On the Links Between Attachment Style, Parental ... - Springer Link

2 downloads 240 Views 174KB Size Report
May 16, 2006 - Egeland, Marvinney, Mangelsdorf, & Sroufe 1989; Troy & Sroufe, 1987). Thus, ... 38% of the mothers and 29% of the fathers had a high school.
C 2006), pp. 331–344 Journal of Child and Family Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3, June 2006 ( DOI: 10.1007/s10826-006-9025-1

On the Links Between Attachment Style, Parental Rearing Behaviors, and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Non-Clinical Children Jeffrey Roelofs, Ph.D.,1,4 Cor Meesters, Ph.D.,1 Mijke ter Huurne, M.Sc.,2 Lotte Bamelis, M.Sc.,2 and Peter Muris, Ph.D.3 Published online: 16 May 2006

We sought to investigate the relationships between negative family factors such as insecure attachment and adverse parental rearing, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a large sample of non-clinical children (N = 237) aged 9 to 12 years. All children completed a set of self-report questionnaires including a single-item measure of attachment style towards the mother and the father as well as an index of perceived parental rearing behaviors. Further, measures of internalizing symptoms (e.g., anxiety and depression) and externalizing symptoms (e.g., aggression) were completed. Results showed that perceived rearing behaviors of both mother and father (in particular rejection and anxious rearing) consistently accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Attachment style was found to play a less prominent role. Some support for gender-specific relationships was found, indicating that the presence of negative family factors in fathers had more impact on symptoms in boys, whereas the presence of such factors in the mothers had more influence on symptoms in girls. Altogether, these results suggest that in addition to common pathways by which both parents promote psychopathological symptoms in children, there may also be separate pathways by which the father or the mother may have a unique impact on the development of such symptoms in boys or girls respectively. KEY WORDS: attachment style; parental rearing behaviors; internalizing; externalizing; children. 1 Assistant

Professor, Department of Medical, Clinical and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. Assistant, Department of Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psychology Maastricht University, The Netherlands. 3 Professor, Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 4 Correspondence should be directed to Jeffrey Roelofs, Department of Medical, Clinical and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200, MD Maastricht, The Netherlands; e-mail: [email protected]. 2 Research

331 C 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 1062-1024/06/0600-0331/1 

332

Roelofs, Meesters, ter Huurne, Bamelis, and Muris

The most frequent psychopathological problems in children and adolescents can be categorized in two broad categories, namely internalizing and externalizing problems. Internalizing refers to feelings of anxiety and depression, while externalizing reflects disruptive, aggressive, and antisocial behavior (Achenbach, 1991; Achenbach, McConaughy, & Howell, 1987). Family factors are particularly important for explaining the origins of behavior problems in youths. One family factor is attachment, which refers to the affective and close relationship between children and their caregivers. The quality of this attachment relationship is rooted in the degree to which a child has come to rely on the attachment figure as a source of security (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). Several conceptualizations of attachment have been proposed. For example, Ainsworth et al.’s (1978) strange situation procedure, which involves young children’s reactions to a separation from the caregiver in a structured laboratory procedure, has yielded three distinct patterns of attachment, namely secure attachment, anxious-resistant attachment (e.g., ambivalent behavior towards the caregiver), and avoidant attachment (e.g., avoiding proximity or interaction with the caregiver). Similar conceptualizations of attachment style have been provided by Hazan and Shaver (1987) and Main and colleagues (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1987; Main & Goldwyn, 1988), although the latter researchers also noticed that some children were unclassifiable on the basis of their behaviors and therefore proposed disorganized attachment as a separate category. Drawing on the concept of internal working models in relation to attachment style (Bowlby, 1973), Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) proposed a model of attachment in which the child’s image of the self as well as the image of other people play a central role. Four categories of attachment are proposed, namely secure attachment, preoccupied attachment, fearful attachment, and dismissing attachment. Secure attachment refers to a sense of worthiness together with an expectation that other people are generally accepting and responsive. Preoccupied attachment reflects a sense of unworthiness combined with a positive evaluation of others. These individuals strive for self-acceptance by gaining acceptance of valued others. Fearful attachment refers to a sense of unworthiness combined with an expectation that others will be negatively disposed (e.g., untrustworthy and rejecting). These individuals avoid close involvement with others to protect themselves against anticipated rejection by others. Finally, dismissing attachment is characterized by a sense of worthiness combined with a negative disposition towards other people. These individuals have a tendency to protect themselves against disappointment by avoiding close relationships and maintaining a sense of independence and invulnerability (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Several studies have examined the relation between attachment style and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in children and adolescents (see for comprehensive reviews Green & Goldwyn, 2002; Greenberg, 1999). This research has shown that insecure attachment styles are associated with the development of anxiety disorders (e.g., Warren, Huston, Egeland, & Sroufe, 1997),

Negative Family Factors and Psychopathology

333

depressive symptoms (e.g., Graham & Easterbrooks, 2000), and disruptive behavior disorders (e.g., Greenberg, Speltz, DeKlyen, & Endriga, 1991; Renken, Egeland, Marvinney, Mangelsdorf, & Sroufe 1989; Troy & Sroufe, 1987). Thus, insecure attachment seems to be linked to increased levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in youths. Another family factor that is thought to play a role in the etiology of internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adolescents is parental rearing (Wenar & Kerig, 2000). Factor analytic studies have identified two main dimensions of parental rearing. The first dimension can be described as ‘care’ and refers to behaviors related to acceptance, warmth, and on the reverse side, rejection and criticism. The second dimension is labelled as ‘control’ and refers to parental control, overprotection, and on the opposite side, promotion of autonomy (see Muris, Meesters, & Van Brakel, 2003a). A comprehensive review by Rapee (1997) has suggested that negative parental rearing behaviors are associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. There is indeed some evidence to suggest that rejection, lack of emotional warmth, and overprotection may promote the risk for developing both internalizing and externalizing problems (e.g., Muris, Meesters, & Van den Berg, 2003b; Muris & Merckelbach, 1998; Wasserman, Miller, Pinner, & Jaramillo, 1996) as well as for childhood depression (e.g., Garber, Robinson, & Valentiner, 1997). Further, parental control and overprotection and the absence of autonomy promotion may predict anxiety disorders in youths (e.g., Ginsburg, Siqueland, Masia-Warner, & Hedtke, 2004; Siqueland, Kendall, & Steinberg, 1996; Rapee, 1997). In this study, we sought to further examine the relation between attachment style and perceived parental rearing behaviors and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children. To date, only a handful of studies have examined the relative contributions of these family factors to internalizing and externalizing symptoms in youth populations. In one study, Muris, Meesters, Merckelbach, and H¨ulsenbeck (2000) demonstrated that insecure attachment and negative parental rearing behaviors (rejection and overprotection) both explained a significant proportion of the variance in the worry scores of 9- to 13-year-old children. In another study with a large sample of non-clinical adolescents, Muris et al. (2003b) also found evidence to suggest that both insecure attachment and negative parental rearing accounted for a unique proportion of the variance in internalizing symptoms. In the case of externalizing symptoms, however, only parental rearing behaviors explained a significant proportion of the variance. Further, no evidence was obtained for gender-specific relationships between parental rearing and internalizing and externalizing, indicating that there were no specific associations between negative rearing practices of fathers and symptoms in boys, and between negative rearing behaviors of mothers and symptoms in girls. It remains to be seen whether the results reported by Muris et al. (2003b) also apply to younger children. Furthermore, it should be noted that Muris et al.

334

Roelofs, Meesters, ter Huurne, Bamelis, and Muris

(2003b) used the Hazan and Shaver (1987) self-report measure of attachment style, which assesses attachment towards friends and peers, but does not provide any information with respect to patterns of attachment towards the primary caregiver(s). Thus, it remains unclear how specific attachment relationships to the mother and father are related to internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The current study was set up to examine these issues in a non-clinical sample of 237 children aged between 9 and 12 years. It was examined (1) to what extent attachment style is associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, (2) whether negative parental rearing behaviors (i.e., rejection, overprotection, lack of emotional warmth, and anxious rearing) is linked to heightened levels of internalizing and externalizing problems, and (3) whether attachment style and parental rearing behaviors each account for a unique proportion in the variance of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. In addition, the presence of genderspecific relationships between attachment style and parental rearing behaviors and symptoms of internalizing and externalizing was explored. In other words, it was examined whether insecure attachment and negative rearing behaviors of the mother are more clearly linked to symptoms in girls, whereas the presence of such negative family factors in the father is more convincingly related to symptoms in boys.

METHOD Participants and Procedure A total of 237 children (114 boys, 123 girls) aged 9–12 years (mean age = 10.5 year, SD = 1.0) were recruited from four primary schools in the southern part of The Netherlands. The children were equally distributed over the sixth, seventh, and eight grades of primary school. With respect to the educational levels of the parents, 24% of the mothers and 15% of the fathers had less than high school education, 38% of the mothers and 29% of the fathers had a high school diploma, and 34% of the mothers and 45% of the fathers had a college degree. Data on educational level were missing for 4% of the mothers and 11% of the fathers, which was in most cases due to divorce and/or separation of the parents. No exact information about children’s and parents’ ethnicity was available but a brief examination of the records of the schools from which children were recruited revealed that the vast majority of the sample was Caucasian (more than 90%). Parents and children first received information about the study and after obtaining informed consent, children completed a set of questionnaires (see below) during regular classes. More than 95% of the children agreed to participate. The teacher and a research assistant were always available to provide assistance and to ensure confidentiality and independent responding.

Negative Family Factors and Psychopathology

335

Measures Internalizing Symptoms The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS; Chorpita, Yim, Moffitt, Umemoto, & Francis, 2000) is a self-report questionnaire measuring symptoms of the most prevalent DSM-defined anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The RCADS consists of 47 items that can be allocated to five subscales: social phobia, panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and major depressive disorder. Items have to be scored on a 4-point Likert type scale with anchors “never” and “always.” In this study, two scores were computed, namely a total anxiety score by summing ratings on social phobia, panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder items, and a total depression score. The RCADS is a reliable and valid self-report questionnaire measuring symptoms of anxiety and depression in children (Chorpita et al., 2000). Externalizing Symptoms A self-report version of the Teacher Rating Scale of Aggression (TRA) was used (Brown, Atkins, Osborne, & Milnamow, 1995). The TRA consists of 21 items tapping reactive and proactive aggression. All items are rated on a five-point Likert type scale with anchors “never” and “almost always.” A total aggression score was computed by summing ratings on all TRA items. Research has indicated that the TRA is a reliable and valid questionnaire measuring aggression (Atkins et al., 2002; Brown et al., 1995). Perceived parental Rearing Behaviors The child version of the EMBU (EMBU-C; EMBU means “Egna Minnen Betraffende Uppfostran,” which is Swedish for “My memories of Upbringing”) was used as a measure of perceived parental rearing behaviors (Castro, Toro, Van der Ende, & Arrindell, 1993). A modified version of the EMBU-C was used (Muris et al., 2003b), which consists of 40 items comprising four types of parental rearing: emotional warmth, rejection, overprotection, and anxious rearing. For each item, children first assess father’s rearing behaviors and then mother’s rearing behaviors on 4-point Likert-type scales anchored “no, never” and “yes, most of the time.” The EMBU-C is a reliable and valid questionnaire measuring children’s perceptions of parental rearing behaviors (Castro et al., 1993; Muris et al., 2003a).

336

Roelofs, Meesters, ter Huurne, Bamelis, and Muris

Attachment Style The Relationship Questionnaire for Children (RQC) is an age-downward version of the measure of attachment styles as developed by Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991). Four short paragraphs are presented describing four attachment styles (i.e., secure, preoccupied, fearful, and dismissing). In the original version, respondents are asked to indicate what attachment style is most characteristic for them in relationships with other children. In the version that was used in the current study, attachment to both parents was measured by referring to ‘mother’ or ‘father’ in each of the paragraphs instead of ‘other children.’ Thus, two versions of the RQC were included, which assessed attachment style toward the mother and the father. Previous research has provided support for the reliability and validity of the RQC (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Statistical Analyses The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for computing descriptive statistics, correlations and carrying out t-tests, analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and regression analyses. Attachment style and perceived parental rearing behaviors were the predictor variables, whereas internalizing (anxiety and depression scores) and externalizing problems (aggression score) were the dependent variables. The effect of age was controlled for in all analyses. To prevent spurious findings due to inflated type I error as a result of multiple testing, alpha was set at 1% for all analyses.

RESULTS Before addressing the main results of the current study, four remarks are in order. First, some children were not able to complete the RQC and the EMBU-C in relation to the father (N = 9) or the mother (N = 7) due to the fact that they had no longer contact with the parent due to divorce/separation or decease. Second, significant gender differences were found for EMBU-C overprotection of mother [t(228) = 3.24, p = .001], EMBU-C emotional warmth of mother [t(228) = 3.80, p < .001] and father [t(226) = 3.03, p = .003], EMBU-C rejection by mother [t(228) = 3.16, p = .002], and on the TRA [t(228) = 2.83, p = .005). Girls perceived their mother and father as more emotionally warm compared to boys. Boys reported higher levels of aggression and perceived higher levels of rejection by mother and experienced her as more controlling (e.g., overprotective) compared to girls. Third, small but significant associations were found between age and EMBU-C overprotection of mother (r = −.27, p < .001) and father (r = −.25, p < .001). As children were older, they tended to perceive less control

Negative Family Factors and Psychopathology

337

(e.g., overprotection) of both parents. Finally, the self-report measures were found to be reliable in terms of internal consistency. For the EMBU-C scales, alphas varied between .62 (overprotection of father) and .81 (rejection by father). For the anxiety and depression scales of the RCADS and the TRA, alphas were .93, .94, and .84 respectively.

Attachment and its Relation to Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms For attachment towards the mother, the majority of the children reported a secure attachment pattern (N = 216; 93.9%). Further, 4 children (1.7%) classified themselves as fearfully attached, 3 children (1.3%) reported a preoccupied attachment style, and 7 children (3.0%) classified themselves as dismissingly attached. For attachment towards the father, the majority of the children classified themselves as securely attached (N = 200; 87.7%). Further, 9 children (3.9%) classified themselves as fearfully attached, 10 children (4.4%) reported a preoccupied attachment style, and 9 children (3.9%) classified themselves as dismissingly attached. Thus, the vast majority of the children reported a secure attachment pattern towards the mother and the father. As a consequence, attachment style was dichotomized into secure and insecure attachment (coded as a dummy variable with 0: secure attachment style and 1: insecure attachment style) in subsequent analyses. To examine the effects of attachment on internalizing and externalizing symptoms, a series of 2 (gender) × 2 (attachment style) analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with age as a covariate were conducted (see Table I). For both attachment towards Table I. Mean Scores of Internalizing Symptoms (Anxiety and Depression Scores as Measured with the RCADS) and Externalizing Symptoms (Aggression Scores as Measured with the TRA) for Securely and Insecurely Attached Children as Identified with the RQC for Mother and Father Attachment style Secure

RQC mother Internalizing symptoms Anxiety Depression Externalizing symptoms Aggression RQC father Internalizing symptoms Anxiety Depression Externalizing symptoms Aggression

Insecure SD

M

SD

F

78.2 16.2

16.4 3.4

89.5 18.3

18.7 3.7

7.85 3.77

.006 .053

.03 .02

26.4

5.7

31.4

7.5

9.66

.002

.04

76.6 15.9

15.6 3.3

93.6 19.3

15.9 3.3

30.52 27.85