The adult attachment interview : psychometrics, stability and change from infancy, and developmental origins / edited by Cathryn Booth-LaForce, Glenn I. Roisman ; with commentary by John Ruscio and Marinus H. van IJzendoorn.

Abstract -- Introduction Cathryn Booth-LaForce and Glenn I. Roisman -- Part 1. Psychometrics. The latent structure of the adult attachment interview: exploratory and confirmatory evidence John D. Haltigan, Glenn I. Roisman, and Katherine C. Haydon -- Categories or dimensions?: a taxometric analysis of the adult attachment interview R. Chris Fraley and Glenn I. Roisman -- Part 2. Stability, change, and developmental origins. Stability of attachment security from infancy to late adolescence Ashley M. Groh, Glenn I. Roisman, Cathryn Booth-LaForce, R. Chris Fraley, Margaret T. Owen, Martha J. Cox, and Margaret R. Burchinal -- Caregiving and contextual sources of continuity and change in attachment security from infancy to late adolescence Cathryn Booth-LaForce, Ashley M. Groh, Margaret R. Burchinal, Glenn I. Roisman, Margaret T. Owen, and Martha J. Cox -- Earned-security in retrospect: depressive symptoms, family stress, and maternal and paternal sensitivity from early childhood to mid-adolescence Glenn I. Roisman, John D. Haltigan, Katherine C. Haydon, and Cathryn Booth-LaForce -- Shared and distinctive antecedents of adult attachment interview state-of-mind and inferred-experience dimensions Katherine C. Haydon, Glenn I. Roisman, Margaret T. Owen, Cathryn Booth-LaForce, and Martha J. Cox -- General discussion Glenn I. Roisman and Cathryn Booth-LaForce -- Invited commentaries. Categories or dimensions: lessons learned from a taxometric analysis of adult attachment interview data John Ruscio -- Confined quest for continuity: the categorical versus continuous nature of attachment Marinus H. von IJzendoorn and Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg -- Pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps: a rejoinder to Van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg (2014) / Glenn I. Roisman, R. Chris Fraley, and Cathryn Booth-LaForce.

"Bowlby's (1969/1982) attachment theory has inspired decades of empirical work focusing on antecedents and consequences of variation in attachment security across the lifespan. However, significant questions remain about individual differences in adult attachment and their developmental origins. We address these issues, reporting analyses based on Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985) collected at age 18 years from the largest longitudinal sample of its kind (N=857)--participants who had been enrolled in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development from birth through age 15 years. Part 1 provides confirmatory evidence that relatively independent AAI dismissing and preoccupied states of mind--along with variation in inferred maternal and paternal experience--capture the full range of participants' AAI discourse. Taxometric analyses demonstrated that individual differences are more accurately represented dimensionally than categorically. Part 2 reports evidence of weak but statistically significant ability in attachment from infancy through late adolescence, and lawful sources of continuity and change over time--maternal sensitivity, father absence, paternal depression, and negative life events. A specific focus on individuals who described below-average childhood experiences in the AAI but did so in a coherent manner (i.e. "earned-secures") replicated evidence that they actually received average or better parental care, but also experienced significant family stressors in childhood. Additional analyses suggested theory-consistent developmental antecedents of the four AAI dimensions (i.e. dismissing, preoccupied, inferred maternal and paternal experiences). Together, these results represent a significant step forward in our understanding of adult attachment and its origins."--Back cover.

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