Schematic attachment representations in late adolescence predict depressive symptoms in adulthood

• In Event: Attachment representations, stress, and mental health during childhood, adolescence, and the transition to motherhood

Abstract

A core premise of attachment theory is that the quality of early care shapes the development and consolidation of later constructed mental representations, which in turn influence mental health (Bowlby, 1973;1980). Individual differences in attachment representations have recently been assessed using the secure base script coding scheme developed for use with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAIsbs; Waters & Facompré, 2021). AAIsbs is designed to assess the extent to which individuals perceive their ability to seek and effectively solicit parental support following distressful events (e.g., seeking comfort, being effectively soothed, returning to exploration). The failure to establish a belief in the availability of caregivers at times of need, such as a parent who is unresponsive, rejecting, or overinvolved, is likely to contributes to a reappraisal of stressful events as disproportional to one’s ability to cope with them (Rueger et al., 2016). Especially in adolescence and the transition to adulthood, such a gap between presence of increasing psychosocial stressors and perceived lack of support leads to more depressive symptomatology (Eberhart & Hammen, 2009). This pre-registered study is the first to assess the predictive power of AAIsbs in the development of depressive symptoms.
Drawing on new data from the ongoing NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 857; 51% female, 78% White; additional demographics reported in Table 1), we tested the strength of the longitudinal association between AAIsbs in adolescence and depressive symptoms in adulthood (using the Adult Self Report; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003), and its robustness to concurrent depressive symptoms at age 18, and demographic and cognitive covariates (i.e., gender, ethnicity; and composite scores of income/needs ratio, maternal education, and cognitive functioning through the first 15 years of life). We also assessed whether AAIsbs incrementally predicted depressive symptoms relative to the traditional AAI coding of narrative coherence (AAIcoh).
The full sample was coded by two coders, with ~40% of cases (n = 339) overlapping for reliability (ICC = .86), and ~28% of cases (n = 236) coded by both coders and a Master Coder (ICCs = .91 and .93). Analyses were conducted in R (R Core Team, 2022), using the ‘lavaan’ package (2012), and missingness was handled using full information maximum likelihood (FIML). Pearson’s correlation coefficient revealed that AAIsbs at age 18 is significantly associated with depressive symptoms T scores at age 30 (r = -.16, p < .001), and regression analysis indicated that this association is robust to concurrent depressive symptoms T scores and demographic covariates (b = -.40, SE = .16, p = .01). Furthermore, hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that AAIsbs at age 18 incrementally predicted age 30 depressive symptoms T scores over and above AAIcoh, concurrent depressive symptoms, and demographic covariates (see Table 2).
Overall, evidence suggests that AAIsbs is a valid measure of depressive symptoms in adulthood, independent from AAIcoh. Such evidence supports the clinical application of assessing secure base script as a potential modifiable intervention target to reduce risk for depressive symptoms during adolescence.

Authors

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

• Marissa Nivison, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Maria E. Bleil, University Of Washington

• Theodore Waters, New York University Abu Dhabi