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Journal Article•DOI•

Second‐generation effects of unresolved trauma in nonmaltreating parents: Dissociated, frightened, and threatening parental behavior

Erik Hesse1, Mary Main1•
University of California, Berkeley1
01 Jan 1999-Psychoanalytic Inquiry (Taylor & Francis Group)-Vol. 19, Iss: 4, pp 481-540
TL;DR: Second-generation effects of unresolved trauma in non-maltreating parents: Dissociated, frightened, and threatening parental behavior as discussed by the authors, was the first paper to address the second generation effects.
Abstract: (1999). Second‐generation effects of unresolved trauma in nonmaltreating parents: Dissociated, frightened, and threatening parental behavior. Psychoanalytic Inquiry: Vol. 19, Attachment Research and Psychoanalysis: 1. Theoretical Considerations, pp. 481-540.
Citations
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Journal Article•DOI•
Attachment security and disorganization in maltreating and high-risk families: a series of meta-analyses.

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Chantal Cyr1, Eveline M. Euser1, Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg1, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn1•
Leiden University1
01 Feb 2010-Development and Psychopathology
TL;DR: The destructive impact of maltreatment for attachment security as well as disorganization is shown, but the accumulation of socioeconomic risks appears to have a similar impact on attachment disorganized.
Abstract: The current meta-analytic study examined the differential impact of maltreatment and various socioeconomic risks on attachment security and disorganization. Fifty-five studies with 4,792 children were traced, yielding 59 samples with nonmaltreated high-risk children (n = 4,336) and 10 samples with maltreated children (n = 456). We tested whether proportions of secure versus insecure (avoidant, resistant, and disorganized) and organized versus disorganized attachments varied as a function of risks. Results showed that children living under high-risk conditions (including maltreatment studies) showed fewer secure (d = 0.67) and more disorganized (d = 0.77) attachments than children living in low-risk families. Large effects sizes were found for the set of maltreatment studies: maltreated children were less secure (d = 2.10) and more disorganized (d = 2.19) than other high-risk children (d = 0.48 and d = 0.48, respectively). However, children exposed to five socioeconomic risks (k = 8 studies, d = 1.20) were not significantly less likely to be disorganized than maltreated children. Overall, these meta-analyses show the destructive impact of maltreatment for attachment security as well as disorganization, but the accumulation of socioeconomic risks appears to have a similar impact on attachment disorganization.

694 citations

Cites background from "Second‐generation effects of unreso..."

  • ...…for protection in times of stress and anxiety, is at the same time the source of fright, whether this attachment figure is the perpetrator, a potential perpetrator (in cases of sibling abuse), or failing to protect the child against the perpetrator (see Figure 2; Hesse & Main, 1999, 2000, 2006)....

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  • ...According to Hesse and Main (2006), disorganized children are caught in an unsolvable paradox: their attachment figure and potential source of comfort is at the same time a source of unpredictable fright....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Attachment and the processing of social information across the life span: theory and evidence.

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Matthew J. Dykas1, Jude Cassidy2•
State University of New York at Oswego1, University of Maryland, College Park2
01 Jan 2011-Psychological Bulletin
TL;DR: An integrative life-span-encompassing theoretical model is presented to explain the patterns of results that have emerged from studies that illustrate patterns of attachment-related information processing from childhood to adulthood.
Abstract: Researchers have used J. Bowlby's (1969/1982, 1973, 1980, 1988) attachment theory frequently as a basis for examining whether experiences in close personal relationships relate to the processing of social information across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We present an integrative life-span-encompassing theoretical model to explain the patterns of results that have emerged from these studies. The central proposition is that individuals who possess secure experience-based internal working models of attachment will process--in a relatively open manner--a broad range of positive and negative attachment-relevant social information. Moreover, secure individuals will draw on their positive attachment-related knowledge to process this information in a positively biased schematic way. In contrast, individuals who possess insecure internal working models of attachment will process attachment-relevant social information in one of two ways, depending on whether the information could cause the individual psychological pain. If processing the information is likely to lead to psychological pain, insecure individuals will defensively exclude this information from further processing. If, however, the information is unlikely to lead to psychological pain, then insecure individuals will process this information in a negatively biased schematic fashion that is congruent with their negative attachment-related experiences. In a comprehensive literature review, we describe studies that illustrate these patterns of attachment-related information processing from childhood to adulthood. This review focuses on studies that have examined specific components (e.g., attention and memory) and broader aspects (e.g., attributions) of social information processing. We also provide general conclusions and suggestions for future research.

542 citations

Additional excerpts

  • ...…for distortions or suppression in information processing and their endurance across generations (see also Bowlby, 1973, 1988; Bretherton & Munholland, 2008; Fraiberg, Adelson, & Shapiro, 1975; George & Solomon, 2008; Hesse & Main, 1999; A. Lieberman, Silverman, & Pawl, 1999; van IJzendoorn, 1995)....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Disorganized Infant, Child, and Adult Attachment: Collapse in Behavioral and Attentional Strategies:

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Erik Hesse1, Mary Main1•
University of California, Berkeley1
01 Aug 2000-Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
TL;DR: This presentation focuses on the disorganized/disoriented (Group D) categories of infant, child, and adult attachment, and suggests that infant D attachment may at times represent a second-generation effect of the parent's own continuing unresolved responses to trauma.
Abstract: This presentation focuses on the disorganized/disoriented (Group D) categories of infant, child, and adult attachment. The infant D category is assigned on the basis of interruptions and anomalies in organization and orientation observed during Ainsworth's strange situation procedure. In neurologically normal low-risk samples, D attachment is not substantially related to descriptions of infant temperament, and usually appears with respect to only one parent. At six, former D infants are often found to be role-inverting (D-Controlling) towards the parent, while drawings and separation-related narratives (D-Fearful) suggest continuing states of fear and disorganization. In adults, marked lapses in reasoning and discourse surrounding the discussion of loss or abuse during the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) causes a transcript to be assigned to Unresolved/disorganized (U/d) adult attachment status, which predicts infant D attachment. Bowlby's theory is extended, with the proposal that certain forms of frightening parental behavior will arouse contradictory biologically channeled propensities to approach and to take flight from the parent. Maltreated infants are therefore highly likely to be disorganized. Also identified are subtler forms of frightening parental behavior (including dissociative behavior and anomalous forms of frightened behavior) that appear to lead to infant disorganization. This suggests that infant D attachment may at times represent a second-generation effect of the parent's own continuing unresolved responses to trauma. Infant D attachment predicts disruptive/aggressive and dissociative disorders in childhood and adolescence, while U/d adult attachment appears frequently in psychiatric and criminal populations. Clinical implications are discussed.

535 citations

Cites background from "Second‐generation effects of unreso..."

  • ...These studies led us to conclude that mental and emotional difficulties may later arise in offspring whose parents are in no way directly maltreating and may even in some cases ordinarily be sensitive to infant signals and communications (Hesse and Main 1999)....

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  • ...In other cases, such as the man killed “with one sentence,” a secondary (ordinarily dissociated) ideational system incompatible with more predominantly held beliefs or memories may abruptly intrude into the speaker's thoughts (Hesse 1999b; Hesse and Main 1999)....

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  • ...…in conjunction with constitutional factors and/or later intervening trauma, the relation between disorganization and repeated experiences of fright without solution may account for some of the emerging findings linking early disorganized attachment status and psychopathology (Hesse and Main 1999)....

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  • ...Having entered such a state, the parent might exhibit anomalous forms of threatening, frightened, or overtly dissociated behavior, and the apparent inexplicability of such behaviors may, like overtly agonistic threats or direct maltreatment, be alarming to the infant (see Hesse and Main 1999)....

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  • ...Dorian's response to the strange situation illustrates not only the concept of “fright without solution,” but also the collapse (or absence) of an attentional and behavioral strategy for coping with stress (Hesse and Main 1999)....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Dysregulation of the Right Brain: A Fundamental Mechanism of Traumatic Attachment and the Psychopathogenesis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder:

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Allan N. Schore1•
University of California, Los Angeles1
01 Feb 2002-Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
TL;DR: Disorganised-disoriented insecure attachment, a pattern common in infants abused in the first 2 years of life, is psychologically manifest as an inability to generate a coherent strategy for coping with relational stress, suggesting that early intervention programs can significantly alter the intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress disorders.
Abstract: Objective: This review integrates recent advances in attachment theory, affective neuroscience, developmental stress research, and infant psychiatry in order to delineate the developmental precurso...

521 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Maternal reflective functioning, mother-infant affective communication, and infant attachment: exploring the link between mental states and observed caregiving behavior in the intergenerational transmission of attachment.

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John Grienenberger1, Kristen M. Kelly2, Arietta Slade3•
Wright Institute1, Pennsylvania State University2, City University of New York3
01 Sep 2005-Attachment & Human Development
TL;DR: The level of disruption in mother – infant affective communication was inversely related to the level of maternal reflective functioning, and the AMBIANCE measure was shown to be a very good predictor of infant attachment.
Abstract: This study examines the link between mental representations and maternal behavior within the intergenerational transmission of attachment. Maternal reflective functioning was hypothesized to predict the quality of mother – infant affective communication based on the AMBIANCE measure. Each of these measures was also considered as a predictor of the quality of infant attachment. The subjects were 45 mothers and their 10 – 14-month-old infants. Results supported each of the study's major hypotheses. The AMBIANCE measure and the reflective functioning measure had a strong negative correlation. Thus, the level of disruption in mother – infant affective communication was inversely related to the level of maternal reflective functioning. The AMBIANCE measure was also shown to be a very good predictor of infant attachment. Mothers with high AMBIANCE scores were more likely to have infants classified as disorganized or resistant, whereas mothers with low AMBIANCE scores were more likely to have infants cl...

514 citations

Cites background from "Second‐generation effects of unreso..."

  • ...In addition to the frightened, frightening, and dissociated behavior originally described by Main and Hesse (1990; Hesse & Main, 1999), Lyons-Ruth also considers profound disruptions in mother – infant affective discourse as well as behaviors that are physically or emotionally withdrawn....

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References
More filters
Book•
Attachment and Loss

[...]

John Bowlby
01 Jan 1969

18,243 citations

Book•
The Principles of Psychology

[...]

William James
01 Jan 1890
TL;DR: For instance, the authors discusses the multiplicity of the consciousness of self in the form of the stream of thought and the perception of space in the human brain, which is the basis for our work.
Abstract: Arguably the greatest single work in the history of psychology. James's analyses of habit, the nature of emotion, the phenomenology of attention, the stream of thought, the perception of space, and the multiplicity of the consciousness of self are still widely cited and incorporated into contemporary theoretical accounts of these phenomena.

14,049 citations

Book•
Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation

[...]

Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Mary C. Blehar, Everett Waters, Sally N. Wall1•
University of Virginia1
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of repetition of the "strange situation" on infants' behavior at home and in the classroom were discussed, as well as the relationship between infants' behaviour in the situation and their mothers' behaviour at home.
Abstract: Part I: Introduction 1. Theoretical Background Part II: Method 2. Procedures 3. Measures and Methods of Assessment Part III: Results 4. Descriptive Account of Behavior in Each Episode 5. Normative Trends across Episodes 6. An Examination of the Classificatory System: A Multiple Discriminate Function Analysis 7. Relationships between Infant Behavior in the Strange Situation and at Home 8. Relationships between Infant Behavior in the Strange Situation and Maternal Behavior at Home 9. A Review of Strange-Situation Studies of One-Year-Olds 10. A Review of Strange-Situation Studies of Two- to Four-Year-Olds 11. The Effects of Repetition of the Strange Situation 12. Subgroups and Their Usefulness Part IV: Discussion 13. Discussion of Normative Issues 14. Individual Differences: In Light of Contrasting Paradigms 15. An Interpretation of Individual Differences Appendix I: Instructions to Mother Appendix II: Instructions for Coding and Tabulating Frequency of Behaviors Appendix III: Scoring System for Interactive Behaviors Appendix IV: Maternal Caregiving and Interaction Scales Appendix V: Secure Base Behavior At Home Appendix VI: Supplementary Statistical Findings

8,726 citations

Book•
心理学原理 = The principles of psychology

[...]

William James
01 Jan 2010

8,181 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Attachment and Loss. Vol. 1. Attachment

[...]

George W. Rever
01 Nov 1972-Psychosomatic Medicine

5,255 citations

Related Papers (5)
Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation

[...]

01 Jan 1978
Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Mary C. Blehar, Everett Waters, Sally N. Wall 
Parents' unresolved traumatic experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status: Is frightened and/or frightening parental behavior the linking mechanism?

[...]

01 Jan 1990
Mary Main, Erik Hesse
Procedures for identifying infants as disorganized/disoriented during the Ainsworth Strange Situation

[...]

01 Jan 1990
Mary Main, Judith Solomon
Attachment and Loss

[...]

01 Jan 1969
John Bowlby
Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation.

[...]

01 Jan 1985-Monographs of The Society for Research in Child Development
Mary Main, Nancy Kaplan, Jude Cassidy