Children's mental representations of attachment: associations with attachment security and parent-child narrative quality

The goal of this study was to examine the antecedents and correlates of children’s mental representations of attachment at 5 years (Attachment Story Completion Task, Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990; MacArthur Story Stem Battery, Bretherton, Oppenheim, Buchsbaum, Emde, & the MacArthur Narrative Group, 1990). Predictors included children’s attachment security with mothers and fathers assessed via the Attachment Q-Set (AQS, Waters, 1987) at 3 years, and parent-child narrative quality regarding positive and negative events at 5 years. Participants included 71 children and their mothers and fathers. Structural equation models (SEM) indicated that children’s attachment security exerted a significant indirect effect on children’s mental representations through parent-child narrative quality. Specifically, children’s attachment security with fathers was related to their mental representations via father-child reminiscing about positive events, and children’s attachment security with mothers was related to their mental representations via mother-child reminiscing about negative events. Results are discussed in terms of the development and implications of attachment relationships within the family context.

Measuring attachment to life in old age: the Portuguese version of the Positive Valuation of Life Scale (Positive VOL)

Purpose This study aims to present the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Positive Valuation of Life Scale (Lawton et al. in J Aging Ment Healt 13:3–31, 2001). Method Sample included 207 community-dwelling elders (129 women; MAge = 77.2 years, SD = 7.5). The data collection included the translated and adapted Portuguese version of Positive Valuation of Life Scale, Life Satisfac- tion Index Z, Meaning in Life Questionnaire and Geriatric Depression Scale. Results From exploratory factor analysis, two factors emerged, existential beliefs and perceived control, ex- plaining 49 % of the total variance. Both factors were positively related with meaning in life and life satisfaction and negatively related with depression (p\0.05). The values obtained for internal consistency for the total scale and for each subscale were good (a [ 0.75). Conclusion The Portuguese version of Positive VOL Scale represents a reliable and valid measure to capture the subjective experience of attachment to one’s life. The two-factor structure is an update to Lawton’s previous work and in line with findings obtained in the USA (Dennis et al. in What is valuation of life for frail community-dwelling older adults: factor structure and criterion validity of the VOL, Thomas Jefferson University, Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health Research, 2005) and Japan (Nakagawa et al. in Shinrigaku Kenkyu 84:37–46, 2013). Future research is required to investigate VOL predictors and the potential changes toward the end of the life span.

Attachment patterns and suicidal behaviours on higher education students

Introduction: Every individual has a necessity to establish affective relationships throughout life in order to feel comfort and support. This need is called attachment and allows the human being to explore the world, acquiring knowledge about himself and everyone else(1) There are several changes that occur on students’ lives when enrolling and attending university, a period that is known to include a set of situational and academic transitions which might lead to mental health problems, and thus making students more vulnerable and more prone to develop suicidal behaviours. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of suicidal ideation on higher education students and to assess its relationship with attachment patterns. Methods: Quantitative, descriptive and correlational study, applied on a sample of 1074 students from a Portuguese higher education institution. Data collection was possible through an online platform that included a survey with questions regarding sociodemographical and academic profiling, the Portuguese version of the Adult Attachment Scale (EVA)(2) and the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire(3) Results: Students’ age varies between the 17 and 49 ( = 23,9 years old ± 6,107 Sd), the vast majority (64.7%) are females. Results show that the presence/severity of suicidal thoughts is low ( = 13.84; ± 20.29 Sd) on a scale from 0 to 180 and cut-off point > 41 for values that suggest potential suicidal risk, and based on that, 84 students were identified (7,8%). We verified significant relationships between suicidal ideation and anxiety and attachment (r=0.314 p=0.000). Conclusions: Although there is not a high prevalence of suicidal ideation on students, we found 84 students in our sample (7,8%) that reveal a potential risk for suicide. The results also show that young students with safe attachment patterns display less suicidal ideation. Safe attachment patterns are essential on interpersonal and social relationships and play an important role during the academic period. We cannot be indifferent towards this issue due to its individual, familiar and social repercussions. Every higher education institution should then establish student support offices and develop mental health promotion programs as well as suicide prevention campaigns.

Reactive Attachment Disorder in infants in foster care and associated mental health and cognitive functioning

Background: Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) has been described as one of the least researched and most poorly understood psychiatric disorders (Chaffin et al., 2006). Despite this, given what is known about maltreatment and attachment, it is likely that RAD has profound consequences for child development. Very little is known about the prevalence and stability of RAD symptoms over time. Until recently it has been difficult to investigate the presence of RAD due to limited measures for informing a diagnosis. However this study utilised a new observational tool Method: A cross sectional study design with a one-year follow-up explored RAD symptoms in maltreated infants in Scotland (n=55, age range= 16-62 months) and associated mental health and cognitive functioning. The study utilised the Rating of Inhibited Attachment Behavior Scale (Corval, et al., unpublished 2014) that has recently been developed by experts in the field along side The Disturbances of Attachment Interview (Smyke & Zeanah, 1999). Children were recruited as part of the BeST trial, whereby all infants who came in to the care of the local authority in Glasgow due to child protection concerns were invited to participate. The study sample was representative of the larger pool of data in terms of age, gender, mental health and cognitive functioning. Results: The sample was found to be representative of the population of maltreated children from which it was derived. Prevalence of RAD was found to be 7.3% (n=3, 95% CI [0.43 – 14.17]) at T1, when children are first placed in to foster care. At T2, following one year in improved care conditions, 4.3% (n=2, 95% CI [below 0 – 10.16]) met a borderline RAD diagnosis. Levels of observed RAD symptoms decreased significantly at T2 in comparison to T1 but carer reported symptoms of RAD did not. Children whose RAD symptoms did not improve were found to be significantly older and showed less prosocial behaviour. RAD was associated with some mental health and cognitive difficulties. Lower Verbal IQ and unexpectedly, prosocial behaviour were found to predict RAD symptoms. Conclusions: The preliminary findings have added to the developing understanding of RAD symptoms and associated difficulties however further exploration of RAD in larger samples would be invaluable.

Attachment Style, Therapeutic Alliance and Recovery in forensic mental health: the A-STAR study and clinical research portfolio

Background: Research suggests that forensic mental health services and staff can play an important role in the recognition and intervention with attachment-related behaviours to promote engagement and recovery. There is a lack of literature exploring whether the attachment needs of forensic service-users are recognised and, associations between attachment style and factors predictive of recovery. Aims: This study aimed to examine the extent to which service-users and keyworkers agree about service-users’ attachment and to identify whether attachment was associated with service attachment, working alliance, ward climate and recovery. Methods: Twenty-two service-users from low and medium secure forensic services, completed questionnaire measures of their attachment style, service attachment, working alliance, ward climate and experiences of recovery. Nineteen keyworkers completed measures of the service-users attachment style and working alliance. Results: There was strong agreement between service-users and staff for attachment anxiety (ICC=0.71) but poor agreement for attachment avoidance (ICC=0.39). Service attachment was associated with more positive perceptions of staff support (r=0.49) and avoidant attachment was associated with lower ratings of recovery (r=-0.51). Correlations between attachment style and service attachment, working alliance and ward climate were small and non-significant. Conclusions: A focus on staff training to support recognition of the nature and impact of avoidant attachment styles is indicated. The findings suggest that interventions to enhance staff - service-user relationships may be important for service attachment and indeed promotion of a recovery focused orientation amongst service-users high in avoidant attachment may improve wellbeing and outcomes.

The relation between attachment, personality, internalizing, and externalizing dimensions in adolescents with borderline personality disorder

The relation between attachment and personality features is an important field to explore in adolescent borderline personality disorder (BPD), and previous research has shown that personality features may be conceptualized within latent internalizing and externalizing dimensions. This cross-sectional study used a structural equation model to examine the association between the BPD participants' perception of attachment and personality features, mediated by the underlying internalizing/externalizing personality dimensions. Data were analyzed for 60 adolescents, ages 15 to 18 years, diagnosed with BPD who completed attachment and personality self-report measures. The authors' results showed a good fit of the model, suggesting a significant association between attachment and the internalizing/externalizing dimensions, which simultaneously congregate and influence personality traits. The perception of attachment anxiety was positively related to the internalizing dimension and at the same time negatively related to the externalizing dimension. However, the perception of attachment avoidance was not related to internalizing or externalizing personality dimensions.

Adult attachment style and cortisol responses in women in late pregnancy

Suporte financeiro e não financeiro da Maternidade Alfredo da Costa, Lisboa, Portugal

The Role of Attachment in a Social Cognitive Model of Social Domain Satisfaction in College Students

The study examined a modified social cognitive model of domain satisfaction (Lent, 2004). In addition to social cognitive variables and trait positive affect, the model included two aspects of adult attachment, attachment anxiety and avoidance. The study extended recent research on well-being and satisfaction in academic, work, and social domains. The adjusted model was tested in a sample of 454 college students, in order to determine the role of adult attachment variables in explaining social satisfaction, above and beyond the direct and indirect effects of trait positive affect. Confirmatory factor analysis found support for 8 correlated factors in the modified model: social domain satisfaction, positive affect, attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, social support, social self-efficacy, social outcome expectations, and social goal progress. Three alternative structural models were tested to account for the ways in which attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance might relate to social satisfaction. Results of model testing provided support for a model in which attachment avoidance produced only an indirect path to social satisfaction via self-efficacy and social support. Positive affect, avoidance, social support, social self-efficacy, and goal progress each produced significant direct or indirect paths to social domain satisfaction, though attachment anxiety and social outcome expectations did not contribute to the predictive model. Implications of the findings regarding the modified social cognitive model of social domain satisfaction were discussed.

ATTACHMENT, GROWTH AND PERSISTENCE OF CRONOBACTER ON GRANULAR ACTIVATED CARBON FILTERS

Several Cronobacter outbreaks have implicated contaminated drinking water. This study assessed the impact of granular activated carbon (GAC) on the microbial quality of the water produced. A simulated water filter system was installed by filling plastic columns with sterile GAC, followed by sterile water with a dilute nutrient flowing through the column at a steady rate. Carbon columns were inoculated with Cronobacter on the surface, and the effluent monitored for Cronobacter levels. During a second phase, commercial faucet filters were distributed to households for 4-month use. Used filters were backwashed with sterile peptone water, and analyzed for Cronobacter, total aerobic plate count, coliform bacteria and Enterobacteriaceae. Cronobacter colonized the simulated GAC and grew when provided minimal levels of nutrients. Backwashed used filters used in home settings yielded presumptive Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas and other waterborne bacteria. Presumptive Cronobacter strains were identified as negative through biochemical and genetic test.

The Influence of Place Attachment, Aspirations, and Rapidly Changing Environments on Resettlement Decisions

Resettlement associated with development projects results in a variety of negative impacts. This dissertation uses the resettlement context to frame the dynamic relationships formed between peoples and places experiencing development. Two case studies contribute: (a) the border zone of Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park where residents contend with changes to land access and use; and (b) Bairro Chipanga in Moatize, Mozambique where a resettled population struggles to form place attachment and transform the post-resettlement site into a “good” place. Through analysis of data collected at these sites between 2009 and 2015, this dissertation investigates how changing environments impact person-place relationships before and after resettlement occurs. Changing environments create conditions leading to disemplacement—feeling like one no longer belongs—that reduces the environment’s ability to foster place attachment. Research findings indicate that responses taken by individuals living in the changing environment depend heavily upon whether resettlement has already occurred. In a pre-resettlement context, residents adjust their daily lives to diminish the effects of a changing environment and re-create the conditions to which they initially formed an attachment. They accept impoverishing conditions, including a narrowing of the spaces in which they live their daily lives, because it is preferred to the anxiety that accompanies being forced to resettle. In a post-resettlement context, resettlement disrupts the formation of place attachment and resettled peoples become a placeless population. When the resettlement has not resulted in anticipated outcomes, the aspiration for social justice—seeking conditions residents had reason to expect—negatively influences residents’ perspectives about the place. The post-resettlement site becomes a bad place with a future unchanged from the present. At best, this results in a population in which more members are willing to move away from the post-resettlement site, and, at worse, complete disengagement of other members from trying to improve the community. Resettlement thus has the potential to launch a cycle of movement- displacement-movement that prevents an entire generation from establishing place attachment and realizing its benefits. At the very least, resettlement impedes the formation of place attachment to new places. Thus, this dissertation draws attention to the unseen and uncompensated losses of resettlement.

Sulphated polysaccharides from Ulva clathrata and Cladosiphon okamuranus seaweeds both inhibit viral attachment/entry and cell-cell fusion, in NDV infection

Sulphated polysaccharides (SP) extracted from seaweeds have antiviral properties and are much less cytotoxic than conventional drugs, but little is known about their mode of action. Combination antiviral chemotherapy may offer advantages over single agent therapy, increasing efficiency, potency and delaying the emergence of resistant virus. The paramyxoviridae family includes pathogens causing morbidity and mortality worldwide in humans and animals, such as the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) in poultry. This study aims at determining the antiviral activity and mechanism of action in vitro of an ulvan (SP from the green seaweed Ulva clathrata), and of its mixture with a fucoidan (SP from Cladosiphon okamuranus), against La Sota NDV strain. The ulvan antiviral activity was tested using syncytia formation, exhibiting an IC50 of 0.1 μg/mL; ulvan had a better anti cell-cell spread effect than that previously shown for fucoidan, and inhibited cell-cell fusion via a direct effect on the F0 protein, but did not show any virucidal effect. The mixture of ulvan and fucoidan showed a greater anti-spread effect than SPs alone, but ulvan antagonizes the effect of fucoidan on the viral attachment/entry. Both SPs may be promising antivirals against paramyxovirus infection but their mixture has no clear synergistic advantage

Children at risk, attachment and institutionalization: contributions to the socio-educational intervention

Introduction: Institutionalized children exposed to early adverse experiences are a particularly vulnerable group with a high risk of developing health problems. Objectives: i) to know the representations of attachment in institutionalized children; ii) to understand if there are differences of attachment, according to some sociodemographic variables; iii) outline socio-educational intervention strategies in the children’s life’s contexts. Methods: This is an exploratory and cross-sectional study, using for this purpose, a non-probabilistic and convenience sample composed of 82 institutionalized children, aged between 8 and 17 years old. The gathering instruments were the Sociodemographic Questionnaire and the Inventory Attachment for Children and Adolescents. Results: The results show that most children have secure attachment representations, followed by the avoidant attachment representations. We also found signiicant differences in the results of attachment, according to the gender (in avoidant attachment and ambivalent attachment) and in the institutionalization time (in the ambivalent attachment). Conclusions: The results show promising lines of research, being our purpose to outline socio-educational intervention strategies for children in their pathways of life by promoting protective factors, especially the establishment of secure relationships, thus promoting better quality of life and well-being.

The Associations Between the Maladaptive Personality Dimensions of Neediness and Self-Criticism, Defense Styles, Selfobject Needs, and Attachment Styles in an Iranian Sample

The present study extends previous findings by examining whether defense styles, selfobject needs, attachment styles relate to Neediness and Self-Criticism, as maladaptive personality dimensions focused, respectively, on relatedness and self-definition in an Iranian sample. Three hundred and fifty two participants completed a socio-demographic questionnaire as well as the Persian forms of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, Experience of Close Relationships-Revised, Defense Style Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory–II and Selfobject Needs Inventory. Two Multiple Linear Regression Analyses, entering Self-criticism and Neediness as criterion variables, were computed. According to the results high Attachment anxiety, high Immature defenses, high depressive symptoms, and high need for idealization were related to self-criticism, and explained 47% of its variance. In addition, high attachment anxiety, low mature defenses, high neurotic defenses, high avoidance of mirroring, and low avoidance of idealization/twinship were related to neediness, and explained 40% of its variance. A Principal Component Analysis was performed, entering all the studied variables. Three factors emerged; one describing a maladaptive form of psychological functioning and two describing more mature modes of psychological functioning. The results are discussed in their implications for the understanding of neediness and self-criticism as maladaptive personality dimensions focused, respectively, on relatedness and self-definition.

[do Elderly Individuals With A Cognitive Handicap Have Worse Oral Health?].

A comparison of the oral health of elderly people with and without a cognitive handicap was assessed. The cognitive condition, the indices of decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT), decayed, filled roots (DFR), the need for dental treatment, the presence of plaque (P), calculus (C), the community periodontal index (CPI), the rate of periodontal attachment loss (PAL), edentulism, prosthetic use and the need for prosthetics were evaluated in a complex probabilistic sample by conglomerates of the elderly (65-74 years). PASW(r) 17.0 was used for the statistical analyses with correction for the design effect, applying the Mann Whitney and chi-square test with 95% reliability. A total of 736 elderly individuals were interviewed and examined. Those with cognitive impairment had higher average DMFT, DFR and lower average healthy sextant CPI, a lower prevalence of sextants without plaque/calculus, use of prosthetics and higher prevalence of edentulism and need for prosthetics. Elderly individuals with a cognitive handicap had poorer oral health.