Disorganized Attachment, Socio-Emotional Competences, and Externalizing Problems in Early School-Age

• In Event: 2-189 - Internal Working Models in the Making? Attachment and Social Information Processing During Early Development

Integrative Statement

Background: Disorganized attachment is a risk factor for externalizing problems (Fearon et al. 2010) and poor development of distinct socioemotional competences (Forslund & Granqvist, 2017). However, there is a multitude of mini-theories of attachment grounded in different conceptualizations of why attachment quality should be important for development, and for which outcomes (Sroufe, 2016; Thompson, 2016). Thus, concerns have been raised that attachment theory may suffer from overextension, and examination of competing theories of mediation is paramount to integrate the level of adjustment with that of distinct socioemotional competences (Groh et al., 2017).
Aim: Therefore, the present longitudinal study examined disorganized attachment in relation to two externalizing problems – oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – together with a number of socioemotional competences that may constitute mediating mechanisms. First, we examined attention toward facial expressions, closely linked to the proposed workings of the internal working models (IWMs; Dykas & Cassidy, 2011). Emphasizing the importance of basic processes of social information processing, Bowlby (1973) argued that insecurity manifests in defensive exclusion of threatening information through shifting of attention away from threatening stimuli. Second, we examined identification of emotional expressions and emotion regulation, related to a subsequent emphasis on safe haven aspects of caregiving and learning from close interactions with caregivers (e.g., dyadic regulation; Solomon & George, 2011). Finally, we examined cognitive inhibition, grounded in an emphasis on secure base aspects of caregiving and supporting children´s exploration (e.g., Bernier et al., 2014).
Method: 105 children (M age = 6 years 8 months, 50% girls) completed laboratory tasks for attachment representations, attention toward facial expressions, identification of facial expressions, and cognitive inhibition. Parents rated children’s emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. At T2 (M age = 8 years, 8 months), parents and teachers (N = 80) rated children’s ODD and ADHD symptoms. Discriminant functions analysis was used to enable fine-grained analyses of group differences (Ainsworth et al., 1978).
Results: The disorganized group was characterized by elevated ODD symptoms and exhibited reduced attention toward facial expressions (particularly fearful and neutral faces), a diminished ability to identify facial expressions (particularly sad and happy faces), and elevated emotional reactivity and poor regulation (particularly for anger and fear). These competences were, moreover, at least marginally associated with one another and with ODD symptoms. Finally, poor regulation of anger and fear mediated the link with ODD symptoms.
Discussion: The findings corroborate Bowlby´s notion that anger and fear may go hand in hand (Bowlby, 1988), the conceptual link between disorganization and fear/vigilance (Duschinsky, 2018), and that disorganization is a risk factor for oppositionality (Fearon et al., 2010). The pattern of associations between disorganization and competences related to anger and fear is also intriguing. Possibly, processes related to the emergence of disorganization may influence the neural circuitry important for both perception and regulation of threat-related stimuli (Callaghan & Tottenham, 2016). Consequently, disorganization may have broad effects on functioning with disorganized IWMs – herein indexed behaviorally by attention to emotional stimuli – influencing emotion identification and emotion regulation which, in turn, manifests in ODD symptoms.

Authors

• Tommie Forslund, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University
  Presenting Author

• Mikko J. Peltola, Tampere University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karin C. Brocki, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University
  Non-Presenting Author