Secure Attachment Confers Vulnerability for Adolescent Depression in Adverse Family Environments

• In Event: Matches and Mismatches, Developmentally Informative and Sometimes Surprising!

Abstract

Introduction
Warm, sensitive parenting during the first year of life is associated with secure attachment at around one year of age, as assessed in the Strange Situation Test (SST) The hallmark of security in the SST is the openness of the infant to the parent, especially when distressed. Secure attachment can be therefore seen as likely to be well matched to the benign environment in which it has been nurtured. However a substantial minority of securely attached infants are living in less benign family environments where this emotional openness may become a source of vulnerability. In this study we addressed the question of what are the developmental outcomes when secure attachment is mismatched with exposure to interparental violence (IPV).
Associations between exposure to (IPV) and child externalising and internalising symptoms are well established but there is little consistent evidence for sources of resilience. While theoretical considerations might lead to the prediction that secure attachment will confer resilience, the reasoning presented here suggests that it will be a source of vulnerability. Resolving this question is of major importance for the design of early intervention studies intended to promote secure attachment.
Hypotheses
We tested the hypothesis that secure attachment in the SST at 14 months will create vulnerability to emotional and behavioural problems in children exposed to IPV. Specifically, we predicted that the combination of secure attachment and IPV up to age 7, will be associated with a childhood predictor of adolescent depression, irritability, at age 9, and with depressive symptoms at age 13.
Study population
A stratified subsample (N=181) of the UK-based birth cohort, the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS), a prospective, epidemiological longitudinal study starting in pregnancy with repeated follow up to adolescence.
Methods
Attachment classification was assessed using the SST at 14 months and rated independently in a US lab to ensure blindness, IPV using repeated maternal interviews up to age 7 years, irritability symptoms by the highest ratings of mothers and teachers on the CBCL at age 9, and depressive symptoms by child self-report at age 13 from the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire. Analysis used hierarchical multiple linear regression models to examine main effects and interactions controlling for child sex.
Results
There was a significant interaction between IPV exposure and secure attachment to age 9 irritability (p=.025) and to age 13 adolescent depression (p=.041). The interactions arose in slightly different ways for each outcome. For age 9 irritability there was a marked vulnerability to IPV exposure in the secure group, while for age 13 depression secure attachment conferred vulnerability while insecure attachment was protective, as shown in Figure 1. These results, replicated across late childhood to adolescence, to a childhood precursor of adolescent depression, and to adolescent depression, provide strong evidence that a mis-match between attachment security and the family environment confers vulnerability for child and adolescent emotional problems.

Authors

• Jonathan Hill, University of Reading
  Presenting Author

• Nicky Wright, Manchester Metropolitan University

• Andrew Pickles

• Helen Sharp, University of Liverpool