There is limited research exploring attachment style and defenses in adolescents. The purpose of the current research is to explore the relationship between adolescent attachment style and development of defense mechanisms, as well as attachment style and problem behaviors. A total of 1487 students from two California high-schools completed three self-report questionnaires to establish defense mechanisms, psychiatric symptoms, and attachment style. Attachment styles characterized by a positive selfimage predict greater levels of mature defense mechanisms, and lower levels of immature defense mechanisms, both in the interpersonal and intrapsychic domains. Relationships between insecure attachment styles and psychopathology were mediated by greater levels of immature defense mechanisms. These results provide initial compelling evidence that: a) attachment style is an important determinant of the type of defense mechanisms utilized by the individual to maintain psychological stability; and b) defense mechanisms serve to transmit the detrimental effects of insecure attachment style on psychological health.
Associations between parent-reported sleep problems and DMDD symptoms were due to their shared relationship with other behavioral problems. Therefore, chronic sleep problems do not appear to be a primary source of DMDD symptoms in children with or without ADHD.
Narrative story stem measures are increasingly popular for the assessment of attachment representations among early school-age children. Given their clinical and theoretical importance, disorganized representations are typically a focus of assessment procedures. The Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST) is one such measure. A systematic literature review and meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the documented reliability and validity of the MCAST with a focus on assessing disorganized representations. Twenty-five studies were included in the review encompassing 1,876 children from nine countries. Results suggest that inter-rater reliability for the MCAST is acceptable and the prevalence of disorganization identified on the MCAST among various subgroups (e.g. community, clinical, adopted/maltreated) is comparable to prevalence estimates from other developmental periods using other assessment methods. In addition, prevalence of disorganization on the MCAST differed in hypothesized ways between the various subgroups. However, MCAST disorganization did not correlate in predictable ways with many constructs when relationships were examined within samples. Few studies examined the relationship of disorganization on the MCAST with parenting variables, aspects of adoption and maltreatment, and emotion regulation skills. Recommendations for further study of the MCAST and for how the tool might be integrated into clinical and developmental research are provided.
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