Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T02:50:20.244Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Attachment security in children with autism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Lisa Capps ,
Marian Sigman  and
Peter Mundy
Lisa Capps
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Marian Sigman*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Peter Mundy
Affiliation:
University of Miami
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Marian Sigman, UCLA Medical School, 68-237B NPI, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nineteen autistic children were examined in a modified version of Ainsworth's Strange Situation. The attachment security of 15 children could be classified. Each of these children displayed disorganized attachment patterns, but almost half (40%) of them were subclassified as securely attached. To assess the validity of the attachment classifications, children and their mothers were observed in a separate interaction. Mothers of children who were subclassified as securely attached displayed greater sensitivity than mothers of children who were subclassified as insecurely attached. Children who were subclassified as securely attached more frequently initiated social interaction with their mothers than did children who were subclassified as insecurely attached. Children with secure and insecure subclassifications were compared to investigate correlations between attachment organization and representational ability and social-emotional understanding. Although children with underlying secure attachments were no more likely to initiate joint attention, they were more responsive to bids for joint attention, made requests more frequently, and demonstrated greater receptive language ability than children subclassified as insecurely attached. Discussion focuses on dynamics that may contribute to individual differences in the attachment organization of autistic children and on the reciprocal relationship between advances in our understanding of normal and pathological development.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , Spring 1994 , pp. 249 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1990). Some considerations regarding theory and assessment relevant to attachments beyond infancy. In Greenberg, M., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, M. (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp. 463–489). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Bell, S. M., & Stayton, D. J. (1971). Individual differences in Strange Situation of one-year-olds. In Schaffer, H. R. (Ed.), The origins of human social relations (pp. 17–57). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Bell, S. M. & Stayton, D. J. (1974). Infant-mother attachment and social development: Socialization as a product of reciprocal responsiveness to signals. In Richards, M. P. M. (Ed.), The integration of a child into a social world (pp. 99–135). London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. D., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S. & Wittig, B. (1969). Attachment and exploratory behavior of one-year-olds in a Strange Situation. In Foss, B. M. (Ed.), Definitions of infant behavior (Vol. IV). London: Methuen.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”? Cognition, 21, 37–46.Google Scholar
Blehar, M. C., Liebermann, A. F., Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1977). Early face-to-face interaction and its relation to later infant-mother attachment. Child Development, 48, 182–194.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bretherton, I., & Waters, E. (1985). Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1–2, Serial No. 209).Google Scholar
Carlson, V., Cicchetti, D., Barnett, D., & Braunwald, K. (1989a). Disorganized/disoriented attachment relationships in maltreated infants. Developmental Psychology, 25, 525–531.Google Scholar
Carlson, V., Cicchetti, D., Barnett, D., & Braunwald, K. (1989b). Finding order in disorganization: Lessons from research in maltreated infants' attachments to their caregivers. In Cicchetti, D. & Carlson, V. (Eds.), Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 494–528). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassidy, J., & Marvin, R. S., with the Working Group of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on the Transition from Infancy to Early Childhood. (1991). Attachment organization in three- and four-year olds: Coding guidelines. Unpublished manuscript, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.Google Scholar
Cattell, P. (1960). The measurement of intelligence of infants and young children. New York: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D. (1984). The emergence of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 1–7.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D. (1990). The organization and coherence of socioemotional, cognitive and representational development: Illustrations through a developmental psychopathology perspective on Down syndrome and child maltreatment. In Thompson, R. (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 36. Socioemotional development (pp. 259–366). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D. (in press). Developmental theory: Lessons from the study of risk and psychopathology. In Matthysse, S., Levy, D., Kagan, J., & Benes, F. (Eds.), Psychopathology: The evolving science of mental disorder. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Beeghly, M. (1987). Symbolic development in maltreated youngsters: An organizational perspective. In Cicchetti, D. & Beeghly, M. (Eds.), Symbolic development in atypical children (pp. 47–68). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Cohen, D. J., Paul, M. R., & Volkmar, F. R. (1987). Issues in the classification of pervasive developmental disorders and associated conditions. In Cohen, D. J., Donnellan, A. M., & Paul, R. (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (pp. 221–243). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Coster, W. J., Gersten, M. S., Beeghly, M., & Cicchetti, D. (1989). Communicative functioning in maltreated toddlers. Developmental Psychology, 25, 1020–1029.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawley, S. B., & Spiker, D. (1983). Mother-child interactions involving two-year-olds with Down syndrome: A look at individual differences. Child Development, 54, 1312–1323.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1985). Maltreated infants: Vulnerability and resilience. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 26, 85–96.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1988). Relationships at risk. In Belsky, J. & Nezworski, T. (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment theory (pp. 136–174). Hills-dale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P., & Ainsworth, M. (1989). Attachment and child abuse. In Cicchetti, D. & Carlson, V. (Eds.), Child maltreatment: Theory and research and consequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 260, 432–463). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cummings, M., & Cicchetti, D. (1990). Toward a transactional model of relations between attachment and depression. In Greenberg, M., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, M. (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp. 339–375). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, G. (Ed.). (1989). Autism: Nature, diagnosis, and treatment. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Egeland, B., & Farber, E. A. (1984). Infant-mother attachment: Factors related to its development and changes over time. Child Development, 55, 753–771.Google Scholar
Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gersten, M., Coster, W., Schneider-Rosen, K., Carlson, V., & Cicchetti, D. (1986). The socioemotional bases of communicative functioning: Quality of attachment, language development, and early maltreatment. In Lamb, M., Brown, A. L., & Rogoff, B. (Eds.), Advances in developmental psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 105–151). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Goldberg, S., Perrotta, M., Minde, K., & Corter, C. (1986). Maternal behavior and attachment in low-birth-weight twins and singletons. Child Development, 57, 34–46.Google Scholar
Grossmann, K., Grossmann, K. E., Spangler, G., Suess, G., & Unzner, L. (1985). Maternal sensitivity and newborns' orientation responses as related to quality of attachment in northern Germany. In Bretherton, I. & Waters, E. (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1–2, Serial No. 209), 233–256.Google Scholar
Hermelin, B., & O'Connor, N. (1970). Psychological experiments with autistic children. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Isabella, R. A. (1993). Origins of attachment: Maternal interactive behavior across the first year. Child Development, 64, 605–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.Google Scholar
Kraemer, G. W. (1992). A psychobiological theory of attachment. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 15, 493–511.Google Scholar
Lamb, M. E., Thompson, R. A., Gardner, W. P., Charnov, E. L., & Estes, D. (1984). Security of infantile attachment in the “Strange Situation”: Its study and biological interpretation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 127–147.Google Scholar
Lewis, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1979). Social cognition and the acquisition of self. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons-Ruth, K., Connel, D., Zoll, D., & Stahl, J. (1987). Infants at social risk: Relationships among infant maltreatment, maternal behavior, and infant attachment behavior. Developmental Psychology, 23, 223–232.Google Scholar
Mahler, M. S. (1968). On human symbiosis and the vicissitudes of individuation: I. Infant psychosis. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Main, M., & Hesse, P. (1990). Lack of resolution of mourning in adulthood and its relationship to infant disorganization: Some speculations regarding causal mechanisms. In Greenberg, M., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, E. M. (Eds.), Attachment in the pre-school years (pp. 161–182). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of an insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern. In Brazelton, T. & Yogman, M. W. (Eds.), Affective development in infancy (pp. 95–124). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1990). Procedures for identifying infants as disorganized/disoriented during the Ainsworth Strange Situation. In Greenberg, M. T., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, E. M. (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp. 121–160). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Main, M., & Weston, D. (1981). The quality of the toddler's relationship to mother and father. Child Development, 52, 932–940.Google Scholar
Morisset, C. E., Barnard, K. E., Greenberg, M. T., Booth, C. L., & Spieker, S. J. (1990). Environmental influences on early language development: The context of social risk. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 127–149.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., Seibert, J. M., & Hogan, A. E. (1984). Relationships between sensorimotor and early communication abilities in developmentally delayed children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 30, 33–48.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., Sigman, M., Ungerer, J., & Sherman, T. (1986). Defining the social deficits of autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 27, 657–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, M. J., Sigman, M., & Kasari, C. (1992). Attachment behavior of infants exposed prenatally to alcohol: Mediating effects of infant affect and mother-infant interaction. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 243–246.Google Scholar
Pederson, D. R., Moran, G., Sitki, C., Campbell, K., Chesquire, K., & Acton, H. (1990). Maternal sensitivity and the security of infant-mother attachment: A Q-sort study. Child Development, 61, 1974–1983.Google Scholar
Radke-Yarrow, M., Cummings, E. M., Kuczynski, L., & Chapman, M. (1985). Patterns of attachment in two- and three-year-olds in normal families and families with parental depression. Child Development, 56, 884–893.Google Scholar
Reynell, J. (1983). Reynell Developmental Language Scales manual. Windsor, UK: NFER-NELSON Publishing.Google Scholar
Rogers, S. J., Ozonoff, S., & Maslin-Cole, C. (1991). A comparative study of attachment behavior in young children with autism or other psychiatric disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 483–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, M. (1978). Diagnosis and definition. In Rutter, M. & Schopler, E. (Eds.), Autism: A reappraisal of concepts and treatment (pp. 1–25). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. & Garmezy, N. (1983). Developmental psychopathology. In Mussen, P. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, (Vol. 4, pp. 775–911). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Schopler, E., Reichler, R., & Renner, B. R. (1986). The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS): For diagnostic screening and classification of autism. New York: Irvington.Google Scholar
Seibert, J. M., & Hogan, A. E. (1982). Procedures manual for Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS). (Available from Mailman Center for Child Development, University of Miami, FL 33124.)Google Scholar
Shapiro, R., Sherman, M., Calamari, G., & Koch, D. (1987). Attachment in autism and other developmental disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 485–490.Google Scholar
Sigman, M. (1989). The application of developmental knowledge to a clinical problem: The study of childhood autism. In Cicchetti, D. (Ed.), Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology: Vol. 1. The emergence of a discipline (pp. 165–187). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Sigman, M., Kasari, C., Kwon, J., & Yirmiya, N. (1992). Responses to the negative emotions of others by autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children. Child Development, 63, 796–807.Google Scholar
Sigman, M., & Mundy, P. (1989). Social attachments in autistic children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 74–81.Google Scholar
Sigman, M., Mundy, P., Sherman, T., & Ungerer, J. (1986). Social interactions of autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children and their caregivers. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 27, 647–656.Google Scholar
Sigman, M., & Siegel, D. (1992). The interface between the psychobiological and cognitive models of attachment. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 15, 523–524.Google Scholar
Sigman, M., & Ungerer, J. (1984). Attachment behaviors in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 14, 231–244.Google Scholar
Smith, P. B., & Pederson, D. R. (1988). Maternal sensitivity and patterns of infant-mother attachment. Child Development, 59, 1097–1101.Google Scholar
Spieker, S. J., & Booth, C. (1988). Family risk typologies and patterns of insecure attachment. In Belsky, J. & Nezworski, T. (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment (pp. 95–135). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar