Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is Associated with Attachment Insecurity

Clarke, Leanne; Ungerer, J A; Chahoud, Katrina; Johnson, Susan M.; Stiefel, Ingeborg

doi:10.1177/1359104502007002918

Cited by 32 publications

(46 citation statements)

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“…For example, 19 boys aged 5-10 years with a diagnosis of ADHD were compared with 19 control children with respect to attachment. Consistent support was found for the association between attachment insecurity and ADHD [13]. Finally, the predictive relation between attachment and ADHD has been supported by only a few longitudinal studies.…”

Section: Attachment and Adhdmentioning

confidence: 48%

Another way of thinking about ADHD: the predictive role of early attachment deprivation in adolescents’ level of symptoms

Roskam

Stiévenart

Tessier

et al. 2013

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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Purpose Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most frequent disorders in childhood and adolescence. Both neurocognitive and environmental factors have been related to ADHD. The current study contributes to the documentation of the predictive relation between early attachment deprivation and ADHD. Method Data were collected from 641 adopted adolescents (53.2 % girls) aged 11-16 years in five countries, using the DSM oriented scale for ADHD of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach and Rescorla, Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms and profiles. University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth and Families, Burlington, 2001). The influence of attachment deprivation on ADHD symptoms was initially tested taking into consideration several key variables that have been reported as influencing ADHD at the adoptee level (age, gender, length of time in the adoptive family, parents' educational level and marital status), and at the level of the country of origin and country of adoption (poverty, quality of health services and values). The analyses were computed using the multilevel modeling technique.Results The results showed that an increase in the level of ADHD symptoms was predicted by the duration of exposure to early attachment deprivation, estimated from the age of adoption, after controlling for the influence of adoptee and country variables. The effect of the age of adoption was also demonstrated to be specific to the level of ADHD symptoms in comparison to both the externalizing and internalizing behavior scales of the CBCL. Conclusion Deprivation of stable and sensitive care in infancy may have long-lasting consequences for children's development.

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Section: Attachment and Adhdmentioning

confidence: 48%

Another way of thinking about ADHD: the predictive role of early attachment deprivation in adolescents’ level of symptoms

Roskam

Stiévenart

Tessier

et al. 2013

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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“…The seven-repeat allele of the DRD4 gene has been linked to ADHD [Faraone et al, 2001;Maher et al, 2002], and we suggest that early attachment might mediate or moderate the DRD4-related genetic risk for ADHD. Some support for this proposition has been provided by a recent, albeit small study involving nineteen 5-to10-year-old boys diagnosed with ADHD and a control group of the same size [Clarke et al, 2002]. Attachment was assessed concurrently with the clinical diagnosis, and the ADHD group could be characterized by predominantly resistant or disorganized attachment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Transmission disequilibrium tests confirm the link between DRD4 gene polymorphism and infant attachment

Gervai

Nemoda

Lakatos

et al. 2004

American J of Med Genetics Pt B

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Following up the results of a previous population association study (Lakatos et al. [2000: Mol Psychiatry 5:633-637; Lakatos et al. [2002: Mol Psychiatry 7:27-31]) by analyses based on parental genetic data confirmed the link between infant attachment and the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene. Extended transmission disequilibrium tests (ETDT) were performed to determine whether biased transmission of exon III 48 basepair repeat alleles occurred to infants displaying disorganized and secure attachment behavior with their mothers. The overall allele-wise TDTs were significant for both groups (P = 0.038 and 0.020, respectively): a trend for preferential transmission of the seven-repeat allele to disorganized infants was observed (TDT(chi)(2) = 3.27, df = 1, P = 0.071), and there was a significant non-transmission of the same allele to securely attached infants (TDT(chi)(2) = 6.00, df = 1, P = 0.014). Analysis of haplotypes of the exon III repeat and the -521 C/T promoter polymorphisms in family trios showed that the transmission bias in the larger secure group was due to the low-rate transmission of the T.7 haplotype containing both the seven-repeat and the -521 T alleles (TDT(chi)(2) = 4.46, df = 1, P = 0.035). This suggests that not carrying the T.7 haplotype of the DRD4 gene may act as a resilience factor in the optimal development of early attachment.

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“…Our endeavour to 'measure' families developed within the context of two research studies within a child psychiatry outpatient setting for children with suspected or diagnosed Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder [AD/HDj (Chahoud, 2000;Clarke, 2000;Clarke, Ungerer, Chahoud, Johnson & Stiefel, 2002).…”

Section: Be Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Tape Measures in Family Therapy: An Exploration of the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning

Stiefel¹,

Johnson

Clarke³

et al. 2003

ANZ J of Family Therapy

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In the current climate of evidence-based clinical practice, there is an urgent need to give family therapy research more prominence, and to demystify it for the practitioner. We were curious to discover how a family assessment instrument would behave with families we saw in our clinical practice. This paper describes our first attempt to apply a family measure, the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning, with 51 families in which the referred child presented with a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of AD/H D. The GARF, a one-point measure, assesses three dimensions of family functioning: problem-solving skills, organisational characteristics and emotional climate. We illustrate the use of the measure with the description of two families who rated at the opposite ends of the scale. The potential value and the limitations of the GARF as a family assessmentare discussed.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is Associated with Attachment Insecurity

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

Another way of thinking about ADHD: the predictive role of early attachment deprivation in adolescents’ level of symptoms

Another way of thinking about ADHD: the predictive role of early attachment deprivation in adolescents’ level of symptoms

Transmission disequilibrium tests confirm the link between DRD4 gene polymorphism and infant attachment

Using Tape Measures in Family Therapy: An Exploration of the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning

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