Stability and change of attachment representations: the impact on the quality of mother-child attachment of pediatric epilepsy the first year after the diagnosis

PDF (ελληνικά)
Published: Mar 24, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/psy_hps.26230
Keywords:
Change Epilepsy Mother-child attachment Representations Stability
Konstantinos Dimatis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4741-0520
Panagiota Vorria
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2838-4099
Abstract
A secure mother-child attachment early in life promotes healthy socio-emotional development. Security of attachment can be maintained through positive parental care over time. Life stresses can impact on maternal availability and sensitivity and lead to changes in attachment quality towards insecure patterns of attachment. The present study, which is part of a larger research project, aims to explore for the first time in a Greek population of preschool- and school-aged children and their mothers the impact of pediatric illness on stability and change of mother-child attachment representations. Twenty-five children, 9 boys and 16 girls, 4-9 years old with a recent diagnosis of epilepsy, were assessed using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST) at two time points, T1 and T2. Participants’ mothers completed the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) at both times (Τ1, Τ2). The results seem to confirm the stability and change of attachment representations during the first year after the diagnosis of epilepsy. The importance of perceived social support by mothers for positive change of mother-child attachment representations is also stressed by the authors.
Article Details
  • Section
  • SPECIAL SECTION
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The journal PSYCHOLOGY adopts a Platinum open-access policy. Submission, processing or publication costs are waived by the Hellenic Psychological Society. Papers published in the journal PSYCHOLOGY are licensed under a 'Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International' licence. The authors reserve the copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of its first publication. Third-party licensees are allowed to use the published paper immediately after publication as they wish, provided they retain the defined by the license copyright formalities, regarding the reference to its author(s) and its initial publication in the journal PSYCHOLOGY. Moreover, any adjusted work should be shared under the same reuse rights, so with the same CC license.

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Author Biographies
Konstantinos Dimatis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Department of Psychology

Panagiota Vorria, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Department of Psychology

References
Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978/2015). Patterns of attachment. Psychology Press.
Allen, J. P., McElhaney, K. B., Kuperminc, G. P., & Jodl, K. M. (2004). Stability and change in attachment security across adolescence. Child Development, 75(6), 1792–1805. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00817.x
Ammaniti, M., Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Speranza, A. M., & Tambelli, R. (2000). Internal working models of attachment during late childhood and early adolescence: An exploration of stability and change. Attachment and Human Development, 2(3), 328–346. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730010001587
Austin, J. K., Perkins, S. M., Johnson, C. S., Fastenau, P. S., Byars, A. W., deGrauw, T. J., & Dunn, D. W. (2011). Behavior problems in children at time of first recognized seizure and changes over time. Epilepsy and Behavior, 21, 373–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2011.05.028
Bar-Haim, Y., Sutton, D. B., Fox, N. A., & Marvin, R. S. (2000). Stability and change of attachment at 14, 24, and 58 months of age: Behavior, representation, and life events. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 41(3), 381–388. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00622
Beebe, B., & Lachmann, F. M. (2014). The origins of attachment: Infant research and adult treatment. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315858067
Beijersbergen, M. D., Juffer, F., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2012). Remaining or becoming secure: Parental sensitive support predicts attachment continuity from infancy to adolescence in a longitudinal adoption study. Developmental Psychology, 48(5), 1277–1282. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027442
Belsky, J., Campbell, S. B., Cohn, J. F., & Moore, G. (1996). Instability of infant–parent attachment security. Developmental Psychology, 32(5), 921–924. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.32.5.921
Belsky, J., & Fearon, R. M. P. (2002a). Early attachment security, subsequent maternal sensitivity, and later child development: Does continuity in development depend upon continuity of caregiving? Attachment and Human Development, 4, 361–387. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730210167267
Belsky J., & Fearon, R. M. P. (2002b). Infant-mother attachment security, contextual risk, and early development: A moderational analysis. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 293–310. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579402002067
Berg, A. T., Altalib, H. H., & Devinsky, O. (2017). Psychiatric and behavioral comorbidities in epilepsy: A critical reappraisal. Epilepsia, 58(7), 1123–1130. https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.13766
Berg, A. T., Vickrey, B. G., Testa, F. M., Levy, S. R., Shinnar, S., &
DiMario, F. (2007). Behavior and social competence in idiopathic and cryptogenic epilepsy. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 49, 487–492. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8749.2007.00487.x
Booth‐LaForce, C., Groh, A. M., Burchinal, M. R., Roisman, G. I., Owen, M. T., & Cox, M. J. (2014). Caregiving and contextual sources of continuity and change in attachment security from infancy to late adolescence. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(3), 67–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12114
Βορριά, Π. (2008). Ο δεσμός μητέρας-παιδιού κατά την προσχολική ηλικία. Στο Γ. Τσιάντης & Α. Αλεξανδρίδης (Eπιμ.), Προσχολική παιδοψυχιατρική: Ανάπτυξη (Τόμ. 1, σελ. 71–111). Καστανιώτη.
Βορριά, Π. (2004). Ο δεσμός αποδιοργάνωσης και οι επιπτώσεις του στη μετέπειτα ανάπτυξη. Τετράδια Ψυχιατρικής, 88, 111–122.
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Vol. 3. Loss: Sadness and depression. Basic Books Classics.
Bretherton, I., Ridgeway, D., & Cassidy, J. (1990). Assessing internal working models of the attachment relationship. In M. T. Greenberg, D. Ciccheti, & E. M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 273–308). Guilford Press.
Cooper, P. J., De Pascalis, L., Woolgar, M., Romaniuk, H., & Murray, L. (2015). Attempting to prevent postnatal depression by targeting the mother-infant relationship: A randomised controlled trial. Primary Health Care Research and Development, 16(4), 383–397. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1463423614000401
Cyr, C., Euser, E. M., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2010). Attachment security and disorganization in maltreating and high-risk families: A series of meta-analyses. Development and Psychopathology, 22(1), 87–108. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579409990289
de Boer, H. M., Mula, M., & Sander, J. W. (2008). The global burden and stigma of epilepsy. Epilepsy and behavior, 12(4), 540–546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2007.12.019
DeKlyen, M. & Greenberg, M. T. (2016). Attachment and psychopathology in childhood. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment (3rd ed., pp. 639–666). The Guilford Press.
Dutra, L., Bureau, J. F., Holmes, B., Lyubchik, A., & Lyons-Ruth, K. (2009). Quality of early care and childhood trauma: A prospective study of developmental pathways to dissociation. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 197(6), 383–390. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0b013e3181a653b7
Edwards, E. P., Eiden, R. D., & Leonard, K. E. (2004). Impact of fathers’ alcoholism and associated risk factors on parent-infant attachment stability from 12 to 18 months. Infant Mental Health Journal, 25(6), 556–579. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.20027
Fearon, R. P., Tomlinson, M., Kumsta, R., Skeen, S., Murray, L., Cooper, P. J., & Morgan, B. (2017). Poverty, early care, and stress reactivity in adolescence: Findings from a prospective, longitudinal study in South Africa. Development and Psychopathology, 29(2), 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579417000104
Fraley, C. R. (2002). Attachment stability from infancy to adulthood: Meta-analysis and dynamic modeling of developmental mechanisms. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6(2), 123–151. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0602_03
Fortier, L. M., & Wanlass, R.L. (1984). Family crisis following the diagnosis of a handicapped child. Family Relations, 33, 13–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/584585
Futh, A., O’Connor, T. G., Matias, C., Green, J., & Scott, S. (2008). Attachment narratives and behavioral and emotional symptoms in an ethnically diverse, at-risk sample. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(6), 709–718. https://doi.org/10.1097/CHI.0b013e31816bff65
Goldwyn, R., Stanley, C., Smith, V., & Green, J. (2000). The Manchester Child Attachment Story Task: Relationship with parental AAI, SAT and child behavior. Attachment and Human Development, 2(1), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/146167300361327
Goyal, M. (2007). Pediatric epilepsy and psychopathology. Neurosciences, 12(2), 101–104.
Green, J., Stanley, C., Smith, V., & Goldwyn, R. (2000). A new method for evaluating attachment representations in young school-age children: The Manchester Child Attachment Story Task. Attachment and Human Development, 2(1), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/146167300361318
Green, J. M., Stanley, C., Goldwyn, R., & Smith, V. (2000–2009). Coding manual for the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task. Manchester University: Unpublished manual.
Groh, A. M., Roisman, G. I., Booth‐LaForce, C., Fraley, R. C., Owen, M. T., Cox, M. J., & Burchinal, M. R. (2014). Stability of attachment security from infancy to late adolescence. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(3), 51–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12113
Hamilton, C. E. (2000). Continuity and discontinuity of attachment from infancy through adolescence. Child Development, 71(3), 690–694. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00177
Howe, D. (2006). Disabled children, parent-child interaction and attachment. Child and Family Social Work, 11(2), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.00397.x
Jacoby, A., Snape, D., & Baker, G. A. (2005). Epilepsy and social identity: The stigma of a chronic neurological disorder. The Lancet Neurology, 4(3), 171–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(05)70020-X
Johnson, S. C., Dweck, C. S., Chen, F. S., Stern, H. L., Ok, S., & Barth, M. (2010). At the intersection of social and cognitive development: Internal working models of attachment in infancy. Cognitive Science, 34, 807–825. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01112.x
Lewis, M. (1999). Contextualism and the issue of continuity. Infant Behavior and Development, 22(4), 431–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(00)00017-5
Lewis, M., Feiring, C., & Rosenthal, S. (2000). Attachment over time. Child Development, 71(3), 707–720. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00180
Lieberman, A. F., Padrón, E., Van Horn, P., Harris, W.W. (2005). Angels in the nursery: The intergenerational transmission of benevolent parental influences. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26(6), 504–520. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.20071
Lyons-Ruth, K., Bureau, J. F., Holmes, B., Easterbrooks, A., & Brooks, N. H. (2013). Borderline symptoms and suicidality/self-injury in late adolescence: Prospectively observed relationship correlates in infancy and childhood. Psychiatry Research, 206(2-3), 273–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2012.09.030
Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1-2), 66–104. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333827
Main, M., & Weston, D. R. (1981). The quality of the toddler’s relationship to mother and to father: Related to conflict behavior and the readiness to establish new relationships. Child Development, 52(3), 932–940. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129097
McConnell, M., & Moss, E. (2011). Attachment across the life span: Factors that contribute to stability and change. Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 11, 60–77.
Moss, E., Cyr, C., Bureau, J. F., Tarabulsy, G. M., & Dubois-Comtois, K. (2005). Stability of attachment during the preschool period. Developmental Psychology, 41(5), 773–783. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.41.5.773
Oppenheim, D., Nir, A., Warren, S., & Emde, R. N. (1997). Emotion regulation in mother-child narrative co-construction: Associations with children’s narratives and adaptation. Developmental Psychology, 33(2), 284–294. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.33.2.284
Oostrom, K. J., van Teeseling, H., Smeets-Schouten, A., Peters, A. C. B., & Jennekens-Schinkel, A. (2005). Three to four years after diagnosis: Cognition and behaviour in children with ‘epilepsy only’. A prospective study. Brain, 128, 1546–1555. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awh494
Ott, D., Siddarth, P., Gurbani, S., Koh, S., Tournay, A., Shields, W. D., & Caplan, R. (2003). Behavioral disorders in pediatric epilepsy: Unmet psychiatric need. Epilepsia, 44(4), 591–597. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1528-1157.2003.25002.x
Pianta, R. C. & Lothman, D. J. (1994). Predicting behavior problems in children with epilepsy: Child factors, disease factors, family stress, and child-mother interaction. Child Development, 65, 1415–1428. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131508
Pianta, R. C., Marvin, R. S., Britner, P. A., & Borowitz, K. C. (1996). Mothers’ resolution of their children’s diagnosis: Organized patterns of caregiving representations. Infant Mental Health Journal, 17, 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0355(199623)17:3%3C239::AID-IMHJ4%3E3.0.CO;2-J
Pinquart, M., Feußner, C., & Ahnert, L. (2013). Meta-analytic evidence for stability in attachments from infancy to early adulthood. Attachment and Human Development, 15(2), 189–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2013.746257
Raby, K. L., Steele, R. D., Carlson, E. A., & Sroufe, L. A. (2015). Continuities and changes in infant attachment patterns across two generations. Attachment and human development, 17(4), 414–428. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2015.1067824
Roussi, P., & Vassilaki, E. (2001). The applicability of the multiaxial model of coping to the Greek population. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping: An International Journal, 14, 125–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615800108248351
Sheeran, T., Marvin, R. S., & Pianta, R. C. (1997). Mothers’ resolution of their child’s diagnosis and self-reported measures of parenting stress, marital relations, and social support. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 22, 197–212. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/22.2.197
Shmueli-Goetz, Y., Target, M., Fonagy, P., & Datta, A. (2008). The Child Attachment Interview: A psychometric study of reliability and discriminant validity. Developmental Psychology, 44(4), 939–956. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.4.939
Sroufe, L. A. (2005). Attachment and development: A prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood. Attachment and Human Development, 7(4), 349–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730500365928
Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., & Kreutzer, T. (1990). The fate of early experience following developmental change: Longitudinal approaches to individual adaptation in childhood. Child Development, 61(5), 1363–1373. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130748
Stern, D. N. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. Karnac Books.
Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Schuengel, C., & Bakermans–Kranenburg, M. J. (1999). Disorganized attachment in early childhood: Meta-analysis of precursors, concomitants, and sequelae. Development and Psychopathology, 11(2), 225–250. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499002035
Van Ryzin, M. J., Carlson, E. A., & Sroufe, L. A. (2011). Attachment discontinuity in a high-risk sample. Attachment and Human Development, 13(4), 381–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2011.584403
Viddal, K. R., Berg-Nielsen, T. S., Belsky, J., & Wichstrøm, L. (2017). Change in attachment predicts change in emotion regulation particularly among 5-HTTLPR short-allele homozygotes. Developmental Psychology, 53(7), 1316–1329. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000321
Vondra, J. I., Dowdell Hommerding, K., & Shaw, D. S. (1999). Stability and change in infant attachment in a low‐income sample. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 64(3), 119–144. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5834.00036
Vondra, J. I., Shaw, D. S., Swearingen, L., Cohen, M., & Owens, E. B. (2001). Attachment stability and emotional and behavioral regulation from infancy to preschool age. Development and Psychopathology, 13(1), 13–33. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457940100102X
Waters, E. (1978). The reliability and stability of individual differences in infant-mother attachment. Child Development, 49, 483–494. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128714
Waters, E., Merrick, S., Treboux, D., Crowell, J., & Albersheim, L. (2000). Attachment security in infancy and early adulthood: A twenty‐year longitudinal study. Child Development, 71(3), 684–689. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00176
Waters, H. S., & Waters, E. (2006). The attachment working models concept: Among other things, we build script-like representations of secure base experiences. Attachment and Human Development, 8(3), 185–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730600856016
Waters, E., Wippman, J., & Sroufe, L. A. (1979). Attachment, positive affect, and competence in the peer group: Two studies in construct validation. Child Development, 50(3), 821–829. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128949
Weinfield, N. S., Whaley, G. J., & Egeland, B. (2004). Continuity, discontinuity, and coherence in attachment from infancy to late adolescence: Sequelae of organization and disorganization. Attachment and Human Development, 6(1), 73–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730310001659566