2-025 - Attachment and Caregiving Dysregulation: Neural Correlates, Sequelae, and an Effective Intervention

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Exposure to parental maltreatment undermines the development of secure and organized child attachment and is a well-known risk factor for long-term psychological health problems. This symposium brings together cutting-edge research on intermediate neurobiological mechanisms between childhood maltreatment and psychopathology and addresses an effective parenting intervention that ameliorates negative outcomes among children who have experienced maltreatment. The first paper reports on the findings of a 30-year longitudinal study and examines how maternal withdrawal in infancy is related to hippocampal volume and suicidality in adulthood. This paper provides evidence that early maternal withdrawal predicts suicidal behavior through enlarged hippocampal volume. The second paper discusses how unresolved-disorganized attachment resulting from childhood maltreatment relates to abnormalities in brain structure and function in a combined (non-)clinical sample of adolescents. This study provides the first evidence that unresolved-disorganized attachment is associated with specific brain structure and functioning across psychopathological classifications. The third paper discusses a randomized controlled trial of the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up intervention. This is the first study to report the efficacy of an intervention in promoting attachment security beyond 12 months post-intervention in a sample of maltreated children. Together, these talks highlight how neuroscience can contribute to clinical interventions and advance our understanding of maltreatment and associated attachment insecurity as a transdiagnostic risk factor in the development of psychopathology. We will address new questions regarding changing risk pathways by enhancing the quality of care and promoting attachment security and discuss reciprocal benefits of brain and intervention science within the study of developmental psychopathology.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Madelon Riem, Tilburg University

Discussant

• Robbie Duschinsky, University of Cambridge

Individual Presentations

• Longitudinal Associations Between Maternal Withdrawal in Infancy and Adult Hippocampal Volume and Suicidal Behavior - Presenting Author: Jennifer Khoury, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital; Non-Presenting Author: Martin Teicher, Harvard Medical School; Non-Presenting Author: Pia Pechtel, University of Exeter; Non-Presenting Author: Carl Anderson, Harvard Medical School; Non-Presenting Author: Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School

• Neural Correlates of Disorganized Attachment and a General Psychopathology Factor: Differentiating Constructs with Neuroimaging - Presenting Author: Madelon Riem, Tilburg University; Non-Presenting Author: Marie-Jose van Hoof, Curium Leiden University Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Amy Garrett, University of Texas Health Science Center; Non-Presenting Author: Serge Rombouts, Leiden University Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Nic van der Wee, Leiden University Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Marinus H van IJzendoorn, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Robert Vermeiren, Curium - Leiden University Medical Centetr

• Sustained Effects on Attachment Quality in Middle Childhood: The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up Intervention - Presenting Author: Lindsay Zajac, University of Delaware; Non-Presenting Author: Lee Raby, University of Utah; Non-Presenting Author: Mary Dozier, University of Delaware