Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Child Development 2002

Margaret E. Hertzig, Ellen A. Farber, Margaret E. Hertzig, Ellen A. Farber

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415949170
• eBook ISBN: 9781136650994
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Child Development2002 provides the most current research and scholarship available in the field of child psychiatry and child development. It is a benchmark against which all other contributions to the literature will be measured. Mental health professionals who work with children and adolescents will find the book invaluable for both its timely information and long-term reference value. Researchers will find substantial information in its pages for new spheres of inquiry.

Part I
DEVELOPMENTAL TOPICS

1
Attachment for Infants in Foster Care: The Role of Caregiver State of Mind

Mary Dozier, K. Chase Stovall, Kathleen E. Albus, and Brady Bates

The concordance between foster mothers’ attachment state of mind and foster infants’ attachment quality was examined for 50 foster mother–infant dyads. Babies had been placed into the care of their foster mothers between birth and 20 months of age. Attachment quality was assessed between 12 and 24 months of age, at least 3 months after the infants’ placement into foster care. The two-way correspondence between maternal state of mind and infant attachment quality was 72%, κ = .43, similar to the level seen among biologically intact mother–infant dyads. Contrary to expectations, age at placement was not related to attachment quality. Rather, concordance between maternal state of mind and infant attachment was seen for relatively late-placed babies, as well as early-placed babies. These findings have two major implications. First, following a disruption in care during the first year and a half of life, babies appear capable of organizing their behavior around the availability of new caregivers. Second, these data argue for a nongenetic mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of attachment.

INTRODUCTION

Babies entering foster care are faced with the task of forming attachments to new primary caregivers. When placed later than birth, these infants have often experienced problematic rearing conditions as well as disruptions in their previous caregiving relationships. It is conceivable that these previous experiences diminish foster infants’ chances of forming trusting relationships with new caregivers. It is possible, however, that these infants organize their attachment behavior around the availability of their new caregivers. In this study we examined the nature of the attachments formed by these foster infants with their new surrogate caregivers. Little research on foster infants’ attachments to their caregivers has yet been reported in the literature. Nonetheless, the extensive literature regarding intact dyads, as well as the more limited literature regarding adopted infants, and infants with other-than-primary caregivers, is useful in suggesting hypotheses regarding foster infant attachments.

Attachment

Infants in biologically intact dyads organize their attachment behaviors around the availability of their caregivers. When infants find caregivers to be available in times of need, they develop expectations that caregivers will be available when needed in the future. Behaviorally, these infants then seek out the comfort they need (Sroufe, 1989) from caregivers, with the confident expectation that they will be soothed. Such infants are classified as having secure attachments to their caregivers (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978).

When caregivers are not responsive to infants’ needs for reassurance, their babies do not develop confident expectations regarding parental availability. Instead, these babies develop alternative strategies for interacting with their parents when distressed. Some infants turn away from caregivers under conditions of moderate stress, giving the appearance of not needing nurturance. These infants are classified as having avoidant attachments. Other infants show a pattern of seeking out caregivers while simultaneously resisting contact and are classified as having resistant attachments. Finally, some infants show a breakdown in strategy when they are distressed and in their caregivers’ presence, displaying behaviors that appear disoriented or disorganized (Main & Solomon, 1990). These infants are classified as having disorganized attachments. Because disorganized attachment is seen as a breakdown in strategy, infants who are classified as disorganized receive a secondary classification of secure, avoidant, or resistant.

Attachment quality is considered important by attachment researchers because it reflects the quality of the infant’s relationship with the caregiver, and also because it is associated with the child’s later interpersonal functioning. Children who develop secure attachments to caregivers show more competent problem-solving skills as toddlers (Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978), more independent and confident behaviors with teachers as preschoolers (Sroufe, 1983), and more competent interactive behaviors with peers at school age (Elicker, Englund, & Sroufe, 1992) than do other children. Attachment strategies that are insecure but organized (i.e., avoidant and resistant attachments) may not place children at substantially increased risk for later disorder (e.g., Lewis, Feiring, McGuffog, & Jaskir, 1984; Lyons-Ruth, Alpern, & Repacholi, 1993). Those children with disorganized attachments, however, are at risk for a host of problematic outcomes, including aggressive behavior with peers (Lyons-Ruth et al. 1993; Lyons-Ruth, Easterbrooks, & Cibelli, 1997) and dissociative symptomatology evidenced throughout childhood (Carlson, 1998). Identifying predictors of disorganized attachment is, therefore, of particular importance.

Maternal state of mind and infant attachment. Among biologically intact mother–infant dyads, the strongest predictor of infant attachment found thus far is the caregiver’s state of mind with regard to attachment (van IJzendoorn, 1995). Attachment state of mind refers to the way in which adults process thoughts and feelings regarding their own attachment experiences. State of mind is assessed through a process of discourse analysis developed by Main and colleagues (Main & Goldwyn, 1998).

Adults who value attachment and are coherent in processing their own attachment experiences are classified as having autonomous states of mind. As parents, these adults are most likely to have infants who are securely attached to them (van IJzendoorn, 1995). Adults who are not coherent in their processing of attachment-related experiences are said to have nonautonomous states of mind. These adults violate rules of conversational discourse in their discussion of attachment experiences, with the violations taking one of several forms. Some adults idealize attachment experiences and attachment figures, showing a lack of coherence in terms of the consistency and completeness of their discourse regarding attachments (Main & Goldwyn, 1998). These adults are classified as having dismissing states of mind with regard to attachment. Parents with dismissing states of mind are most likely to have infants with avoidant attachments to them (van IJzendoorn, 1995). A second form of violation occurs among adults who show angry involvement with attachment figures, or ramble in their discourse, providing excessive, irrelevant detail in their discussion of attachment issues. These adults are classified as having preoccupied states of mind and are somewhat more likely than others to have infants with resistant attachments. Finally, a third form of violation occurs among adults who show a breakdown in reasoning or discourse when discussing a loss or trauma. These adults are classified as unresolved and are likely to have infants with disorganized attachments (van IJzendoorn, 1995). Parallel to infant disorganized attachment, unresolved state of mind is assumed to represent a breakdown in strategy; thus, a secondary (autonomous, dismissing, or preoccupied) classification is given to adults classified as unresolved.

Associations between parental state of mind and infant attachment quality have been assessed in a number of investigations. In a meta-analysis of 18 samples, van IJzendoorn (1995) found a concordance of 75%, κ = .49, between parental state of mind and infant attachment security when two categories (autonomous/nonautonomous and secure/insecure) were considered. When four categories of parental state of mind and infant attachment security were considered, there was a concordance of 63%, κ = .42.

It has generally been assumed that unresolved state of mind wields more influence on parenting than the secondary autonomous, dismissing, or preoccupied state of mind (Main & Hesse, 1990). Main and Hesse proposed that parents who are unresolved tend to behave in ways that are frightening to children. Their children are thus disorganized in the face of threat because they need comfort from caregivers, but caregivers are frightening to them. Recent findings of Schuengel, Bakersman-Kranenburg, and van IJzendoorn (1999), however, suggest the possibility that this link between unresolved maternal state of mind and infant disorganized attachment may be limited to those unresolved mothers with nonautonomous secondary classifications. Schuengel et al. found that unresolved mothers with secondary autonomous classifications displayed low levels of frightening behaviors toward their infants relative to other caregivers and were not at increased risk for having disorganized infants.

Questions regarding genetic factors. Some researchers have questioned whether the association between caregiver state of mind and child attachment is a function of biological relatedness or shared temperament (e.g., Fox, 1995), rather than the caregiving environment. Although temperament has not been strongly associated with infant attachment quality (e.g., Goldsmith & Alansky, 1987), the possibility of some form of genetic transmission is difficult to rule out. There are no studies reported in the literature that examined differential predictability from maternal state of mind to infant attachment quality for monozygotic and dizygotic twins. However, several studies have compared concordance of attachment quality for twins and for siblings (Goldsmith & Campos, 1990; Minde, Corter, Goldberg, & Jeffers, 1990; Vandell, Owen, Wilson, & Henderson, 1988; van IJzendoorn et al., 2000), and failed to provide strong support for the importance of genetic factors in attachment quality. In Ricciuti’s 1992 reanalysis of three twin data sets (Goldsmith & Campos, 1990; Minde et al., 1990; Vandell et al., 1988), 78% of the dizygotic infant pairs were concordant for attachment quality and 66% of the monozygotic infant pairs were concordant. In a meta-analysis of 138 sibling pairs, van IJzendoorn (1995) found that the level of concordance between siblings was 62% using the two-way classification scheme, with discordance partially attributable to differences in maternal sensitivity for the two siblings.

If genetic transmission is the primary source of the covariation between maternal state of mind and infant attachment security, little association should be found among nonbiologically related mother–infant dyads. Although negative findings for infants in foster care could be attributable to a host of factors, including prenatal environment, early experiences of maltreatment, and the effects of relationship disruption, strong positive findings would provide compelling evidence that genetic factors are not the primary source of intergenerational transmission of attachment.

Children’s Attachments to Nonbiologically Related Caregivers

Attachment quality of children with nonbiological caregivers has been investigated for children placed soon after birth with adoptive parents (Juffer & Rosenboom, 1997; Singer, Brodzinsky, Ramsay, Steir, & Waters, 1985), for children placed with adoptive parents after extended stays in orphanages (Chisholm, 1998; O’Connor, Bredenkamp, & Rutter, 1999), for children on kibbutzim with metapelet (Sagi et al., 1995), and for children with child-care providers (Howes & Hamilton, 1992). These various investigations are useful in suggesting the range of possible outcomes for fos...

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• Part I DEVELOPMENTAL TOPICS
• Part II BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR
• Part III CLINICAL ISSUES
• Part IV CULTURE AND SOCIETY
• Permissions