Disorganized/disoriented attachment relationships in maltreated infants.

Carlson, Vicki; Cicchetti, Dante; Barnett, Douglas; Braunwald, Karen G.

doi:10.1037/0012-1649.25.4.525

Cited by 577 publications

(363 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…This tendency occurred both in relation to frightening behavior and in relation to withdrawing behavior, with girls of frightening mothers more likely than boys to display behaviors classified as organized avoidant while girls of withdrawing mothers were more likely than boys to be classified as fully secure. These gender differences in the likelihood of being classified disorganized are consistent with the greater incidence of disorganized attachment behavior among boys than girls reported by Carlson et al (1989) in a maltreatment sample and by Vondra, Hommerding, and Shaw (1999) in a low-income sample. Notably, similar gender differences have not been reported in low-risk samples.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Differential attachment responses of male and female infants to frightening maternal behavior: Tend or befriend versus fight or flight?

David¹,

Lyons‐Ruth²

2005

Infant Ment. Health J.

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Taylor and colleagues (2000) proposed that males tend to display fight or flight responses to threat while females are more likely to display affiliative "tend or befriend" responses. In light of this hypothesis, gender differences in infant attachment behaviors were examined in a sample of 65 lowincome mother-infant dyads, half of whom were referred to a home-based intervention service because of concerns about the quality of caregiving. Attachment behaviors were assessed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation when infants were 18 months old, and maternal behaviors were coded both for frightened or frightening behaviors, using the Main and Hesse (1992) coding inventory, and for disrupted affective communication using the Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification assessment tool (AMBIANCE; Lyons-Ruth, Bronfman, & Parsons, 1999). Results indicated that as maternal behavior became more frightening, female infants tended to approach their mothers more than male infants. These gender differences in response to maternal frightening behavior also were evident in the clinically referred subsample. The results suggest that gender-based differences in tendencies to show affiliative behaviors to threat may complicate interpretation of attachment behavior in clinical contexts.A large body of research on fearful arousal has documented the range of individual coping responses to pain or fear displayed by different individuals when exposed to severe stressors. These responses have been captured by the summary label "fight or flight" (e.g., Jansen, Nguyen, Karpitsky, Mettenleiter, & Loewy, 1995). In addition, Seligman (1975) and others described "freezing" and "learned helplessness" as responses occurring when more active coping responses are unavailable or ineffective.Interestingly, this entire array of coping or defensive responses appears in some form in the behaviors that are part of the disorganized/controlling spectrum of infant and child attachment behaviors, as can be seen in Table 1. For example, freezing, huddling on the floor, and other depressed behaviors are part of the coding criteria for disorganized behaviors, as are contradictory approach-avoidance behaviors that often mix angry resistance with very marked avoidant behaviors such as running away or hiding under a chair.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Differential attachment responses of male and female infants to frightening maternal behavior: Tend or befriend versus fight or flight?

David¹,

Lyons‐Ruth²

2005

Infant Ment. Health J.

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“…Given the role of fearful arousal and physiologic stress responses in the theory and data on disorganization, it is tempting to equate disorganized attachment strategies with clearly maltreating relationships because maltreatment is associated with infant disorganization [42]. That criterion for problematic parental behavior, however, is too extreme to account for the range of parental behaviors observed to be associated with disorganized strategies.…”

Section: The Disrupted Parent-infant Dialoguementioning

confidence: 97%

From Infant Attachment Disorganization to Adult Dissociation: Relational Adaptations or Traumatic Experiences?

Lyons‐Ruth¹,

Dutra²,

Schuder³

et al. 2006

Psychiatric Clinics of North America

241

134

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In 1997, Putnam [1] pointed out that relatively little was known about the etiology and development of dissociation other than the presumed etiologic role of trauma; however, the fact that nontraumatized individuals sometimes demonstrated dissociation and that not all trauma survivors dissociate suggested that there may be more to the etiology and development of dissociation than trauma alone. Putnam [1] explored the role of various potential moderating variables including age, sex, culture, genetic factors, and education/intelligence in the development of dissociation, and although moderating trends were found for some of these variables, existing research has not convincingly demonstrated that any of these variables significantly influence dissociation.Family environmental factors, however, are the one set of factors that have been most consistently related to dissociation. Factors such as inconsistent parenting or disciplining, [2-4] level of family risk [5], and parental dissociation, as measured by the Dissociative Experiences Scale [6], have been shown to be associated significantly with higher levels of dissociation in adulthood. Most available research on dissociation, however, has focused on trauma, leaving many unanswered questions regarding how other family factors intersect with familial abuse in the developmental trajectories leading to dissociative disorders.Barach [7] was one of the first theorists to connect dissociation with attachment theory. In his article, Barach [7] suggested that multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder) was a variant of an "attachment disorder." He pointed out that individuals who had this disorder tended to demonstrate the extreme detachment, or emotional unresponsiveness, experienced by children faced with a loss of their primary caretaker, as described by Bowlby [8]. Barach [7] further suggested that children of unresponsive caretakers were also likely to engage in dissociative or "detached" behaviors. As one offshoot of attachment studies, developmental theorists and researchers have begun to explore the role of early childhood attachment and parenting in the etiology and development of dissociative symptomatology.Liotti's [9] theorizing has more specifically implicated disorganized patterns of infant attachment behavior as potential precursors to the development of dissociation later in life. He pointed out that there are parallels between infant disorganization and dissociation. Both phenomena reflect a pervasive lack of behavioral or mental integration. This primary failure of integration in infancy may result in vulnerability to dissociative organization of mental life

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“…Infants classified as Secure were thought to display optimal attachment behaviors while two other patterns of attachment, Insecure-avoidant and Insecure-ambivalent, were suggestive of a less than optimal mother-child bond. More recently a fourth classification of attachment style, Disorganized= disoriented, has gained support in the literature (Crittenden, 1985;Main & Solomon, 1986;Main & Hesse, 1990;Solomon & George, 1999) and is thought to reflect infant maltreatment (Carlson, Cicchetti, Barnett, & Braunwald, 1989), problematic parenting behaviors (Schuengel, Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, & Blom, 1999), and=or poor parental communication styles (Lyons-Ruth, Bronfman, & Parsons, 1999).…”

Section: Attachment Theory Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do I Connect? Attachment Issues in Adolescence

Shumaker

Deutsch

Brenninkmeyer

2009

Journal of Child Custody

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Attachment formation is considered a developmental process that continues far beyond infancy and early childhood. Yet the research on adolescent attachment formation remains relatively modest. This article reviews the normative and pathological developmental trajectories of attachment during adolescence. Specific attention is focused on the assessment of attachment in adolescence and different classification systems developed to describe adaptive and maladaptive adolescent attachment. The review continues with an examination into the predictors associated with secure versus insecure attachment in adolescence. Finally, forensic considerations are explored.

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Disorganized/disoriented attachment relationships in maltreated infants.

Cited by 577 publications

References 34 publications

Differential attachment responses of male and female infants to frightening maternal behavior: Tend or befriend versus fight or flight?

Differential attachment responses of male and female infants to frightening maternal behavior: Tend or befriend versus fight or flight?

From Infant Attachment Disorganization to Adult Dissociation: Relational Adaptations or Traumatic Experiences?

How Do I Connect? Attachment Issues in Adolescence

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