The Intergenerational Consequences of Childhood Maltreatment: Secure Base Script Knowledge as a Mediator

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

Abstract

One of attachment theory’s central principles is that individuals’ mental representations of attachment mediate the long-term consequences of parent-child experiences—including experiences of abuse and neglect—for functioning during adulthood (Bowlby, 1969/1982). It has been proposed that these representations take the form of a cognitive script regarding secure base relationships (Waters & Waters, 2006). The first aim of this study was to test whether adults’ secure base script knowledge mediated the associations between childhood maltreatment and two aspects of functioning in adulthood: mental health problems and parenting quality. In addition, given the evidence that these two aspects of adult functioning are also associated with children’s behavior problems (Goodman et al., 2020), the second aim of this study was to test whether secure base script knowledge mediated potential associations between parents’ histories of childhood maltreatment and behavior problems in the next generation.

The current study used data from a longitudinal study of 162 women recruited from the community. At the time of recruitment, the women’s ages ranged from 18-40 years (M = 28 years). Fifty-four percent of the women identified as White/non-Hispanic, 27% identified as Hispanic, and 19% identified as another race/ethnicity.

When women were in the third trimester of pregnancy, they reported their childhood maltreatment experiences using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein et al., 2003). Mothers’ knowledge of the secure base script was assessed using the Attachment Script Assessment, a well-validated assessment of adults’ attachment representations (Waters & Waters, 2006). When infants were age seven months, mothers’ internalizing symptoms were assessed using the Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger et al., 1983) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977), which were standardized and averaged together. Mothers were also observed interacting with their infants for 15 minutes, and ratings of mothers’ detachment were reverse-scored and averaged with ratings of positive regard to create a measure of parental engagement. When children were 18 months old, mothers reported on toddlers’ behavior problems using the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (Carter & Briggs-Gowan, 2006).

The current analyses include the 137 mothers with data available for at least one of the outcome variables. Table 1 presents the correlations among the variables. Path analyses revealed that secure base script knowledge partially mediated the positive association between mothers’ childhood maltreatment experiences and their internalizing symptoms (β = .06, p = .04) and was a marginally significant mediator of the negative association between mothers’ childhood maltreatment experiences and their engaged parenting (β = -.07, p = .07; see Figure 1). In addition, the intergenerational association between mothers’ childhood maltreatment experiences and toddlers’ behavior problems was mediated by mothers’ secure base script knowledge, internalizing symptoms, and engaged parenting (β = .09, p = .02).

Altogether, these findings support the idea that adults’ attachment representations—as captured by secure base script knowledge—have a role in mediating the long-term effects of childhood maltreatment on adult functioning. Moreover, the findings suggest that these processes persist into the next generation and shape the development of behavior problems early in life.

Authors

• Lee Raby, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Bailey Speck, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Lauren Isenhour, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sheila E Crowell, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Liz Conradt, Duke University
  Non-Presenting Author