Social position, early deprivation and the development of attachment.
The effects of childhood social adversity on developing parent/child attachments may partially explain the effects of less advantaged childhood social position on adulthood mental health. Associations between social position, retrospectively recalled parental style and childhood emotional and physical deprivation and attachment were examined in 7,276 civil servants from the Whitehall II Study. Depressive symptoms were associated with insecure attachment style. Social position was not associated with attachment styles. However, fathers' social class was strongly associated with material and emotional deprivation. In turn, deprivation was associated with lower parental warmth. High parental warmth was associated with decreased risk of insecure attachment styles. Despite the methodological shortcomings of retrospective childhood data the results suggest material and emotional adversity influence the development of attachment through parental style, notably parental warmth.
Stansfeld
Stephen
S
Centre for Psychiatry, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, Old Anatomy Building, Charterhouse Square, London EC1 6QM, UK. s.a.stansfeld@qmul.ac.uk
Head
Jenny
J
Bartley
Mel
M
Fonagy
Peter
P
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires