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ADULT ATTACHMENT STATUS OF EARLY HEAD START PARTICIPANTS
Susan Spieker
University of Washington
Claire Hamilton
University of Georgia
Two of the Early Head Start research sites conducted the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) (George et al. 1985 and 1996) with all parents at the beginning of the project. The AAI is a structured, hour-long, semiclinical interview during which the subject is queried about early experiences with caregivers. The audiotaped interviews are transcribed verbatim, and individuals who have received extensive training in the analysis of discourse code the transcripts. The rating system is complex. The major focus for this report is the four-category classification system (F, D, E, U) of an adult's current "state of mind with respect to attachment."
Transcripts are classified as secure-freely autonomous (F) when they are internally consistent and reasonably clear, relevant, and succinct. Individuals with troubled childhoods, as well as those from loving families, may all be classified as secure, because it is the coherence of the discourse, and not the content of the early experience reported, that determines classification.
Interviews that are low in coherence receive an insecure classification. Interviews are classified as insecure-dismissing (D) when the discourse appears to minimize the importance of attachment-related experiences. Interviews are classified as insecure-preoccupied (E) when the discourse reveals a preoccupation with attachment figures and attachment experiences. The unresolved (U) classification reflects a breakdown in organization associated with particular traumatic events in what may otherwise be an organized F, D, or E transcript.
AAI classifications have been shown to be valid in numerous studies conducted over the past decade (van IJzendoorn 1995). AAI classifications are unrelated to social desirability, intelligence, and memory ability. Parents whose AAI transcripts are classified as secure-autonomous are more sensitive caregivers of their children.
Van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg (1996) conducted a meta-analysis of studies using the AAI on clinical and nonclinical samples from several countries. This meta-analysis involved nine nonclinical samples and nearly 500 mothers. The distribution of AAI classifications, using the insecure-dismissing (D), secure-autonomous (F), insecure-preoccupied (E), and unresolved (U) categories, was 16, 55, 9, and 19 percent, respectively. The distribution of AAI classifications across five low-income samples involving 350 mothers revealed significantly fewer secure mothers, and significantly more classified insecure-dismissing and unresolved (25, 39, 8, and 28 percent). Finally, across six clinical samples involving 165 mothers, there were fewer secure and more insecure-preoccupied and unresolved classifications (26, 8, 25, and 40 percent).
Among parents eligible for Early Head Start at the first Early Head Start research site, which involved predominantly white, non-Hispanic mothers, only 27 percent were classified as secure-autonomous, 32 percent were classified as insecure-dismissing, 7 percent as insecure-preoccupied, and 33 percent as unresolved. Thus, this sample had a distribution of AAI classifications typical of other low-income samples. At the second site, consisting primarily of Latino immigrant families, the distribution was somewhat different: 38 percent of the mothers were classified as secure-autonomous, 25 percent were classified as insecure-dismissing, 31 percent as insecure-preoccupied, and 6 percent as unresolved. The security rate was typical of other low-income samples, but this site had more preoccupied parents and fewer who were unresolved with respect to trauma or loss. The data from both sites suggest that Early Head Start parents are at risk for insensitive and unresponsive caregiving. Cultural differences may be involved in the different distributions of preoccupied and unresolved classifications at the two sites.
References
George, C., N. Kaplan, and M. Main. "Adult Attachment Interview." Third edition. Unpublished manuscript. Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 1996.
George, C., N. Kaplan, and M. Main. "Adult Attachment Interview." Unpublished manuscript. Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 1985.
Van IJzendoorn, M.H. "Adult Attachment Representations, Parental Responsiveness, and Infant Attachment: A Meta-Analysis on the Predictive Validity of the Adult Attachment Interview." Psychological Bulletin, vol. 117, 1995, pp. 387-403.
Van IJzendoorn, M.H., and M.J. Bakermans-Kranenburg. "Attachment Representations in Mothers, Fathers, Adolescents, and Clinical Groups: A Meta-Analytic Search for Normative Data." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, vol. 64, 1996, pp. 8-21.
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