Associated Researchers

(1) Attachment and social functioning in childhood

Attachment theory and its empirical variables infant security-insecurity and maternal sensitivity have been part of several studies where we have examined antecedents of behavioral problems and competencies or compared control children with clinical groups such as infants with feeding problems and premature children. In a 20-year longitudinal study we demonstrated that maternal sensitivity during infancy predicted externalizing problem behaviors at child age 4 years, and that the explained variance was the same as that predicted by actual attachment relationship as assessed in the Strange Situation at 15 months. In middle childhood, age 8-9 years social competence in terms of social initiative and prosocial orientation was predicted by security at age 15 months. Further it was shown that the long-term relations of early insecurity in terms of avoidance and ambivalence were very similar, i.e. both types of insecure children were found to show less initiative and less prosocial orientation. Since recently, we are exploring attachment during preschool and school age through measures of internal working models, such as Doll Story Completion Tasks and Separation Anxiety Test and reunion behavior after prolonged separations.

(2) Adolescent and adult attachment

Although attachment theory and research were originally devoted to understanding young children’s emotional ties to their primary caregivers, subsequent theory and research have also addressed attachment processes in adolescence and adulthood. This has been done in two different traditions, the first based on linguistic analysis of adults’ attachment history narratives primarily regarding attachment to parents (common in developmental psychology), the second based on an analysis of romantic-pair bonds as principal attachment relationships in adulthood (common in social psychology). We have conducted research on adolescent and adult attachment in both traditions, and along three different lines. First, we have studied the prospective transition from parent to peer (most often romantic pair-bond) attachment in adolescence. Second, we have focused on individual differences in adult attachment in relation to a wide variety of emotion-regulation relevant correlates, including eating disorders, drug use and abuse, self-mutilation, and coping. Finally, in the 20-year longitudinal study mentioned above, we now study processes of continuity and discontinuity in attachment security from early childhood to young adulthood. In this latter project we also investigate the roles of life-events and temperament as potential moderators of attachment-related continuity-discontinuity.

Pehr Granqvist
Mari Fransson
Berit Hagekull

(3) Attachment, religion, and spirituality

The attachment and religion research field is devoted to the study of how religiousness and spirituality are linked to the functioning of the individual’s attachment behavioral system as well as her/his attachment relationships and experiences. Some of the religious/spiritual phenomena that have been the subject of our inquiry concern changes in religiousness over time, New Age spirituality, and different pathways (e.g., religious socialization, distress regulation) supposedly leading to religion. For example, these phenomena have been empirically studied in relation to the different attachment patterns postulated by the theory of attachment. More recently, we have focused on the need for methodological improvements and have conducted attachment and religion studies using prospective longitudinal and experimental designs, as well as more indirect, implicit measures of both attachment and religiousness. We have also recently emphasized a life-span perspective on the development of attachment and religion, focusing on links between the two from early childhood until late adulthood.

Pehr Granqvist
Berit Hagekull

(4)Attachment in children of parents with an intellectual disability

Our aim with this project is to gain knowledge about attachment in children with caregivers who have an intellectual disability (ID). As several external risk factors have been found to be overrepresented among mothers with ID, the project also focuses on potential risk- and protective factors for their children’s development. Despite the fact that parental ID has gained a lot of attention and been the source of considerable controversy, no previously published study has examined attachment among children of these parents.

This project is undertaken in collaboration with FUB (Föreningen för utvecklingsstörda barn, ungdomar och vuxna), Stockholm Public Health Care Center, and the child and adult habilitation centres at Uppsala läns landsting.

Funding provided by FAS (Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research).

Pehr Granqvist
Mari Fransson