Cooke, J. E., Kochendorfer, L. B., Stuart-Parrigon, K. L., Koehn, A. J., & Kerns, K. A. (2019). Parent–child attachment and children’s experience and regulation of emotion: A meta-analytic review. Emotion, 19(6), 1103.
Rationale
Attachment theory proposes that parent-child attachment relationships shape children’s emotional development (Bowlby, 1969; Brumariu, 2015).
While narrative reviews describe links between attachment and emotion (Brumariu, 2015; Parrigon et al., 2015), few meta-analyses have quantitatively summarized this literature (Cooke et al., 2016; Groh et al., 2017).
This meta-analytic review examined how parent-child attachment security and insecurity distinctly related to children’s affective experiences and emotion regulation to provide clarity on these associations.
Method
The total N across meta-analyses ranged from 87 to 9,167. Studies included behavioral, representational, and self-report attachment measures. Emotion was assessed via questionnaire, observation, or responses to emotion-eliciting tasks.
The inclusion criteria for the studies in this meta-analysis were:
- Participants had to be children under 18 years old.
- There had to be independent measures of parent-child attachment and child emotion. This excluded studies where the same behavioral sample was used to code both attachment and emotion (e.g., in the Strange Situation).
- Attachment had to be assessed prior to or at the same time as the emotion assessment.
- The study needed to have available effect size data for the association between attachment and emotion.
- Studies had to measure parent-child attachment specifically, so studies of romantic, peer, sibling, or teacher attachments were excluded.
- Studies had to be empirical studies with typical developmental samples. This excluded clinical populations, foster children, and children with developmental disorders. It also excluded studies using physiological measures of emotion.
- Unpublished studies were excluded.
- Studies had to be available in English.
Statistical Analysis
Effect sizes (Pearson’s r) were aggregated. Moderator analyses examined the impact of method factors. Publication bias was assessed and corrected for using Duval and Tweedie’s (2000) trim-and-fill procedure.
Results
Attachment patterns show some distinct associations with indicators of emotional functioning:
- Securely attached children experienced more positive affect and less negative affect, were better at regulating emotions, and used more constructive coping strategies like cognitive reappraisal and support-seeking.
- Avoidantly attached children experienced less positive affect, had more difficulty regulating emotions, and were less likely to use cognitive reappraisal or seek support when coping.
- Ambivalently attached children experienced more negative affect, both globally and when elicited, showed emotion dysregulation, but did not differ in positive affect or coping strategy use.
- Disorganized attachment was associated with less positive affect and more negative affect. More research on disorganized attachment and emotion regulation is needed.
Insight
This meta-analysis indicates attachment security acts as a protective factor for emotional functioning, whereas attachment insecurity confers risk for affective and regulatory difficulties.
There appear to be some distinctive emotional correlates of avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized attachment.
Strengths
- Rigorously summarized the literature using meta-analytic techniques.
- Examined methodological moderators.
- Included multiple indicators of emotional functioning.
Limitations
- Primary studies relied largely on questionnaires.
- Few studies of positive affect or disorganized attachment.
- No experimental manipulations of attachment.
Clinical Implications
Attachment theory and longitudinal research suggest that early attachment experiences play a formative role in socioemotional development across childhood (Thompson, 2016).
If attachment style is actually causing differences in children’s affect, emotion regulation, and coping, then interventions designed to alter attachment security could lead to improvements in children’s emotional functioning.
There are attachment-based interventions focused on improving parental sensitivity and responsiveness that have shown success in helping children develop more secure attachments (Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, & Juffer, 2003).
If implemented successfully with high-risk families, such interventions could potentially reduce those children’s risk for later emotional problems by getting the attachment relationship on a more positive trajectory early on (Steele & Steele, 2018).
However, the results also showed some distinct emotion correlates for avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized attachment. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, this suggests different insecure attachment styles may need tailored intervention plans targeting the specific area of socioemotional weakness (Zeanah & Zeanah, 2019).
For instance, ambivalently attached kids may need help managing negative reactivity, whereas avoidantly attached kids may benefit more from support in expressing emotion and seeking help from others.
Identifying the child’s attachment pattern can inform what specific emotion regulation skills to prioritize teaching (Cassidy, Woodhouse, Sherman, Stupica, & Lejuez, 2011).
References
Primary reference
Cooke, J. E., Kochendorfer, L. B., Stuart-Parrigon, K. L., Koehn, A. J., & Kerns, K. A. (2019). Parent–child attachment and children’s experience and regulation of emotion: A meta-analytic review. Emotion, 19(6), 1103.
Other references
Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Juffer, F. (2003). Less is more: Meta-analyses of sensitivity and attachment interventions in early childhood. Psychological Bulletin, 129(2), 195–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.2.195
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Attachment (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Brumariu, L. E. (2015). Parent-child attachment and emotion regulation. In G. Bosman & K. A. Kerns (Eds.), Attachment in middle childhood: Theoretical advances and new directions in an emerging field (pp. 31-45). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Cassidy, J., Woodhouse, S. S., Sherman, L. J., Stupica, B., & Lejuez, C. W. (2011). Enhancing infant attachment security: An examination of treatment efficacy and differential susceptibility. Development and Psychopathology, 23(1), 131–148. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579410000696
Cooke, J. E., Stuart-Parrigon, K. L., Movahed-Abtahi, M., Koehn, A. J., & Kerns, K. A. (2016). Children’s emotion understanding and mother–child attachment: A meta-analysis. Emotion, 16(8), 1102–1106. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000221
Duval, S. & Tweedie, R. (2000). Trim and fill: A simple funnel-plot–based method of testing and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics, 56(2), 455-463. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0006-341x.2000.00455.x
Groh, A. M., Narayan, A. J., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Roisman, G. I., Vaughn, B. E., Fearon, R. P., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2017). Attachment and temperament in the early life course: A meta-analytic review. Child Development, 88(3), 770–795. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12677
Parrigon, K. S., Kerns, K. A., Abtahi, M. M., & Koehn, A. J. (2015). Attachment and emotion in middle childhood and adolescence. Psihologijske Teme, 24(1), 27-50.
Steele, H., & Steele, M. (2018). Handbook of attachment-based interventions. Guilford Publications.
Thompson, R. A. (2016). Early attachment and later development: Reframing the questions. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications (pp. 330–348). The Guilford Press.
Zeanah, C. H., & Zeanah, P. D. (2019). Attachment disorders in early childhood: Clinical presentations, causes, correlates, and treatment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60(3), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12973
