The Developmental Antecedents and Cognitive Correlates of Script-like Attachment

描述(由申请人提供)：成人依恋的个体差异具有显著的临床和社会意义。例如，成人依恋相关的变化与(A)更高质量的同伴关系，(B)更有效地解决与浪漫伴侣的冲突，以及(C)更敏感和反应更快的父母教育有关。这项建议的目的是研究成人依恋在早期照看经历中的先行因素。最近的理论争论表明，高质量和支持性的父母养育方式发展成为依恋关系的脚本形式，这些脚本形式的依恋形式会影响成年后的行为。然而，有几个问题仍然没有得到解决。具体地说，没有大样本的经验证明，剧本式的依恋表征是从早期的经验发展而来的，或者这些剧本式的依恋表征与成人依恋的更成熟的测量方法有关，比如成人依恋访谈(AAI)，这是对成人依恋表征的间接评估。我们建议通过两种方式来解决这些差距：(1)通过检查脚本式依恋表征的发展前因，以及安全的基础脚本知识是否解释了早期经验和AAI之间的关联；(2)探索脚本式依恋表征的几个潜在的认知相关性 到AAI性能，特别是内存可访问性和组织。第一个目标(SA1)是通过一个大的前瞻性的纵向样本，NICHD的早期儿童保育和青年发展研究(SECCYD)，对857名参与者从婴儿期到青春期后期进行跟踪调查，以检验脚本式依恋表征的发展前因。将通过使用新开发的编码方案重新编码现有数据来评估类似脚本的附件表示。然后，我们将通过在整个发展过程中收集的早期经验质量(例如，父母敏感性)的测量来检验脚本式依恋表征的发展前因，特别是探索安全基础脚本知识的变化是否中介早期照看经验与成人对依恋的心理状态之间的联系，如AAI所评估的。第二组研究(SA2)将试图探索手写式依恋表征的认知相关性。我们将进行两项以实验室为基础的研究，考察脚本式依恋表征对记忆可及性和组织的影响。这些研究将使用认知心理学文献中公认的范式来测试脚本式依恋表征在多大程度上促进记忆回忆和组织良好/完整的依恋叙事的产生。从这些特定目标获得的知识有可能(1)使我们了解早期经验对以后发展的影响，(2)提供一种针对依恋关系的干预措施的操作机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Individual differences in adult attachment have significant clinical and societal implications. For example, adult attachment-related variation is associated with (a) higher quality peer relationships, (b) more effective conflict resolution with romantic partners, and (c) more sensitive and responsive parenting. The goal of this proposal is to examine the antecedents of adult attachment in early caregiving experiences. Recent theoretical arguments suggest that high quality and supportive parenting develops into a script-like representation of the attachment relationship, and that these script-like representations of attachment come to influence behavior in adulthood. However, several issues remain unaddressed. Specifically, there has been no large sample empirical demonstration that script-like attachment representations develop from early experience or that these scripts- like attachment representations are associated with more established measures of adult attachment like the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), an indirect assessment of adult attachment representations. We propose to address these gaps in two ways: (1) by examining the developmental antecedents of script-like attachment representations and whether secure base script knowledge accounts for associations between early experience and the AAI and (2) exploring several potential cognitive correlates of script-like attachment representations relevant to AAI performance, specifically memory accessibility and organization. The first aim (SA1) is to examine the developmental antecedents of script-like attachment representations by taking advantage of a large prospective, longitudinal sample, the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), which followed 857 participants from infancy to late adolescence. Script-like attachment representations will be assessed by re-coding existing data with a newly developed coding scheme. We will then examine the developmental antecedents of script-like attachment representation with measures of the quality of early experience (e.g. parental sensitivity) collected across development, exploring in particular whether variation in secure base script knowledge mediates associations between early caregiving experiences and adults states of mind regarding attachment as assessed by the AAI. A second set of studies (SA2) will seek to explore the cognitive correlates of script-like attachment representations. We will conduct two laboratory- based studies examining the influence of script-like attachment representations on memory accessibility and organization. These studies will test the extent to which script-like attachment representations facilitate memory recall and the production of well organized/complete attachment narratives using well-established paradigms from the cognitive psychology literature. The knowledge gained from these specific aims has the potential to (1) inform our understanding of the influence early experience can have on later development, (2) provide an operative mechanism to target in interventions focused on attachment relationships.