PMID- 24839541
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20140519
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 2000-8066 (Print)
IS  - 2000-8066 (Electronic)
IS  - 2000-8066 (Linking)
VI  - 5
DP  - 2014
TI  - Adult attachment styles and the psychological response to infant bereavement.
LID - 10.3402/ejpt.v5.23295 [doi]
AB  - BACKGROUND: Based on Bowlby's attachment theory, Bartholomew proposed a 
      four-category attachment typology by which individuals judged themselves and 
      adult relationships. This explanatory model has since been used to help explain 
      the risk of psychiatric comorbidity. OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to 
      identify attachment typologies based on Bartholomew's attachment styles in a 
      sample of bereaved parents on dimensions of closeness/dependency and anxiety. In 
      addition, it sought to assess the relationship between the resultant attachment 
      typology with a range of psychological trauma variables. METHOD: The current 
      study was based on a sample of 445 bereaved parents who had experienced either 
      peri- or post-natal death of an infant. Adult attachment was assessed using the 
      Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS) while reaction to trauma was assessed using 
      the Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC). A latent profile analysis was conducted on 
      scores from the RAAS closeness/dependency and anxiety subscales to ascertain if 
      there were underlying homogeneous attachment classes. Emergent classes were used 
      to determine if these were significantly different in terms of mean scores on TSC 
      scales. RESULTS: A four-class solution was considered the optimal based on fit 
      statistics and interpretability of the results. Classes were labelled "Fearful," 
      "Preoccupied," "Dismissing," and "Secure." Females were almost eight times more 
      likely than males to be members of the fearful attachment class. This class 
      evidenced the highest scores across all TSC scales while the secure class showed 
      the lowest scores. CONCLUSIONS: The results are consistent with Bartholomew's 
      four-category attachment styles with classes representing secure, fearful, 
      preoccupied, and dismissing types. While the loss of an infant is a devastating 
      experience for any parent, securely attached individuals showed the lowest levels 
      of psychopathology compared to fearful, preoccupied, or dismissing attachment 
      styles. This may suggest that a secure attachment style is protective against 
      trauma-related psychological distress.
FAU - Shevlin, Mark
AU  - Shevlin M
AD  - School of Psychology and Psychology Research Institute, University of Ulster at 
      Magee, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
FAU - Boyda, David
AU  - Boyda D
AD  - School of Psychology and Psychology Research Institute, University of Ulster at 
      Magee, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
FAU - Elklit, Ask
AU  - Elklit A
AD  - National Centre of Psychotraumatology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, 
      Denmark.
FAU - Murphy, Siobhan
AU  - Murphy S
AD  - School of Psychology and Psychology Research Institute, University of Ulster at 
      Magee, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20140514
PL  - United States
TA  - Eur J Psychotraumatol
JT  - European journal of psychotraumatology
JID - 101559025
PMC - PMC4023106
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Attachment typology
OT  - Bartholomew
OT  - anxiety
OT  - depression
OT  - latent profile analysis
EDAT- 2014/05/20 06:00
MHDA- 2014/05/20 06:01
PMCR- 2014/05/14
CRDT- 2014/05/20 06:00
PHST- 2013/11/07 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2014/03/20 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2014/04/01 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2014/05/20 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2014/05/20 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2014/05/20 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2014/05/14 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 23295 [pii]
AID - 10.3402/ejpt.v5.23295 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2014 May 14;5. doi: 10.3402/ejpt.v5.23295. eCollection 
      2014.