Attachment--and loss.

Erik Eriksen is a remarkable individual. He has no college degrees yet is Professor of Human Development at Harvard University. He came to psychology via art, which explains why the reader will find him painting contexts and backgrounds rather than stating dull facts and concepts. He has been a training psychoanalyst for many years as well as a perceptive observer of cultural and social settings and their effect on growing up. This is not just a book on childhood. It is a panorama of our society. Anxiety in young children, apathy in American Indians, confusion in veterans of war, and arrogance in young Nazis are scrutinized under the psychoanalytic magnifying glass. The material is well written and devoid of technical jargon. The theme of the volume is that it is human to have a long childhood which will leave a lifelong residue of emotional immaturity in man. Primitive groups and

Childhood and Society.

The cultural origins of human cognition

Without exception, sadomasochistic subjects (n =48), unlike controls (n =35), are found to have developed insecure internal models of personal attachment, as a result of childhoods which were all problematic in one way or another. Their capacity for metacognition and their coherence of mind are found to be, on average, less than that of controls.

The Adult Attachment Interview

Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications

This longitudinal study of forty-four families explored fathers’ as compared to mothers’ specific contribution to their children's attachment representation at ages 6, 10, and 16 years. In toddlerhood, fathers’ and mothers’ play sensitivity was evaluated with a new assessment, the sensitive and challenging interactive play scale (SCIP). Fathers’ SCIP scores were predicted by fathers’ caregiving quality during the first year, were highly consistent across 4 years, and were closely linked to the fathers’ own internal working model of attachment. Qualities of attachment as assessed in the Strange Situation to both parents were antecedents for children's attachment security in the Separation Anxiety Test at age 6. Fathers’ play sensitivity and infant–mother quality of attachment predicted children's internal working model of attachment at age 10, but not vice versa. Dimensions of adolescents’ attachment representations were predicted by fathers’ play sensitivity only. The results confirmed our main assumption that fathers’ play sensitivity is a better predictor of the child's long-term attachment representation than the early infant–father security of attachment. The ecological validity of measuring fathers’ sensitive and challenging interactive play behavior as compared to infant proximity seeking in times of distress is highlighted. Findings are discussed with respect to a wider view on attachment in that both parents shape their children's psychological security but each in his or her unique way.

The Uniqueness of the Child–Father Attachment Relationship: Fathers’ Sensitive and Challenging Play as a Pivotal Variable in a 16‐year Longitudinal Study

A wider view of attachment and exploration: The influence of mothers and fathers on the development of psychological security from infancy to young adulthood.

Early Care and the Roots of Attachment and Partnership Representations: The Bielefeld and Regensburg Longitudinal Studies.

Sources of social support for postpartum women with a history of childhood maltreatment: Consequences for perceived stress and general mental health in the first year after birth.

Bisherige Forschungsergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Mutter, die belastende Kindheitserfahrungen (Missbrauch, Vernachlassigung, Gewalt) erlebten, haufig Schwierigkeiten haben, adaquat auf die emotionalen Bedurfnisse ihrer Kinder zu reagieren. Durch das Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) gefordert, untersuchen in Deutschland zwei multizentrische Langsschnittstudien (UBICA: Understanding and Breaking the Intergenerational Cycle of Abuse, www.ubica.de; TRANS-GEN: »Meine Kindheit – Deine Kindheit», http://www.uniklinik-ulm.de/struktur/kliniken/kinder-und-jugendpsychiatriepsychotherapie/home/forschung/forschungsprojekte/meine-kindheit-deine-kindheit.html) den Einfluss traumatischer Kindheitserlebnisse von Muttern auf deren mutterliche Sensitivitat, die mutterliche Psychopathologie oder Resilienz (Widerstandsfahigkeit) sowie auf die kindliche Entwicklung. In beiden Projekten werden neben psychologischen Variablen auch psychosoziale Belastungsfaktoren und physiologische Faktoren, insbesondere neuronale Aktivitaten, hormonelle Einflusse und (epi)genetische Marker, betrachtet. In Erganzung zu den Humanstudien wird zudem in tierexperimentellen Untersuchungen die familiare Ubertragung dysfunktionaler Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen gespiegelt; hierbei werden epigenetische Mechanismen untersucht. Eine Kombination von grundlagenwissenschaftlichen Erhebungen mit psychiatrisch-psychologischen Untersuchungen der Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen sowie die Uberprufung der Wirksamkeit von Interventionsstrategien erscheint zukunftstrachtig, um den »Kreislauf der Misshandlung« entscheidend beeinflussen bzw. unterbrechen zu konnen.

Heinz Kindler

Papers

The Uniqueness of the Child–Father Attachment Relationship: Fathers’ Sensitive and Challenging Play as a Pivotal Variable in a 16‐year Longitudinal Study

A wider view of attachment and exploration: The influence of mothers and fathers on the development of psychological security from infancy to young adulthood.

Early Care and the Roots of Attachment and Partnership Representations: The Bielefeld and Regensburg Longitudinal Studies.

Sources of social support for postpartum women with a history of childhood maltreatment: Consequences for perceived stress and general mental health in the first year after birth.

Mechanismen der generationsübergreifenden Transmission belastender Kindheitserfahrungen