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Patrik Vuilleumier - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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neuroscience of human social interactions and Adult Attachment Style
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2012Co-Authors: Pascal Vrticka, Patrik VuilleumierAbstract:Since its first description four decades ago, Attachment theory (AT) has become one of the principal developmental psychological frameworks for describing the role of individual differences in the establishment and maintenance of social bonds between people. Yet, still little is known about the neurobiological underpinnings of Attachment orientations and their well-established impact on a range of social and affective behaviors. In the present review, we summarize data from recent studies using cognitive and imaging approaches to characterize Attachment Styles and their effect on emotion and social cognition. We propose a functional neuroanatomical framework to integrate the key brain mechanisms involved in the perception and regulation of social emotional information, and their modulation by individual differences in terms of secure versus insecure (more specifically avoidant, anxious, or resolved versus unresolved) Attachment traits. This framework describes how each individual's Attachment Style (built through interactions between personal relationship history and predispositions) may influence the encoding of approach versus aversion tendencies (safety versus threat) in social encounters, implicating the activation of a network of subcortical (amygdala, hippocampus, striatum) and cortical (insula, cingulate) limbic areas. These basic and automatic affective evaluation mechanisms are in turn modulated by more elaborate and voluntary cognitive control processes, subserving mental state attribution and emotion regulation capacities, implicating a distinct network in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), among others. Recent neuroimaging data suggest that affective evaluation is decreased in avoidantly but increased in anxiously attached individuals. In turn, although data on cognitive control is still scarce, it points toward a possible enhancement of mental state representations associated with Attachment insecurity and particularly anxiety. Emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal or suppression of social emotions are also differentially modulated by Attachment Style. This research does not only help better understand the neural underpinnings of human social behavior, but also provides important insights on psychopathological conditions where Attachment dysregulation is likely to play an important (causal) role.
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influence of Adult Attachment Style on the perception of social and non social emotional scenes
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2012Co-Authors: Pascal Vrticka, David Sander, Patrik VuilleumierAbstract:Attachment theory describes how people emotionally bond with others, utilize their social interactions to regulate affective needs, and how they differ in their Attachment Style. However, it remains unknown whether anxious or avoidant Attachment is linked to more general differences in emotional processing for negative and positive stimuli, and whether such differences depend on stimulus content. Here we tested how social or non-social positive or negative emotional scenes were rated for pleasantness, arousal, and control, as a function of individual Attachment Style, in a sample of 54 female participants. Our results show that avoidant Attachment was associated with a selective reduction of pleasantness ratings for positive social images, whereas anxious Attachment was associated with higher arousal and lower control ratings for negative social images, besides higher arousal ratings for all remaining stimulus categories. These findings reveal that Adult Attachment Style is associated with differences in ...
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The neural substrates of social emotion perception and regulation are modulated by Adult Attachment Style
Social neuroscience, 2012Co-Authors: Pascal Vrticka, David Sander, Guido Bondolfi, Patrik VuilleumierAbstract:Adult Attachment Style (AAS) refers to individual differences in the way people experience and regulate their social relationships and corresponding emotions. Based on developmental and psychological research, it has been hypothesized that avoidant Attachment Style (AV) entails deactivating strategies in social contexts, whereas anxious Attachment Style (AX) involves hyper vigilance and up-regulation mechanisms. However, the neural substrates of differences in social emotion regulation associated with AAS have not been systematically investigated. Here we used fMRI in 19 healthy Adults to investigate the effect of AAS on the processing of pleasant or unpleasant social and nonsocial scenes. Participants were asked either to naturally attend (NAT), cognitively reappraise (REAP), or behaviorally suppress (ESUP) their emotional responses. Avoidantly attached participants showed increased prefrontal and anterior cingulate activation to social negative scenes when making spontaneous emotion judgments. They also exhibited persistent increases in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left amygdala activity for the same stimuli during reappraisal, as well as additional activation in supplementary motor area and ventral caudate during the suppression of social positive emotions. These results suggest that AV may imply less efficient reappraisal strategies to regulate social negative emotions, and lead to higher conflict or effortful control when suppression cannot be employed. In contrast, anxiously attached participants showed differential increases in the right amygdala and left parahippocampal cortex for social negative and positive stimuli, respectively, but only when making spontaneous emotion judgments. No effect of AX was found during down-regulation conditions. This suggests heightened arousal to negative information without difficulty in down-regulating emotions through cognitive re-evaluation or suppression. Taken together, these findings reveal for the first time the neural underpinnings of Attachment-related differences in social emotion regulation.
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individual Attachment Style modulates human amygdala and striatum activation during social appraisal
PLOS ONE, 2008Co-Authors: Pascal Vrticka, Frederic Andersson, Didier Maurice Grandjean, David Sander, Patrik VuilleumierAbstract:Adult Attachment Style refers to individual personality traits that strongly influence emotional bonds and reactions to social partners. Behavioral research has shown that Adult Attachment Style reflects profound differences in sensitivity to social signals of support or conflict, but the neural substrates underlying such differences remain unsettled. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined how the three classic prototypes of Attachment Style (secure, avoidant, anxious) modulate brain responses to facial expressions conveying either positive or negative feedback about task performance (either supportive or hostile) in a social game context. Activation of striatum and ventral tegmental area was enhanced to positive feedback signaled by a smiling face, but this was reduced in participants with avoidant Attachment, indicating relative impassiveness to social reward. Conversely, a left amygdala response was evoked by angry faces associated with negative feedback, and correlated positively with anxious Attachment, suggesting an increased sensitivity to social punishment. Secure Attachment showed mirror effects in striatum and amygdala, but no other specific correlate. These results reveal a critical role for brain systems implicated in reward and threat processing in the biological underpinnings of Adult Attachment Style, and provide new support to psychological models that have postulated two separate affective dimensions to explain these individual differences, centered on the ventral striatum and amygdala circuits, respectively. These findings also demonstrate that brain responses to face expressions are not driven by facial features alone but determined by the personal significance of expressions in current social context. By linking fundamental psychosocial dimensions of Adult Attachment with brain function, our results do not only corroborate their biological bases but also help understand their impact on behavior.
Antonia Bifulco - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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understanding Adult Attachment in family relationships research assessment and intervention
2012Co-Authors: Antonia Bifulco, Geraldine ThomasAbstract:Attachment theory has become a key focus of both research and practice in understanding and treating psychological and social risk for marital and relationship problems, parenting and clinical disorders. In particular, Adult Attachment Style is a key explanatory factor for understanding problems in human relationships. This practical book introduces and explains an easily accessible assessment tool for Adult Attachment Style, the Attachment Style Interview (ASI). Based on extensive research study, it discusses appropriate interventions and case assessments that can be made to help families in need. Simpler than the Adult Attachment Interview, which requires expert administration, the ASI is an invaluable and evidence-based resource. Presenting clear and concise descriptions of the measure and summaries of the Attachment models developed, this text provides discussions of its relevance for different practice contexts, and uses a range of worked case studies to illustrate its principles and applications. It details Attachment issues in different relationship domains to cover areas of risk and resilience relevant for practice such as: Adult depression and anxiety and stress models; Partner difficulties including domestic violence; Childhood neglect and abuse as a source of Attachment problems; Parenting and intergenerational transmission of risk; Interventions, service application and use in family therapy. Understanding Adult Attachment in Family Relationships provides an important reference for all practitioners working with children, adolescents and families, especially those undertaking further study.
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Adult Attachment Style as mediator between childhood neglect abuse and Adult depression and anxiety
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2006Co-Authors: Antonia Bifulco, Patricia Moran, Junghye Kwon, Catherine Jacobs, Amanda Bunn, Nils BeerAbstract:BACKGROUND: There has been little prospective investigation of the relationship between Adult Attachment Style and clinical levels of anxiety and major depression. This paper seeks to address this, as well as examining the potentially mediating role of Adult insecure Attachment Styles in the relationship between childhood adverse experience and Adult disorder. METHODS: 154 high-risk community women studied in 1990-1995, were followed-up in 1995-1999 to test the role of insecure Attachment Style in predicting new episodes of anxiety and/or major depressive disorder. The Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) and the Attachment Style Interview (ASI) were administered at first interview and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) administered at first and follow-up interview. Major depression and clinical level anxiety disorders (GAD, Social Phobia or Panic and/or Agoraphobia) were assessed at first contact and for the intervening follow-up period. RESULTS: 55% (85/154) of the women had at least one case level disorder in the follow-up period. Only markedly or moderately (but not mildly) insecure Attachment Styles predicted both major depression and case anxiety in follow-up. Some specificity was determined with Fearful Style significantly associated both with depression and Social Phobia, and Angry-Dismissive Style only with GAD. Attachment Style was unrelated to Panic Disorder and/or Agoraphobia. In addition, Fearful and Angry-Dismissive Styles were shown to partially mediate the relationship between childhood adversity and depression or anxiety. CONCLUSION: In order to correctly interpret lifespan models of Adult psychiatric disorder, it is necessary to test for mediating factors. Attachment theory provides a framework for explaining how dysfunctional interpersonal Style arising from early childhood perpetuates vulnerability to affective disorders. This has implications for intervention and treatment to break cycles of risk. Language: en
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Adult Attachment Style as mediator between childhood neglect abuse and Adult depression and anxiety
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2006Co-Authors: Antonia Bifulco, Patricia Moran, Junghye Kwon, Catherine Jacobs, Amanda Bunn, Nils BeerAbstract:There has been little prospective investigation of the relationship between Adult Attachment Style and clinical levels of anxiety and major depression. This paper seeks to address this, as well as examining the potentially mediating role of Adult insecure Attachment Styles in the relationship between childhood adverse experience and Adult disorder. 154 high-risk community women studied in 1990–1995, were followed-up in 1995–1999 to test the role of insecure Attachment Style in predicting new episodes of anxiety and/or major depressive disorder. The Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) and the Attachment Style Interview (ASI) were administered at first interview and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) administered at first and follow-up interview. Major depression and clinical level anxiety disorders (GAD, Social Phobia or Panic and/or Agoraphobia) were assessed at first contact and for the intervening follow-up period. 55% (85/154) of the women had at least one case level disorder in the follow-up period. Only markedly or moderately (but not mildly) insecure Attachment Styles predicted both major depression and case anxiety in follow-up. Some specificity was determined with Fearful Style significantly associated both with depression and Social Phobia, and Angry-Dismissive Style only with GAD. Attachment Style was unrelated to Panic Disorder and/or Agoraphobia. In addition, Fearful and Angry-dismissive Styles were shown to partially mediate the relationship between childhood adversity and depression or anxiety. In order to correctly interpret lifespan models of Adult psychiatric disorder, it is necessary to test for mediating factors. Attachment theory provides a framework for explaining how dysfunctional interpersonal Style arising from early childhood perpetuates vulnerability to affective disorders. This has implications for intervention and treatment to break cycles of risk.
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Adult Attachment Style i its relationship to clinical depression
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2002Co-Authors: Antonia Bifulco, Patricia Moran, C Ball, Odette BernazzaniAbstract:Background Although there are an increasing number of studies showing an association of Adult Attachment Style to depressive disorder, such studies have rarely utilised epidemiological approaches with large community-based series and have relied heavily on brief self-report measurement of both Attachment Style and symptoms. The result is a wide inconsistency in the type of insecure Style shown to relate to disorder. The present study examined Adult Attachment Style in a high-risk community sample of women in relation to clinical depression. It utilised an interview measure of Adult Attachment which allowed for an assessment of both type of Attachment Style and the degree of insecurity of Attachment. A companion paper examines its relationship with other depressive-vulnerability (Bifulco et al. 2002). Method Two hundred and twenty-two high-risk and 80 comparison women were selected from questionnaire screenings of London GP patient lists and intensively interviewed. A global scale of Attachment Style based on supportive relationships (with partner and very close others) together with attitudes to support-seeking, derived the four Styles paralleling those from self-report Attachment assessments (Secure, Enmeshed, Fearful, Avoidant). In order to additionally reflect hostility in the scheme, the Avoidant category was subdivided into “Angry-dismissive” and “Withdrawn”. The degree to which attitudes and behaviour within such Styles were dysfunctional (“non-standard”) was also assessed. Attachment Style was examined in relation to clinical depression in a 12-month period. For a third of the series this was examined prospectively to new onset of disorder. Results The presence of any insecure Style was significantly related to 12-month depression. However, when controls were made for depressive symptomatology at interview, only the “non-standard” levels of Enmeshed, Fearful or Angry-dismissive Styles related to disorder. Withdrawn-avoidance was not significantly related to disorder. Conclusion The relationship of Attachment Style to clinical depression is increased by differentiating the degree of insecurity of Style and differentiating hostile and non-hostile avoidance.
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Adult Attachment Style ii its relationship to psychosocial depressive vulnerability
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2002Co-Authors: Antonia Bifulco, Patricia Moran, C Ball, A LillieAbstract:Background A range of studies show Adult Attachment Style is associated with depressive-vulnerability factors such as low self-esteem, poor support and childhood adversity. However, there is wide inconsistency shown in the type of insecure Style most highly associated. Few studies have examined Attachment Style in relation to clinical depression together with a range of such factors in epidemiological series. The present study uses an interview measure of Adult Attachment which differentiates type of Attachment Style and degree of insecurity of Attachment, to see: (a) if it adds to other vulnerability in predicting depression and (b) if there is specificity of Style to type of vulnerability. Method Two hundred and twenty-two high-risk and 80 comparison women were selected from questionnaire screenings of London GP patient lists and intensively interviewed. The Attachment Style Interview (ASI) differentiated five Styles (Enmeshed, Fearful, Angry-dismissive, Withdrawn and Standard) as well as the degree to which attitudes and behaviour within such Styles were dysfunctional (‘non-standard’). Attachment Style was examined in relation to low self-esteem, support and childhood experience of neglect or abuse, and all of these examined in relation to clinical depression in a 12-month period. Results The presence of any ‘non-standard’ Style was significantly related to poor support, low self-esteem and childhood adversity. Some specificity of type of Style and type of vulnerability was observed. Logistic regression showed that non-standard Enmeshed, Fearful and Angry-dismissive Styles, poor support and childhood neglect/abuse provided the best model for clinical depression. Conclusion Non-standard Attachment in the form of markedly Enmeshed, Fearful or Angry-dismissive Styles was shown to be associated with other depressive-vulnerability factors involving close relationships, self-esteem and childhood adversity and added to these in modelling depression.
Tilo Kircher - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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a voxel based morphometry study on Adult Attachment Style and affective loss
Neuroscience, 2018Co-Authors: Henriette Acosta, Andreas Jansen, B Nuscheler, Tilo KircherAbstract:Abstract The successful recovery from affective loss (i.e., bereavement, relationship breakup) has been linked to Adult Attachment Style (AAS), a personality trait. Up to now, the association between AAS, affective loss experiences and brain gray matter volume is unclear. In 192 healthy subjects we investigated the association between MRI brain gray matter volume, applying voxel based morphometry, AAS (Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ), subscales “avoidance” (AV) and “anxiety” (ANX)), and number of affective losses within the last 5 years (AL; List of Threatening Experiences Questionnaire). In a whole-brain analysis (p ANX and AV differently correlate with local volumes of the left insula and pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus, which are implicated in emotion processing, empathy and emotion regulation among other functions. Our results support the notion that individual Attachment Styles, which develop in the interplay of genes and social environment, differ in their correlation with brain structure.
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Adult Attachment Style modulates neural responses in a mentalizing task
Neuroscience, 2015Co-Authors: Henriette Schneiderhassloff, B Nuscheler, B Straube, Gesa Wemken, Tilo KircherAbstract:Adult Attachment Style (AAS) is a personality trait that affects social cognition. Behavioral data suggest that AAS influences mentalizing proficiency, i.e. the ability to predict and explain people's behavior with reference to mental states, but the neural correlates are unknown. We here tested how the AAS dimensions "avoidance" (AV) and "anxiety" (ANX) modulate neural correlates of mentalizing. We measured brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 164 healthy subjects during an interactive mentalizing paradigm (Prisoner's Dilemma Game). AAS was assessed with the Relationship Scales Questionnaire, including the subscales AV and ANX. Our task elicited a strong activation of the mentalizing network, including bilateral precuneus, (anterior, middle, and posterior) cingulate cortices, temporal poles, inferior frontal gyri (IFG), temporoparietal junctions, superior medial frontal gyri as well as right medial orbital frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and amygdala. We found that AV is positively and ANX negatively correlated with task-associated neural activity in the right amygdala, MFG, midcingulate cortex, and superior parietal lobule, and in bilateral IFG. These data suggest that avoidantly attached Adults activate brain areas implicated in emotion regulation and cognitive control to a larger extent than anxiously attached individuals during mentalizing.
Pascal Vrticka - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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neuroscience of human social interactions and Adult Attachment Style
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2012Co-Authors: Pascal Vrticka, Patrik VuilleumierAbstract:Since its first description four decades ago, Attachment theory (AT) has become one of the principal developmental psychological frameworks for describing the role of individual differences in the establishment and maintenance of social bonds between people. Yet, still little is known about the neurobiological underpinnings of Attachment orientations and their well-established impact on a range of social and affective behaviors. In the present review, we summarize data from recent studies using cognitive and imaging approaches to characterize Attachment Styles and their effect on emotion and social cognition. We propose a functional neuroanatomical framework to integrate the key brain mechanisms involved in the perception and regulation of social emotional information, and their modulation by individual differences in terms of secure versus insecure (more specifically avoidant, anxious, or resolved versus unresolved) Attachment traits. This framework describes how each individual's Attachment Style (built through interactions between personal relationship history and predispositions) may influence the encoding of approach versus aversion tendencies (safety versus threat) in social encounters, implicating the activation of a network of subcortical (amygdala, hippocampus, striatum) and cortical (insula, cingulate) limbic areas. These basic and automatic affective evaluation mechanisms are in turn modulated by more elaborate and voluntary cognitive control processes, subserving mental state attribution and emotion regulation capacities, implicating a distinct network in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), among others. Recent neuroimaging data suggest that affective evaluation is decreased in avoidantly but increased in anxiously attached individuals. In turn, although data on cognitive control is still scarce, it points toward a possible enhancement of mental state representations associated with Attachment insecurity and particularly anxiety. Emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal or suppression of social emotions are also differentially modulated by Attachment Style. This research does not only help better understand the neural underpinnings of human social behavior, but also provides important insights on psychopathological conditions where Attachment dysregulation is likely to play an important (causal) role.
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influence of Adult Attachment Style on the perception of social and non social emotional scenes
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2012Co-Authors: Pascal Vrticka, David Sander, Patrik VuilleumierAbstract:Attachment theory describes how people emotionally bond with others, utilize their social interactions to regulate affective needs, and how they differ in their Attachment Style. However, it remains unknown whether anxious or avoidant Attachment is linked to more general differences in emotional processing for negative and positive stimuli, and whether such differences depend on stimulus content. Here we tested how social or non-social positive or negative emotional scenes were rated for pleasantness, arousal, and control, as a function of individual Attachment Style, in a sample of 54 female participants. Our results show that avoidant Attachment was associated with a selective reduction of pleasantness ratings for positive social images, whereas anxious Attachment was associated with higher arousal and lower control ratings for negative social images, besides higher arousal ratings for all remaining stimulus categories. These findings reveal that Adult Attachment Style is associated with differences in ...
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The neural substrates of social emotion perception and regulation are modulated by Adult Attachment Style
Social neuroscience, 2012Co-Authors: Pascal Vrticka, David Sander, Guido Bondolfi, Patrik VuilleumierAbstract:Adult Attachment Style (AAS) refers to individual differences in the way people experience and regulate their social relationships and corresponding emotions. Based on developmental and psychological research, it has been hypothesized that avoidant Attachment Style (AV) entails deactivating strategies in social contexts, whereas anxious Attachment Style (AX) involves hyper vigilance and up-regulation mechanisms. However, the neural substrates of differences in social emotion regulation associated with AAS have not been systematically investigated. Here we used fMRI in 19 healthy Adults to investigate the effect of AAS on the processing of pleasant or unpleasant social and nonsocial scenes. Participants were asked either to naturally attend (NAT), cognitively reappraise (REAP), or behaviorally suppress (ESUP) their emotional responses. Avoidantly attached participants showed increased prefrontal and anterior cingulate activation to social negative scenes when making spontaneous emotion judgments. They also exhibited persistent increases in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left amygdala activity for the same stimuli during reappraisal, as well as additional activation in supplementary motor area and ventral caudate during the suppression of social positive emotions. These results suggest that AV may imply less efficient reappraisal strategies to regulate social negative emotions, and lead to higher conflict or effortful control when suppression cannot be employed. In contrast, anxiously attached participants showed differential increases in the right amygdala and left parahippocampal cortex for social negative and positive stimuli, respectively, but only when making spontaneous emotion judgments. No effect of AX was found during down-regulation conditions. This suggests heightened arousal to negative information without difficulty in down-regulating emotions through cognitive re-evaluation or suppression. Taken together, these findings reveal for the first time the neural underpinnings of Attachment-related differences in social emotion regulation.
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individual Attachment Style modulates human amygdala and striatum activation during social appraisal
PLOS ONE, 2008Co-Authors: Pascal Vrticka, Frederic Andersson, Didier Maurice Grandjean, David Sander, Patrik VuilleumierAbstract:Adult Attachment Style refers to individual personality traits that strongly influence emotional bonds and reactions to social partners. Behavioral research has shown that Adult Attachment Style reflects profound differences in sensitivity to social signals of support or conflict, but the neural substrates underlying such differences remain unsettled. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined how the three classic prototypes of Attachment Style (secure, avoidant, anxious) modulate brain responses to facial expressions conveying either positive or negative feedback about task performance (either supportive or hostile) in a social game context. Activation of striatum and ventral tegmental area was enhanced to positive feedback signaled by a smiling face, but this was reduced in participants with avoidant Attachment, indicating relative impassiveness to social reward. Conversely, a left amygdala response was evoked by angry faces associated with negative feedback, and correlated positively with anxious Attachment, suggesting an increased sensitivity to social punishment. Secure Attachment showed mirror effects in striatum and amygdala, but no other specific correlate. These results reveal a critical role for brain systems implicated in reward and threat processing in the biological underpinnings of Adult Attachment Style, and provide new support to psychological models that have postulated two separate affective dimensions to explain these individual differences, centered on the ventral striatum and amygdala circuits, respectively. These findings also demonstrate that brain responses to face expressions are not driven by facial features alone but determined by the personal significance of expressions in current social context. By linking fundamental psychosocial dimensions of Adult Attachment with brain function, our results do not only corroborate their biological bases but also help understand their impact on behavior.
Nils Beer - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Adult Attachment Style as mediator between childhood neglect abuse and Adult depression and anxiety
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2006Co-Authors: Antonia Bifulco, Patricia Moran, Junghye Kwon, Catherine Jacobs, Amanda Bunn, Nils BeerAbstract:BACKGROUND: There has been little prospective investigation of the relationship between Adult Attachment Style and clinical levels of anxiety and major depression. This paper seeks to address this, as well as examining the potentially mediating role of Adult insecure Attachment Styles in the relationship between childhood adverse experience and Adult disorder. METHODS: 154 high-risk community women studied in 1990-1995, were followed-up in 1995-1999 to test the role of insecure Attachment Style in predicting new episodes of anxiety and/or major depressive disorder. The Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) and the Attachment Style Interview (ASI) were administered at first interview and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) administered at first and follow-up interview. Major depression and clinical level anxiety disorders (GAD, Social Phobia or Panic and/or Agoraphobia) were assessed at first contact and for the intervening follow-up period. RESULTS: 55% (85/154) of the women had at least one case level disorder in the follow-up period. Only markedly or moderately (but not mildly) insecure Attachment Styles predicted both major depression and case anxiety in follow-up. Some specificity was determined with Fearful Style significantly associated both with depression and Social Phobia, and Angry-Dismissive Style only with GAD. Attachment Style was unrelated to Panic Disorder and/or Agoraphobia. In addition, Fearful and Angry-Dismissive Styles were shown to partially mediate the relationship between childhood adversity and depression or anxiety. CONCLUSION: In order to correctly interpret lifespan models of Adult psychiatric disorder, it is necessary to test for mediating factors. Attachment theory provides a framework for explaining how dysfunctional interpersonal Style arising from early childhood perpetuates vulnerability to affective disorders. This has implications for intervention and treatment to break cycles of risk. Language: en
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Adult Attachment Style as mediator between childhood neglect abuse and Adult depression and anxiety
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2006Co-Authors: Antonia Bifulco, Patricia Moran, Junghye Kwon, Catherine Jacobs, Amanda Bunn, Nils BeerAbstract:There has been little prospective investigation of the relationship between Adult Attachment Style and clinical levels of anxiety and major depression. This paper seeks to address this, as well as examining the potentially mediating role of Adult insecure Attachment Styles in the relationship between childhood adverse experience and Adult disorder. 154 high-risk community women studied in 1990–1995, were followed-up in 1995–1999 to test the role of insecure Attachment Style in predicting new episodes of anxiety and/or major depressive disorder. The Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) and the Attachment Style Interview (ASI) were administered at first interview and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) administered at first and follow-up interview. Major depression and clinical level anxiety disorders (GAD, Social Phobia or Panic and/or Agoraphobia) were assessed at first contact and for the intervening follow-up period. 55% (85/154) of the women had at least one case level disorder in the follow-up period. Only markedly or moderately (but not mildly) insecure Attachment Styles predicted both major depression and case anxiety in follow-up. Some specificity was determined with Fearful Style significantly associated both with depression and Social Phobia, and Angry-Dismissive Style only with GAD. Attachment Style was unrelated to Panic Disorder and/or Agoraphobia. In addition, Fearful and Angry-dismissive Styles were shown to partially mediate the relationship between childhood adversity and depression or anxiety. In order to correctly interpret lifespan models of Adult psychiatric disorder, it is necessary to test for mediating factors. Attachment theory provides a framework for explaining how dysfunctional interpersonal Style arising from early childhood perpetuates vulnerability to affective disorders. This has implications for intervention and treatment to break cycles of risk.