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Attaining greater insight into determinants of parent-child attachment: one (conceptual) model does not fit all

Fri, April 9, 11:35am to 1:05pm EDT (11:35am to 1:05pm EDT), Virtual

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The significance of a secure attachment relationship for child development, and how to promote attachment security, has been studied for over fifty years. Unfortunately, meta-analytic research still indicates that almost half of the children develop insecure attachment relationships with their parents, and over 20% of these relationships are classified as disorganized (1st paper in this symposium). This *seemingly* undesirable distribution may have to do with a focus on determining a unitary model of attachment development, whereas we may be better able to predict and promote attachment security by taking into consideration individual differences in child, parental, and familial background characteristics. In the current symposium, we present meta-analytic work that examined several background characteristics that may affect attachment development.
The first paper takes stock of 287 studies (> 21,000 Strange Situation Procedures) conducted to date worldwide by examining the distribution of secure, avoidant, resistant, and disorganized attachment classifications, and whether these differed as a function of various background characteristics. The second paper uses individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis to assess whether children are differentially susceptible to parental attachment representations and parental sensitivity based on their temperament. The third paper reports on an IPD meta-analysis with over 1,000 participants in which statistical (machine) learning techniques were used to explore associations between indicators of unresolved loss/abuse in the Adult Attachment Interview, classifications of unresolved states of mind, and infant disorganized attachment. A renowned developmentalist will synthesize findings from these three studies and discuss avenues for future theory and research.

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