title: The persistence of attachment: complicated grief, threat, and reaction times to the deceased's name.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Complicated grief is increasingly recognized as a debilitating disorder with significant mental and health consequences. The underlying mechanisms of complicated grief remain unclear, however. In the present study, we investigated a specific mechanism of complicated grief (CG) derived from attachment theory: the accessibility of the deceased's mental representation under threat.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a matched comparison of complicated (n=26) and asymptomatic grievers (n=30), we used an emotional Stroop task following subliminal threat or neutral primes to examine the accessibility of mental representations of the deceased, current attachment figures, and close others.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Complicated grievers did not evidence differential accessibility to the deceased's mental representation across priming conditions, whereas asymptomatic grievers showed reduced accessibility (deactivation) of the deceased's mental representation specifically in the threat prime condition. These effects were independent of depressive symptoms. Across grievers, attachment anxiety and avoidance uniquely predicted accessibility of the deceased's name in the threat condition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The limitations of this study are its small sample size and reliance on analog attachment threats.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data support that accessibility of the deceased's mental representation in threatening contexts is an important component of complicated and asymptomatic grieving and that attachment insecurity contributes to a maladaptive reliance on the deceased as an attachment figure.
authors.affiliation: Pace University, Department of Psychology, Marks Hall, Rm 33, Pleasantville, NY 10570, United States. amancini@pace.edu
authors.forename: Anthony D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Mancini
authors.forename: George A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Bonanno
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D003643:Death; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D009769:Object Attachment; D011930:Reaction Time