fattore protettivo rispetto ai traumi in grado di ridurre il rischio di sviluppare disturbi psichiatrici (Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, e Target, 2002). Gli studi nel campo dell’adozione si sono prettamente focalizzati sul FR dei genitori adottivi, considerandolo un fattore protettivo in grado di garantire migliori esiti evolutivi dei figli adottati a livello emotivo, comportamentale e relazionale (Palacios, Romàn, Moreno, & Leon, 2013; Priel, Melamed-Hass, Besser, Kantor, 2000). Meno conosciuta è la capacità di mentalizzare degli adolescenti adottati tardivamente che, date le loro relazioni di attaccamento precoci gravemente compromesse, potrebbero rappresentare una popolazione particolarmente vulnerabile nel FR.
Obiettivi. Questo contributo si propone l’obiettivo di esaminare quanto sia variabili descrittive (età, genere, numero di fratelli, etc), sia variabili legate all’adozione (età al momento del collocamento, tipologia di adozione, durata del collocamento, etc) possano esercitare un’influenza sul FR di un gruppo di adolescenti adottati.
Metodologia. I partecipanti alla ricerca sono 35 adolescenti, di età compresa tra 12 e 17 anni (M=13.9, DS=1.6), che al momento dell’adozione avevano tutti più di 4 anni (M=6.6, DS=1.9) e che vivevano con le famiglie adottive da almeno 4 anni (M=7, DS=2). Il 54% del gruppo (N=19) era composto da ragazze. La capacità riflessiva è stata valutata attraverso la Friend and Family Interview (FFI, Steele & Steele, 2009), che misura il FR comprendendo tre dimensioni: la prospettiva evolutiva (PE), la teoria della mente (ToM) e la diversità dei sentimenti (DS). Queste ultime due scale sono misurate rispetto a entrambi i genitori, ai fratelli e al migliore amico.
Risultati. Per quanto riguarda le variabili legate all’adozione è emersa una correlazione tra la durata dell’inserimento e la DS (amico); inoltre, gli adolescenti collocati tramite adozione internazionale hanno riportato una maggiore DS rispetto al sé, rispetto ai ragazzi provenienti dall’adozione nazionale. Per quanto riguarda le variabili descrittive, l’età dei partecipanti è risultata correlata positivamente sia con la ToM (madre, fratello, amico, insegnante), sia con la DS (madre, fratello, amico), mentre le ragazze hanno mostrato punteggi superiori nella PE e nella DS (amico). Non emergono differenze di FR rispetto alla numerosità della fratria.
Conclusioni. Questi risultati evidenziano che tra gli adolescenti adottati, l’essere più grandi di età e l’appartenenza al genere femminile rappresentano fattori che favoriscono una migliore espressione delle abilità di mentalizzazione. Dal punto di vista clinico si è messa in luce l’importanza di porre un’attenzione speciale nei confronti degli adolescenti appartenenti al genere maschile e delle adozioni nazionali, lavorando con le famiglie affinché rafforzino fin dall’inizio le capacità riflessive dei figli
Attachment representations in children with disruptive behavior disorders: A special focus on insecurity in middle childhood
No full textAccording to the emotional and social problems encountered in disruptive behaviour disorder (DBD), there is little available information regarding the attachment processes during middle childhood. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the attachment representations to both caregivers in a sample of 84 children, aged 8–12 years (N = 42 with a diagnosis of DBD; N = 42 as a comparison group). Attachment is assessed through the Child Attachment Interview, a semi-structured interview that incorporates both narrative and behavioural assessments of attachment, permits the assessment of attachment representations using dimensional and categorical approaches, and allows for the detection of disorganisation to both parents individually. Our results point to the presence of high frequencies of insecure attachment (more than 80%) in the DBD group, with a higher percentage of dismissing attachment, and an over-representation of disorganised attachment (more than 50%). Higher levels of dismissal and lower levels of security are found in DBD than in the comparison group. No attachment differences with respect to both parents are found. Understanding how different aspects of attachment during a specific developmental phase plays a role within the broader emotional functioning of DBD has great potential to lead to innovations in evaluations and treatment processes
A long-term follow-up with late-adopted children: stability and change of attachment models during adolescence
No full textIntroduction. The adoption of older children would be considered a powerful factor of change enabling them to revise their insecure and/or disorganized Internal Working Models (IWMs), which were built on the negative experiences in their pre-adoption lives. The research design was a long-term longitudinal study including three data collections: 1) T1: at the beginning of adoption, 2) T2: after 7/8 months from placement, 3) T3: during adoptees’ adolescence (at least 5.5 years from placement). The main goal was to examine the continuity and change of the adoptees’ IWMs in this long-term follow-up.
Methods. Participants: Late-adopted adolescents (aged 11-15 years, M=13.1), placed for adoption between 4–8 years (without any special needs), were assessed at T1 (N=29), T2 (N=29) and T3 (N=22). Measures: 1) Separation-Reunion Procedure (SRP) to assess the attachment behavioural patterns in childhood (T1 and T2), 2) the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST) to evaluate the attachment representations in childhood (T2); 3) The Friends and Family Interview (FFI) to assess attachment representations in adolescence (T3).
Results. Our findings revealed: 1) a significant change from insecure towards secure behavioural attachments (62%) from T1 to T2 (SRP, McNemar test, p=.001), 2) a global change from insecure behavioural attachment at T1 (SRP) towards secure attachment representations (50%) at T3 (FFI, McNemar test, p=.001); 3) a significant concordance (82%) between secure behavioural attachments at T2 (SRP) and secure attachment representations at T3 (FFI, rphi=.647, p=.002), while no significant concordance (52.4%) was found between secure attachment representations assessed at T2 (MCAST) and at T3 (FFI, rphi=.055, p=.801 n.s.)
Discussion. In conclusion, late-adopted children seem to be able to revise their IWMs from insecurity towards security since the first period after placement (T1-T2) and then they keep over time this earned security until adolescence (T1-T2-T3)
Reflections on screening, prevention, and assessment of binge eating disorder in Italian youths
No full textThis document discusses the screening and assessment of Binge Eating Disorder (BED) in children and adolescents, highlighting the lack of adequate knowledge and tools for clinicians to screen and assess BED at this age effectively, distinguishing its peculiarities compared to bulimia. Existing tools for screening and assessment are reviewed, with a critical reflection on the need for comprehensive standardized assessment procedures evaluating emotional and mood triggers, and social factors
Attachment and alexithymia predict emotional–behavioural problems of institutionalized, late-adopted and community adolescents: An explorative multi-informant mixed-method study
No full textObjective: Compared to community adolescents (COM), adolescents placed in residential care (RC) or late adopted (LA) appear to show more emotional–behavioural problems. They also appear vulnerable in variables linked to emotional–behavioural problems, such as insecure–disorganized attachment and alexithymia. This study employs a mixed-method multi-informant approach to (1) compare adolescents placed in RC, LA and COM in emotional–behavioural problems, attachment and alexithymia and (2) investigate relationships and interplay of attachment and alexithymia concerning emotional–behavioural problems in these three groups. Method: Participants were 174 adolescents (50 RC, 33 LA and 91 COM; Mage = 15, 53% boys and 47% girls). Adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed through both caregiver-reported and self-reported questionnaires, while attachment and alexithymia were assessed with a mixed method, using interviews and self-report questionnaires. Results: The results showed RC adolescents as more vulnerable in all variables, while LA and COM did not differ. Accounting for the group, attachment and alexithymia cumulatively predicted 25–43% of internalizing problems, and 19–43% of externalizing problems depending on the method of assessment or problems' informant (all p < 0.01). Alexithymia was both an independent predictor and interacted with preoccupied attachment in predicting internalizing problems, while no predictors were isolated for externalizing ones, and the group never indicate an effect on problems' rates. Conclusions: The authors discuss the utility to maintain a research focus on attachment and alexithymia, also suggesting future directions of research. A need to determine potential distortions of results because of problems' informant and method of assessment is also highlighted
Late-Adoptions: Assessing Parent-Child Relationship Through Free-Play Interaction and Attachment Representations
No full textAs suggested by various studies (Barone and Lionetti 2011; Ongari and Tomasi 2013; Pace et al. 2015; Steele et al. 2008), a secure maternal attachment state of mind can represent a protective factor against adverse outcomes associated with emotional deprivation and trauma, confirming adoption as a potential catch-up opportunity.
While attachment assessment allows to evaluate the internal representations of children and parents about their relationship, the observation of their interaction allows to focus on the dyadic quality of parent–child relationship (Sander 2007). Up to now, only a few studies have explored the quality of caregiver–child interaction in adoptive families (Garvin et al. 2012; Altenhofen et al. 2013; Van den Dries et al. 2012) and an even smaller number did so by involving the paternal figures.
To deepen the understanding of the relational functioning of families with late-adopted children, the aim of this study was to evaluate both the concordance of attachment in adoptive dyads (mother–children and father–children) and the relationship between attachment representations and parent–child interaction.
The sample was composed of 20 Italian adoptive families recruited through health services and authorized agencies for international adoptions. Children were aged between 4.5 and 8.5 years and the time spent in the adoptive family ranged from 1 to 3 years.
Dyadic emotional availability was assessed through the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS), adult attachment through the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and children attachment through the Manchester Attachment Story Task (MCAST).
Our results pointed out the presence of a relation between attachment representations of late-adopted children and their adoptive mothers (75%, K = 0.50, p = .025). In addition, we found that both insecure children and mothers showed lower levels of EA than secure ones. Some explanations are presented about why, in the early post-adoption period, child attachment patterns and dyadic emotional availability seem to be arranged on different frameworks for the two parental figures
Adolescenza in famiglie adottive e biologiche: sintomi psicopatologici e strategie di regolazione emotiva
No full textThis study compared 46 adopted adolescents (50% males) and their adoptive
mothers respectively with 66 non-adopted peers (44% males) and their biological
mothers both in psychopathological symptoms -measured by the child Behaviour
checklist 6/18 and the Symptoms checklist-90-revised- and in emotion regulation
strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, measured by the
emotion regulation Questionnaire. adopted adolescents showed more externalizing
problems and used more expressive suppression than peers. no differences were found
in mothers regarding psychopathology, but adoptive mothers reported more cognitive
reappraisal than biological ones. in the adoption group, regression analysis showed that
maternal levels of psychopathology predicted adolescents’ externalizing problems, controlling
for adolescents’ gender and cognitive reappraisal. it suggests the importance
both to screening maternal mental health before adoption and to offer post-adoption
services for adoptive families
Binge Eating Disorder in community girls: exploring the predictive role of attachment and alexithymia
No full textThe Binge Eating Disorder (BED) resulted the most common eating disorder among teenagers.
Many studies linked eating disorders during adolescence with insecure attachment representations and/or higher levels of alexithymia, but few studies investigated these variables specifically with respect to the risk of BED in adolescence. Besides, those studies mostly involved clinical samples, while to our knowledge there are no studies on community adolescents. In this pilot study we aimed to investigate the role of attachment and alexithymia with respect to binge eating symptoms showed by 44 community girls (aged 14-18, M = 15.7, SD = 1.1), enrolled from Ligurian high-schools. As this is the second wave of a larger study, the levels of binge eating symptoms of participants were previously screened thorough the Binge Eating Scale (BES; cut-off >17). For this study we administered the Friends & Family Interview (FFI) to assess attachment representations, in terms of classifications (secure, dismissing, preoccupied and disorganized) and scales; the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to detect the levels of alexithymia, also in their factors of Difficulty to Identifying (DIF) and to Describing (DDF) Feelings and Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT). Total score of BED correlated with attachment security (r = .391, p = .009) and preoccupation (r = .361, p = .016) and with alexithymia DIF (r = .304, p = .045). In a stepwise regression, insecure-preoccupied attachment and difficulty to identifying feelings predicted 24.7% of the variance in BES scores (adjusted-R= .211, p = .011). Eating binge may be a maladaptive strategy to cope with the difficulty to identifying and regulating feelings of anger and stress, then adolescents could be fostered in the acquisition of more adaptive emotion regulation abilities
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