The assessment of representational risk (ARR): Development and psychometric properties of a new coding system for assessing risk in the parent-infant relationship.
TL;DR: Slade et al. as discussed by the authors developed and validated a representational risk (ARR) coding system to assess potential risk in caregivers' representations of their infants, themselves as parents, and their relationship.
Abstract: There are few clinically valid tools that can be used to assess potential parent-infant relational risk. This study describes the development and initial validation of the assessment of representational risk (ARR) coding system to be applied to the parent development interview (Slade, A., Aber, J. L., Bresgi, I., Berger, B., & Kaplan, M. (2004). The Parent Development Interview - Revised. Unpublished protocol. New York, NY: The City University of New York.) for assessing potential risk in caregivers' representations of their infant, themselves as parents, and their relationship. The ARR was developed and validated in three samples in England. A review of the literature informed the selection of 10 items. It had a three-factor structure that was used to inform subscales: hostile, helpless, and narcissistic caregiving representations. The subscales and total risk scores showed good criterion validity for discriminating between high and low risk samples and good concurrent validity with measures of parental psychopathology and parent-infant interaction. The ARR is a potentially valuable coding system for identifying risk in early attachment relationships.
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TL;DR: In this article , the authors examined the associations between mothers' prenatal AAI-RF and pre-and post-natal PRF, and their role in mother-infant interaction and substance use as treatment outcomes.
Abstract: Mothers with prenatal substance use disorder (SUD) often show broad deficits in their reflective functioning (RF), implying severe risk for the relationship with their baby. Two different types of prenatal maternal RF may be important for parenting: adult attachment-focused-RF (AAI-RF), regarding parent's own childhood experiences, and parenting-focused RF (PRF) regarding their own current process of becoming a parent. However, their inter-relations and potentially different roles for parenting intervention outcomes are not clear. This study examined the associations between mothers' prenatal AAI-RF and pre- and post-natal PRF, and their role in mother-infant interaction and substance use as treatment outcomes. The participants were 57 treatment-enrolled pregnant mothers with SUD and 50 low-risk comparison mothers. AAI-RF was measured with the Adult Attachment Interview. For a subsample of 30 mothers with SUD, PRF was measured with Pregnancy Interview (during pregnancy/pre-intervention), and with Parent Development Interview at 4 months (during intervention). Mother-infant interaction was measured with Emotional Availability Scales at 4 and 12 months (post-intervention), and maternal substance use by post-natal substance relapses. Prenatal AAI-RF and pre- and post-natal PRF were highly associated with each other. Only higher prenatal PRF predicted better mother-infant interaction quality at 4 months and less substance use during the child's first year. Interestingly, prenatal PRF and AAI-RF predicted opposite changes in mother-infant interaction: lower prenatal PRF, but higher AAI-RF predicting more positive change. AAI-RF was especially associated with a change in maternal intrusiveness and hostility, indicating that it represents a more general regulatory tendency. Further studies are needed in larger and lower-risk samples. Our results suggest, however, that AAI-RF and PRF are partially distinct and should be uniquely targeted in perinatal interventions.
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TL;DR: The CES-D scale as discussed by the authors is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population, which has been used in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings.
Abstract: The CES-D scale is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population. The items of the scale are symptoms associated with depression which have been used in previously validated longer scales. The new scale was tested in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings. It was found to have very high internal consistency and adequate test- retest repeatability. Validity was established by pat terns of correlations with other self-report measures, by correlations with clinical ratings of depression, and by relationships with other variables which support its construct validity. Reliability, validity, and factor structure were similar across a wide variety of demographic characteristics in the general population samples tested. The scale should be a useful tool for epidemiologic studies of de pression.
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Abstract: We are grateful to the Institute of Human Development, Berkeley, and to the Society for Research in Child Development for funding that made the study of our sample at 6 years possible. In its earlier phases, the Social Development Project was supported by the William T. Grant Foundation, by the Alvin Nye Main Foundation, and by Bio-Medical Support Grants 1-444036-32024 and 1-444036-32025 for studies in the behavioral sciences. The Child Study Center at the University of California was invaluable in its provision of subjects and in the training provided for our observers and examiners. The National Center for Clinical Infancy Programs provided support and assistance to Nancy Kaplan. This project would not have been possible without the direction and assistance provided by Donna Weston and by Bonnie Powers, Jackie Stadtman, and Stewart Wakeling in its first phases. For the initial identification of infants who should be left unclassified-an identification critical to the present study-we gratefully acknowledge both Judith Solomon and Donna Weston. Carol George participated in the designing of the sixth-year project; Ruth Goldwyn served as adult interviewer; and Ellen Richardson served as the child's examiner. The videotapes and transcripts of the sixth-year study were analyzed by Jude Cassidy, Anitra DeMoss, Ruth Goldwyn, Nancy Kaplan, Todd Hirsch, Lorraine Littlejohn, Amy Strage, and Reggie Tiedemann. Mary Ainsworth, John Bowlby, Harriet Oster, and Amy Strage provided useful criticism of earlier versions of this chapter. The overall conceptualization was substantially enriched by suggestions made by Erik Hesse.
4,213 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this paper, four prominent psychoanalysts combine the perspectives of developmental psychology, attachment theory and psychoanalysis technique, and the result of this marriage of disciplines is a bold, energetic and ultimately encouraging vision for the psychotherapy treatment.
Abstract: In a brilliant examination of the frontiers of human emotion and cognition, four prominent psychoanalysts combine the perspectives of developmental psychology, attachment theory and psychoanalytic technique. The result of this marriage of disciplines is a bold, energetic and ultimately encouraging vision for the psychoanalytic treatment.
2,489 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a meta-analysis included 66 studies (N = 4,176) on parental antecedents of attachment security and the question was whether maternal sensitivity is associated with infant attachment security, and what the strength of this relation is.
Abstract: This meta-analysis included 66 studies (N = 4,176) on parental antecedents of attachment security. The question addressed was whether maternal sensitivity is associated with infant attachment security, and what the strength of this relation is. It was hypothesized that studies more similar to Ainsworth's Baltimore study (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) would show stronger associations than studies diverging from this pioneering study. To create conceptually homogeneous sets of studies, experts divided the studies into 9 groups with similar constructs and measures of parenting. For each domain, a meta-analysis was performed to describe the central tendency, variability, and relevant moderators. After correction for attenuation, the 21 studies (N = 1,099) in which the Strange Situation procedure in nonclinical samples was used, as well as preceding or concurrent observational sensitivity measures, showed a combined effect size of r(1,097) = .24. According to Cohen's (1988) conventional criteria, the association is moderately strong. It is concluded that in normal settings sensitivity is an important but not exclusive condition of attachment security. Several other dimensions of parenting are identified as playing an equally important role. In attachment theory, a move to the contextual level is required to interpret the complex transactions between context and sensitivity in less stable and more stressful settings, and to pay more attention to nonshared environmental influences.
2,219 citations