A Road Map for Navigating Next Steps in the Study of Attachment in Middle Childhood

Steele, Howard

doi:10.1159/000521528

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Nevertheless, the ability to view oneself and others in their biographical context by constructing life stories seems to develop during adolescence: this transitional period allows for the integration and interpretation of the memories of a person's past with the present and acts as a developmental bridge between childhood and adulthood. It might then be difficult and not age-appropriate for young individuals to answer questions about the early relationship with their parents, since these memories are not yet well organized and settled in their autobiographical memory (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Steele & Steele, 2005a). The questions of the FFI may have been more effective in triggering attachment-related physiological responses in dismissing adolescents, whereas thinking about early attachment memories that are not yet well integrated might be one of the reasons that allowed dismissing adolescents in previous studies to use an effective defensive strategy; that is, by excluding these memories (Beijersbergen et al, 2008; Zeijlmans Van Emmichoven, van IJzendoorn, De Ruiter, & Brosschot, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The FFI is a quasi-clinical semistructured interview, based on the concepts of the AAI, designed to assess the attachment representations of adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years (Steele & Steele, 2005a; Steele et al, 2014). The instrument consists of 28 questions and lasts approximately 40 minutes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The FFI has developmental and pedagogical features, since it allows children to reflect on their significant relationships, thus giving them the possibility for a mental (re)organization of the attachment situation within their families (Kriss, Steele, & Steele, 2013). The FFI was first used during the “London Parent–Child Project”, an 11-year longitudinal investigation that observed parents during the prenatal period and followed up the children during infancy and adolescence (Steele & Steele, 2005a; Steele & Steele, 2005b). The main feature of the FFI is its focus on current significant relationships, while the AAI emphasizes how past childhood experiences affect a person's current state of mind regarding attachment (Kriss et al, 2013).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The FFI has been used in several studies with different samples across different countries, and there is supporting evidence for its validity with adolescents (Kriss et al, 2013; Pace et al, 2019). For instance, it demonstrated good internal consistency, adequate cross-cultural validity (Jewell et al, 2019; Stievenart, Casonato, Muntean & van de Schoot, 2012), and concurrent validity with the maternal attachment classifications obtained from the AAI, as well as longitudinal prediction of coherence when associated with the classifications obtained from the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP; Ainsworth et al, 1978) in infancy (Steele & Steele, 2005a; Steele & Steele, 2005b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disorganized attachment in adolescence: Emotional and physiological dysregulation during the Friends and Family Interview and a conflict interaction

et al. 2020

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The current study examined the effects of attachment on autonomy, relatedness, and emotion regulation during an attachment interview (Friends and Family Interview; FFI) and a Parent×Child Conflict interaction (Family Interaction Task; FIT) in 49 adolescents (11 to 17 years old). Disorganized adolescents displayed behaviors promoting autonomy and relatedness less frequently and at a lower extent than organized ones in the FIT with mothers but not with fathers. Disorganized adolescents also showed a steeper decrease in heart rate variability (HRV) than organized ones, during both the FFI and the FITs. Moreover, disorganized adolescents responded with a more marked increase in skin conductance level to the FIT with mothers than organized individuals. Dismissing adolescents showed behaviors promoting autonomy and relatedness less frequently and to a lesser extent than secure ones, while displaying more often behaviors undermining autonomy and relatedness in the FITs. Dismissing adolescents also showed a more pronounced decrease in HRV during the FFI than secure and preoccupied individuals; no differences were found between these groups in HRV during the FITs. The results suggest that disorganized adolescents had more difficulties in regulating their emotions during both the FFI and the FITs, whereas dismissing individuals seemed effectively challenged only during the interview.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Disorganized attachment in adolescence: Emotional and physiological dysregulation during the Friends and Family Interview and a conflict interaction

et al. 2020

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“…Since the writing of this review, coding systems for the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) have been adapted to assess adolescent perspectives on parent–teen relationships and these are explored in the following text (Przeworski et al, 2012; Schmidt, Tetzlaff, & Hilbert, 2015). Additionally, there are two interview techniques, not identified by the review, which have been successfully used in research with adolescents: The Child Attachment Interview (Target, Fonagy, & Shmueli-Goetz, 2003) and the Family and Friends Interview (Steele & Steele, 2005). However, these tools focus on attachment quality and narrative coherence and do not include more global assessments of both positive and negative RS.…”

Section: Methods Of Assessing the Parent–teen Relationship From The A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaining a new perspective on the quality of parent–adolescent relationships from adolescent speech samples.

McKenna¹,

Hassall²,

O’Kearney³

et al. 2020

Journal of Family Psychology

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Although the quality of the parent-teen relationship is key to understanding both psychopathology and well-being in adolescence, there are limited assessments of adolescents' underlying attitudes regarding their parents. This study aimed to evaluate a novel and brief method of coding adolescents' 3-min speech samples regarding their affective attitudes (e.g., thoughts and feelings) toward their parent. A community sample of 72 adolescents (M age ϭ 16 years) completed a 3-min speech sample and several questionnaire measures of the quality of the parent-teen relationship and adolescents' psychosocial outcomes. Speech samples were coded for critical and warm affective attitudes toward the parent using the Family Affective Attitude Rating Scale (FAARS). Results showed that FAARS negative relational schemas (NRS) and positive relational schemas (PRS) scales were reliable and converged with questionnaire assessments of attachment and relationship quality, antisocial outcomes, and pro-social behavior. When included in the same model, adolescents' NRS, but not the questionnaire measures, was uniquely associated with externalizing behavior and prosocial behavior. Furthermore, adolescents' PRS, but not the questionnaires, was uniquely associated with callous-unemotional traits. Results suggest that the FAARS coding scheme can reliably assess adolescents' affective attitudes toward their parents and that this information is relevant to understanding adolescents' psychosocial outcomes. The implications of these findings for multimethod clinical assessments, large cohort research, and adolescents' therapeutic outcomes are discussed.

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Parental emotion socialization: Relations with adjustment, security, and maternal depression in early adolescence.

Waslin¹,

Kochendorfer²,

Blier³

et al. 2023

Emotion

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How parents approach and teach their children about emotions are key determinants of children's healthy adjustment (Denham, 2019). Parental emotion socialization has been mostly studied in parents of young children. Our study identified emotion socialization (ES) strategies used by parents of early adolescents (Study 1) and then examined the relations of ES strategies with early adolescent adjustment, parent-child attachment, and maternal depression (Study 2). Study 1 included 171 parents of 9-to 14-year-old children who completed an open-ended questionnaire about their reactions to their children's negative emotions, which was content coded for ES strategies. We found that parents do use the 6 traditional ES strategies (problem solving, emotion focused/comforting, encouragement, minimizing, punitive, and distress) with early adolescents, while also using 3 approaches not identified in studies of parents of younger children (self-regulation, parent seeking information, parent explaining). We also found that some ES strategies are context and gender specific. Study 2 included 218 mother and child dyads (children aged 9-to 14-years). Mothers completed the Revised Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale, adapted to include items assessing the 3 new strategies, and measures of child adjustment, attachment, and maternal depression. The ES strategies loaded on 3 factors: Collaborative Coping, Negative Reactions to Child's Distress, and Low Expectation for Child's Self-Regulation. Negative Reactions to Child's Distress showed associations with children's internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behavior, and child attachment, while Collaborative Coping was related to prosocial behavior. Our results point to the importance of investigating additional ES strategies in early adolescence.

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A Road Map for Navigating Next Steps in the Study of Attachment in Middle Childhood

Abstract: NA

Cited by 4 publications

References 15 publications

Disorganized attachment in adolescence: Emotional and physiological dysregulation during the Friends and Family Interview and a conflict interaction

Disorganized attachment in adolescence: Emotional and physiological dysregulation during the Friends and Family Interview and a conflict interaction

Gaining a new perspective on the quality of parent–adolescent relationships from adolescent speech samples.

Parental emotion socialization: Relations with adjustment, security, and maternal depression in early adolescence.

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