Longitudinal Associations Between Scripted Attachment Representations in Late Adolescence and Depression in Adulthood in a Normative and a Higher-Risk Cohort

Abstract

Attachment representations are increasingly operationalized as secure base script knowledge—one’s level of awareness of the temporal-causal schema that summarizes basic features of seeking and receiving effective support from caregivers when in distress. A method was recently developed to assess secure base script knowledge during the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI_sbs), though its predictive validity for mental health outcomes is largely unknown. A series of pre-registered analyses, leveraging two large, longitudinal cohorts to assess the associations between AAI_sbs and depression in emerging adults revealed that higher AAI_sbs at age 18 years in the normative-risk sample, but not in a higher-risk cohort, predicted fewer depressive symptoms at age 30 years. In general, these associations were robust to concurrent depressive symptoms, sociodemographic and cognitive functioning covariates, and other traditional attachment representation measures. Findings support the importance of considering schematic attachment representations in developing interventions to improve young adults’ well-being.

Keywords

attachment depression emerging adulthood secure base script representations

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Achenbach

T. M.

(1997). Manual for the young adult self-report and young adult behaviour checklist. Burlington: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont.

Achenbach

T. M.

Rescorla

L. A.

(2001). Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms & profiles. University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.

Achenbach

T. M.

Rescorla

L. A.

(2003). Manual for the ASEBA Adult Forms and Profiles. University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth and Families.

Ainsworth

M. D. S.

Blehar

M. C.

Waters

Wall

(1978). Patterns of attachment. Erlbaum.

Auerbach

Admon

Pizzagalli

(2014). Adolescent depression: Stress and reward dysfunction. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 22(3), 139–148. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000034

Bakermans-Kranenburg

M. J.

van IJzendoorn

M. H.

(2009). The first 10,000 Adult Attachment Interviews: Distributions of adult attachment representations in clinical and non-clinical groups. Attachment & Human Development, 11(3), 223–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730902814762

Beck

A. T.

(1967). Depression: Causes and treatment. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Bleil

M. E.

Roisman

G. I.

Gregorich

S. E.

Appelhans

B. M.

Hiatt

R. A.

Pianta

R. C.

Marsland

A. L.

Slavich

G. M.

Thomas

A. S.

Yeung

W. S.

Booth-LaForce

(2023). Thirty-year follow-up of the NICHD study of early child care and Youth development (SECCYD): The challenges and triumphs of conducting in-person research at a distance. BMJ Open, 13(3), Article e066655. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066655

Booth-LaForce

Roisman

G. I.

(2014). I. Introduction. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(3), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12110

10.

Bosmans

(2016). Cognitive behaviour therapy for children and adolescents: Can attachment theory contribute to its efficacy? Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 19(4), 310–328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-016-0212-3

11.

Bosmans

Braet

Van Vlierberghe

(2010). Attachment and symptoms of psychopathology: Early maladaptive schemas as a cognitive link? Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 17(5), 374–385. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.667

12.

Bowlby

(1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. Basic Books.

13.

Bowlby

(1973). Attachment and loss: Vol. 2. Separation: Anxiety and anger. Basic Books.

14.

Bowlby

(1980). Attachment and loss: Vol. 3. Loss: Sadness and depression. Basic Books.

15.

Bretherton

Munholland

K. A.

(2008). Internal working models in attachment relationships: Elaborating a central construct in attachment theory. In Cassidy

Shaver

P. R.

(Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (2nd ed., pp. 102–127). The Guilford Press.

16.

Copeland

Shanahan

Costello

Angold

(2009). Childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders as predictors of young adult disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(7), 764–772. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.85

17.

Costello

D. M.

Swendsen

Rose

J. S.

Dierker

L. C.

(2008). Risk and protective factors associated with trajectories of depressed mood from adolescence to early adulthood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(2), 173–183. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.76.2.173

18.

Cuijpers

Miguel

Harrer

Plessen

C. Y.

Ciharova

Ebert

Karyotaki

(2023). Cognitive behavior therapy vs. control conditions, other psychotherapies, pharmacotherapies and combined treatment for depression: A comprehensive meta-analysis including 409 trials with 52,702 patients. World Psychiatry, 22(1), 105–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21069

19.

Dagan

Buisman

R. S. M.

Nivison

M. D.

Waters

T. E. A.

Vaughn

B. E.

Bost

K. K.

Bleil

M. E.

Lowe Vandell

Booth-LaForce

Roisman

G. I.

(2021). Does secure base script knowledge mediate associations between observed parental caregiving during childhood and adult romantic relationship quality and health? Attachment & Human Development, 23(5), 643–664. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2020.1836858

20.

Dagan

Facompré

C. R.

Bernard

(2018). Adult attachment representations and depressive symptoms: A meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 236, 274–290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.04.091

21.

Dagan

Groh

A. M.

Madigan

Bernard

(2021). A lifespan development theory of insecure attachment and internalizing symptoms: Integrating meta-analytic evidence via a testable evolutionary mis/match hypothesis. Brain Sciences, 11(9), 1226. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091226

22.

Dagan

Nivison

M. D.

Bleil

Booth-LaForce

Roisman

G. I.

Waters

T. E. A.

(2024). Longitudinal associations between attachment representations coded in the adult attachment interview in late adolescence and perceptions of romantic relationship adjustment in adulthood. Infant and Child Development, 33(4)Article e2512. https://doi.org/10.22541/au.169006605.59004032/v1

23.

Dykas

M. J.

Cassidy

(2011). Attachment and the processing of social information across the life span: Theory and evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 137(1), 19–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021367

24.

Dykas

M. J.

Woodhouse

S. S.

Cassidy

Waters

H. S.

(2006). Narrative assessment of attachment representations: Links between secure base scripts and adolescent attachment. Attachment & Human Development, 8(3), 221–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730600856099

25.

First

M. B.

Spitzer

R. L.

Gibbon

Williams

J. B. W.

(1997). Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, research version, non-patient edition (SCID-I/NP). Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.

26.

George

Kaplan

Main

(1985). Adult attachment interview. Regents of the University of California.

27.

Hames

J. L.

Hagan

C. R.

Joiner

T. E.

(2013). Interpersonal processes in depression. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9(1), 355–377. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185553

28.

Kobak

R. R.

(1993). The adult attachment interview Q-set. Unpublished document. University of Delaware.

29.

Main

Goldwyn

(1998). Adult attachment scoring and classification system. University of California at Berkeley.

30.

Marvin

R. S.

Britner

P. A.

(2008). Normative development: The ontogeny of attachment. In Cassidy

Shaver

P. R.

(Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (2nd ed., pp. 269–294). Guilford Press.

31.

Merikangas

K. R.

Burstein

Swanson

S. A.

Avenevoli

Cui

Benjet

Georgiades

Swendsen

(2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in U.S. Adolescents: Results from the national comorbidity survey replication-adolescent supplement (NCS-A). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(10), 980–989. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2010.05.017

32.

Mitchell

S. A.

Aron

(Eds.), (1999). Relational psychoanalysis: The emergence of a tradition. Analytic Press.

33.

Morley

T. E.

Moran

(2011). The origins of cognitive vulnerability in early childhood: Mechanisms linking early attachment to later depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(7), 1071–1082. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2011.06.006

34.

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network . (2005). Child care and child development: Results from the NICHD study of early child care and youth development. Guilford Press.

35.

Nivison

M. D.

Dagan

Booth‐LaForce

Roisman

G. I.

Waters

T. E. A.

(2023). Caregiving antecedents of secure base script knowledge inferred from the adult attachment interview: A comparative, pre‐registered analysis. Infant and Child Development, 33(2), Article e2410. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2410

36.

Raby

K. L.

Verhage

M. L.

Fearon

R. M. P.

Fraley

R. C.

Roisman

G. I.

van IJzendoorn

M. H.

Schuengel

Madigan

Oosterman

Bakermans-Kranenburg

M. J.

Bernier

Ensink

Hautamäki

Mangelsdorf

Priddis

L. E.

Wong

M. S.

Collaboration on Attachment Transmission Synthesis . (2022). The latent structure of the adult attachment interview: Large sample evidence from the collaboration on attachment transmission synthesis. Development and Psychopathology, 34(1), 307–319. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579420000978

37.

Raby

K. L.

Waters

T. E. A.

Tabachnick

A. R.

Zajac

Dozier

(2021). Increasing secure base script knowledge among parents with Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up. Development and Psychopathology, 33(2), 554–564. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579420001765

38.

Roisman

G. I.

(2009). Adult attachment: Toward a rapprochement of methodological cultures. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(2), 122–126. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01621.x

39.

Rueger

S. Y.

Malecki

C. K.

Pyun

Aycock

Coyle

(2016). A meta-analytic review of the association between perceived social support and depression in childhood and adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 142(10), 1017–1067. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000058

40.

Ruiz

S. K.

Waters

T. E. A.

Yates

T. M.

(2019). Children’s secure base script knowledge as a mediator between early life stress and later behavior problems. Attachment & Human Development, 22(6), 627–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2019.1672079

41.

Shaver

P. R.

Mikulincer

(2007). Adult attachment strategies and the regulation of emotion. In Gross

J. J.

(Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 446–465). Guilford Press.

42.

Sheets

E. S.

Craighead

W. E.

(2014). Comparing chronic interpersonal and noninterpersonal stress domains as predictors of depression recurrence in emerging adults. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 63, 36–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2014.09.001

43.

Spruit

Goos

Weenink

Rodenburg

Niemeyer

Stams

G. J.

Colonnesi

(2020). The Relation Between Attachment and Depression in Children and Adolescents: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 23(1), 54–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-019-00299-9

44.

Sroufe

L. A.

Egeland

Carlson

Collins

W. A.

(2005). The development of the person: The Minnesota study of risk and adaptation from birth to adulthood. Guilford.

45.

Steele

(Eds.), (2008). Clinical applications of the adult attachment interview. The Guilford Press.

46.

Steele

R. D.

Waters

T. E. A.

Bost

K. K.

Vaughn

B. E.

Truitt

Waters

H. S.

Booth-LaForce

Roisman

G. I.

(2014). Caregiving antecedents of secure base script knowledge: A comparative analysis of young adult attachment representations. Developmental Psychology, 50(11), 2526–2538. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037992

47.

Steiger

J. H.

(1980). Tests for comparing elements of a correlation matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 87(2), 245–251. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.87.2.245

48.

Stevens

Featherman

D. L.

(1981). A revised socioeconomic index of occupational status. Social Science Research, 10(4), 364–395. https://doi.org/10.1016/0049-089X(81)90011-9

49.

Stice

Ragan

Randall

(2004). Prospective relations between social Support and depression: Differential direction of effects for parent and peer support? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113(1), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.113.1.155

50.

Ventura

Liberman

R. P.

Green

M. F.

Shaner

Mintz

(1998). Training and quality assurance with the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I/P). Psychiatry Research, 79(2), 163–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00038-9

51.

Waszczuk

Zavos

Gregory

A. M.

Eley

T. C.

(2016). The stability and change of etiological influences on depression, anxiety symptoms and their co-occurrence across adolescence and young adulthood. Psychological Medicine, 46(1), 161–175. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715001634

52.

Waters

H. S.

Rodrigues-Doolabh

(2001). Are attachment scripts the building blocks of attachment representations. Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.

53.

Waters

H. S.

Waters

(2006). The attachment working models concept: Among other things, we build script-like representations of secure base experiences. Attachment & Human Development, 8(3), 185–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730600856016

54.

Waters

T. E. A.

Brockmeyer

S. L.

Crowell

J. A.

(2013). AAI coherence predicts caregiving and care seeking behavior: Secure base script knowledge helps explain why. Attachment & Human Development, 15(3), 316–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2013.782657

55.

Waters

T. E. A.

Bosmans

Vandevivere

Dujardin

Waters

H. S.

(2015). Secure base representations in middle childhood across two Western cultures: Associations with parental attachment representations and maternal reports of behavior problems. Developmental Psychology, 51(8), 1013–1025. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039375

56.

Waters

T. E. A.

Facompré

C. R.

(2021). In Waters

Vaughn

Waters

H. S.

(Eds.), Secure base content in the adult attachment interview. Measuring attachment.

57.

Waters

T. E. A.

Fraley

R. C.

Groh

A. M.

Steele

R. D.

Vaughn

B. E.

Bost

K. K.

Verissimo

Coppola

Roisman

G. I.

(2015). The latent structure of secure base script knowledge. Developmental Psychology, 51(6), 823–830. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000012

58.

Waters

T. E. A.

Raby

K. L.

Ruiz

S. K.

Martin

Roisman

G. I.

(2018). Adult attachment representations and the quality of romantic and parent–child relationships: An examination of the contributions of coherence of discourse and secure base script knowledge. Developmental Psychology, 54(12), 2371–2381. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000607

59.

Waters

T. E.

Roisman

G. I.

(2019). The secure base script concept: An overview. Current Opinion in Psychology, 25, 162–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.08.002

60.

Waters

T. E. A.

Ruiz

S. K.

Roisman

G. I.

(2017). Origins of secure base script knowledge and the developmental construction of attachment representations. Child Development, 88(1), 198–209. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12571

61.

Woodcock

R. W.

(1990). Theoretical foundations of the WJ—R measures of cognitive ability. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 8(3), 231–258. https://doi.org/10.1177/073428299000800303

62.

Woodcock

R. W.

Johnson

M. B.

(1989). Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised. DLM.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.43 MB

0.57 MB

0.33 MB

0.34 MB

0.27 MB

0.37 MB

0.09 MB