{"title":"Further reflections on the enduring influence of Mary Main's scholarship.","authors":"Howard Steele","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2025.2510026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2025.2510026","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144109450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring attachment representations and traumatic reenactment in foster children.","authors":"Nina Thorup Dalgaard, Julie Mulla Reich, Jakob Kaarup Jensen, Saul Hillman, Maiken Pontoppidan","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2025.2503707","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2025.2503707","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Foster children face an elevated risk of behavioral and mental health challenges, often stemming from early adversities such as abuse, neglect, or parental incapacity. This study assessed attachment representations in 28 Danish foster children (ages 4-10) using the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP). Participants were enrolled in a trial comparing Mentalization-Based Family Therapy (MBT) to Care as Usual (CAU). Foster children showed more attachment disorganization than a community sample (<i>t</i>(27) = 2.474, <i>p</i> = .019). Post-treatment, attachment security increased (z = -3.23, <i>p</i> = .001) and disorganization decreased (z = -2.82, <i>p</i> = .005). Age and gender patterns highlighted the need for specific SSAP norms. SSAP narratives were also coded for content reflecting the children's personal experiences to explore the intersection of their attachment representations and lived experiences. Fifteen children included narrative content of personal experiences, offering qualitative insights. These findings underscore the importance of tailored interventions and further investigation into attachment processes among foster children.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"1-27"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143975228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resolved or unresolved, that is the question: a case-study approach to discourse about abuse, trauma and maltreatment among mothers with mild intellectual disabilty.","authors":"Tommie Forslund, Mathias Westin, Mårten Hammarlund, Pehr Granqvist","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2024.2401913","DOIUrl":"10.1080/14616734.2024.2401913","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mary Main played a key role for this study, in which we used an idiographic approach to examine discourse about abuse, trauma, and maltreatment (ATM) among eight mothers with a mild intellectual disability (ID), whose children had been assigned a secure (the \"B-group\") or disorganized (the \"D-group\") attachment classification. Thematic analysis yielded six ATM discourse themes: openness; coherence; presence of trauma in consciousness; support; agency in response to crisis; and self-concept and caregiving self-efficacy. Mothers in the B-group provided coherent narratives, were open with the interviewer, had memories of seeking and receiving support, and reflected freely and autonomously on their experiences. Contrastingly, the mothers in the D-group expressed a guarded, closed-off stance towards ATM, difficulties seeking support, helplessness in response to crisis, and poor self-concept and -efficacy. Their adverse experiences were nonetheless highly present in consciousness, albeit in unintegrated forms. Our findings suggest that the D-group mothers may be unresolved with respect to loss/abuse.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"229-254"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142279910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Or Dagan, Rodrigo A Cárcamo, Marinus H van IJzendoorn
{"title":"Celebrating more than 26,000 adult attachment interviews: mapping the main adult attachment classifications on personal, social, and clinical status.","authors":"Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Or Dagan, Rodrigo A Cárcamo, Marinus H van IJzendoorn","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2024.2422045","DOIUrl":"10.1080/14616734.2024.2422045","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since the development of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) in 1985, more than 26,000 AAIs have been administered, coded, and reported, representing 170 (wo-)man-years of work. We used multinomial tests and analyses of correspondence to compare the AAI distributions in various cultural and age groups, in mothers, fathers, high-risk, and clinical samples with the combined samples of North American non-clinical, non-risk mothers (22% dismissing, 53% secure, 8% preoccupied, and 17% unresolved loss or other trauma). Males were more often classified as dismissing and less frequently classified as secure compared to females (except adoptive fathers), and females were more frequently classified as unresolved (but not more often preoccupied) compared to males. A combination of high scores on the unresolved and insecure-preoccupied dimensions was shared by borderline personality disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and gender dysphoria, while combined high scores on the unresolved and insecure-dismissing dimensions characterized anxiety problems, obsessive-compulsive and thought disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"191-228"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142784025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mary Main, Disorganisation, and the MCAST.","authors":"Jonathan Green","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2025.2465033","DOIUrl":"10.1080/14616734.2025.2465033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>I describe the development, with Ruth Goldwyn, Charlie Stanley and others, of the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST); particularly highlighting the pivotal role that Mary Main played in its evolution, and its approach to attachment Disorganization. MCAST is a doll play vignette-completion technique characterizing attachment representations in young school-aged children (4.5-8.5 years). It uses a specific dyadic focus and adapts both Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) and Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) methods within its coding procedure, thus allowing a full detailed attachment classification including Disorganisation. I detail how Mary's prior work, insight and continuing support, along with Erik Hesse, in applying these coding systems to play narratives, was crucial to the successful development of the instrument. With selected research data, I then review some of the developmental and clinical issues that MCAST has subsequently addressed, reflected in a 2018 meta-analytic review of 25 studies investigating MCAST Disorganisation.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"255-274"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143456761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Danielle Katz, Tabitha Sellers, Madelyn H Labella, Mary Dozier
{"title":"The power of the adult attachment interview in predicting subsequent psychopathology: a tribute to Mary Main.","authors":"Danielle Katz, Tabitha Sellers, Madelyn H Labella, Mary Dozier","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2024.2420784","DOIUrl":"10.1080/14616734.2024.2420784","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mary Main's conceptualization and operationalization of attachment states of mind through the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) represent seminal contributions to the attachment field. The AAI is a semi-structured clinical interview used to assess attachment states of mind that is widely used in research and clinical settings. Unresolved state of mind regarding loss or trauma has been linked to concurrent internalizing symptoms. The current study explored the associations between unresolved classification and later depression and anxiety, above and beyond trauma history and symptoms. Participants (<i>n</i> = 70) were parents (98.6% female, 67.1% Black/African-American) from a follow-up of a randomized clinical trial of a parenting program for families referred to child welfare services. Parents completed the AAI, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire at timepoint 1 (T1) and the Brief Symptom Inventory approximately 12 years later, at timepoint 2 (T2). Hierarchical regressions revealed that unresolved state of mind significantly predicted depression at T2, and marginally predicted anxiety at T2, above and beyond childhood trauma, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and early internalizing symptoms. These results suggest that unresolved states of mind are clinically significant and provide unique information about later internalizing symptoms in adults with a history of trauma or loss.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"275-291"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12033367/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142493745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bradley A Maclaine, Caryl T Faulks, Ziyu Tian, Shuqi Zhang, Nancy Hazen, Deborah Jacobvitz
{"title":"Relations between components of dismissing attachment representations and family relationships.","authors":"Bradley A Maclaine, Caryl T Faulks, Ziyu Tian, Shuqi Zhang, Nancy Hazen, Deborah Jacobvitz","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2025.2469251","DOIUrl":"10.1080/14616734.2025.2469251","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examined how strategies parents use to maintain a dismissing state of mind while discussing their childhood relationship with their parents relate to the quality of their relationship with their partners and children. During the third trimester, 125 couples were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to assess adults' states of mind with respect to relationships with their parents during childhood. Marital quality was assessed via observations of couple interactions during discussion tasks and coded for emotional attunement. At 24 months, researchers assessed caregiver sensitivity by observing mother-toddler and father-toddler interactions. Fathers' idealization of their own father forecasted lower caregiving sensitivity with their 24-month-old children, and this relationship was mediated by emotional attunement in the marriage. This finding did not hold for mothers. For both mothers and fathers, higher marital emotional attunement related to more sensitive caregiving. These findings are discussed in the context of gender socialization. Interventions to disrupt the transmission of negative family interactions are also discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"292-314"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12037307/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143482021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Miriam Steele, Alejandra Perez, Francesca Segal, Pasco Fearon, Peter Fonagy, Howard Steele
{"title":"Transition to motherhood: stability and change in attachment representations from pregnancy to 5 years.","authors":"Miriam Steele, Alejandra Perez, Francesca Segal, Pasco Fearon, Peter Fonagy, Howard Steele","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2025.2484923","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2025.2484923","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper reports on Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs) obtained from a low-risk sample of 51 pregnant women expecting their first child who were interviewed again when the child was five years of age. This is the first report of test-retest results that extends over five years that includes the transition to motherhood. Results suggest significant levels of continuity at the level of AAI classifications with three-way stability being 90% and two-way stability being 88%. When change was observed, it was more likely to be a move toward rather than away from security. At the level of dimensional scores, significant changes indicated a softening stance with higher coherence ratings, lower idealization scores, and less insistence on an inability to recall. This move toward a significantly more balanced state of mind regarding attachment was most evident among those mothers who maintained or became autonomous-secure.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":"27 2","pages":"330-347"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143960711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alejandra Perez, Miriam Steele, Peter Fonagy, Pasco Fearon, Francesca Segal, Howard Steele
{"title":"Predictions of adolescents' responses to the Youth Self-Report from parental attachment interviews collected during pregnancy: a 17-year longitudinal study.","authors":"Alejandra Perez, Miriam Steele, Peter Fonagy, Pasco Fearon, Francesca Segal, Howard Steele","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2024.2448916","DOIUrl":"10.1080/14616734.2024.2448916","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigated the influence of parents' Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) responses prior to the birth of a first child, on self-reported mental health symptoms of the first-born child in mid-adolescence. The sample comprised 51 first-born children aged 16 years, their mothers and fathers from a low-risk community urban sample, White, British and 70% middle class. Mothers' responses to the AAI were the strongest predictor of their adolescent children's self-reported mental health symptoms. Children's infant-mother or infant-father attachment patterns were not predictive of these 16-year outcomes, but mothers' insecure (primarily dismissing) attachment representations predicted children's externalizing, aggressive, and delinquent difficulties (though not internalizing difficulties) at 16 years. If one or both parents were autonomous-secure in their response to the AAI then their adolescent children reported significantly fewer mental health problems. Discussion focuses on thepredictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview, Mary Main's legacy, and possible meanings (and limitations) of the results.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"315-329"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142999191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Infant carrying to enhance parental reflective functioning in early childhood: a model of direct and indirect pathways in a sample of adolescent mothers.","authors":"Linnea B Linde-Krieger, Lela Rankin","doi":"10.1080/14616734.2025.2480066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2025.2480066","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research on infant carrying/babywearing is limited but suggests that frequent close physical contact increases maternal sensitivity and responsiveness. It is unknown whether infant carrying promotes parental reflective functioning (PRF). In this prospective investigation, adolescent mothers (<i>N</i>=75; <i>M</i><sub>age</sub>=19.45; 57.4% non-white) in a multi-wave infant carrying intervention trial were followed from early postpartum to preschool to assess long-term impacts of infant carrying on the development of PRF. Participation in the infant carrying intervention (β=0.33, <i>p</i>=0.03) and maternal representation of infant carrying as supporting infant wellbeing (β=0.36, <i>p</i><0.01) predicted higher PRF when children were 3.5 years old. There was a significant indirect effect from maternal representation of infant carrying as a bonding tool to enhanced PRF during the preschool period via maternal attunement at seven months (β=0.26, <i>p</i>=0.04). Participating in an infant carrying intervention and child-focused representations of infant carrying may support mentalizing among adolescent mothers via distinct direct and indirect pathways.</p>","PeriodicalId":8632,"journal":{"name":"Attachment & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"1-24"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143668954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}