Secure Base Script Knowledge Mediates The Link Between Early Parental Sensitivity And Depressive Symptoms

• In Event: Linking Early Life Experiences and Adult Functioning: The Mediating Role of Scripted Attachment Representations

Abstract

The quality of early caregiving significantly impacts mental health in general and depressive symptoms in specific throughout life. However, the psychological mechanisms through which early caregiving experiences lead to individual differences in mental health are unclear. A recently proposed potential mechanism has been attachment representations, which are shaped by early caregiving environment, and have shown to play a role in differential vulnerability mental health problems. Increasingly, attachment representations are being assessed via secure base script knowledge (SBSK)—the degree to which individuals show awareness of the temporal-causal schema that summarizes the basic features of seeking and receiving effective support from caregivers during times of need. Indeed, studies have shown that early parental sensitivity is associated with a higher quality of SBSK (Waters et al., 2017) and that SBSK is associated with psychopathological symptoms in middle childhood (Ruiz et al., 2019). However, no research has assessed the mediating role SBSK may play in the expected associations between early parental sensitivity and depressive symptoms in adulthood. In the current study we sought to assess whether SBSK at age 18 mediates the anticipated associations between both maternal and paternal sensitivity during the first 15 years of life and depressive symptoms at age 26.
This study included a subsample of 673 individuals from the 26-year longitudinal, prospective NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The majority of the sample was female, White/non-Hispanic, and middle-class (additional demographics reported in Table 1). Parental sensitivity was measured using direct observations of parent-child play interactions. Participants were also administered the self-report Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977) and the Attachment Script Assessment (Waters & Waters, 2006) to measure adult depression and SBSK, respectively.
Results indicated that SBSK at age 18 was significantly associated with depressive symptoms at age 26 (r = -.13, p = .002; see Table 1 for full list of correlations across measures). Mediation analyses, using the PROCESS macro for SPSS (see Figure 1), indicated that higher levels of both maternal (b = .18, SE = .05, p < .001) and paternal (b = .21, SE = .04, p < .001) sensitivity were associated with greater SBSK, which in turn significantly predicted depressive symptoms (b = -.07, SE = .03 p = .007 and b = -.07, SE = .03 p = .02, respectively). The indirect coefficients were significant (b = -.01, 95% CI = -.03, -.001 for both models). Approximately 4% (R2 = .04) of the variance in depressive symptoms was accounted for by the predictors in both models. Results were robust to ethnicity, gender, IQ, maternal years of education, and family income.
In sum, SBSK mediated the links between maternal and paternal sensitivity in childhood and levels of depressive symptoms in adulthood. These findings (a) support a core premise of Bowlby’s (1973) attachment theory that the provision of sensitive care shapes the development and consolidation of attachment representations, which in turn influence mental health, and (b) highlight SBSK as a potential modifiable intervention target to reduce risk for depressive symptoms.

Authors

• Or Dagan, Long Island University Post (LIU Post)
  Presenting Author

• Renate Buisman, Leiden University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marissa Nivison, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author

• Theodore Waters, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brian E Vaughn, Auburn University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly K. Bost, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maria E. Bleil, University Of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deborah Lowe Vandell, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cathryn Booth-Laforce, University Of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Glenn I. Roisman, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author