Attachment Security in Infancy: A Preliminary Study of Prospective Links to Brain Morphometry in Late Childhood.
Leblanc Élizabel, Dégeilh Fanny, Daneault Véronique, Beauchamp Miriam H., & Bernier Annie.
Presented by:
Abstract
- Human children tend to form attachment relationships with physically present caregivers.
- The attachment is formed whether the caregiver is abusive or caring, but the attachments can be secure or insecure.
- Early attachment relationships play a critical role in children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development.
- Children-parent relationships impact brain development
- Assessment of attachment security towards mothers at 15 months old
- Structural magnetic resonance imaging at ages 10-11 years
- Children who were more securely attached to their mothers in infancy had a larger volume of Gray Matter
- Attachment security was not associated with cortical thickness
- Therefore, quality mother-infant attachments affect social, cognitive and emotional functioning in late childhood
Research questions
- What role does the quality of child-parent attachment play in a child’s brain morphology?
- Does the mother-infant attachment security affect the volume and thickness of the whole-brain Gray Matter in late childhood?
Methodology
Participants
- 33 participants were involved in the study, n=33
- Participants were followed annually in a longitudinal study
Procedure
- Report given at 15 months (T1: M=15.65, SD=0.97, range=14.5-18.0) and at 10-11 years (T2: M=10.59, SD=0.46, Range=10.0-11.67)
- Approval was sought from the local research ethics committee of aging-neuroimaging of the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’île-de-Montréal.
- Informed consent was sought
- Random participant selection from Canadian metropolitan area birth lists
Inclusion criteria: full-term pregnancies with the absence of mental or physical disabilities
- Mother-infant attachment security at T1 assessed using Attachment Behavior Q-Sort (AQS)
- Infant behaviors were observed for 70-90 minute during home visits
- T2 was assessed using scales (1=”not yet started” to 4= “seems completed” to describe a child’ developments and using 32-channel head coil on a Siemens 3 Tesla scanner
- Standard pediatric templates were used to remove confounding
- Normalization of the segments to the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space with a voxel size of 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm was done
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Sociodemographic information and attachment security scores for families who accepted vs. declined participation in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol
Analysis
- Significant clusters were identified using the threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE)
- TFCE maximizes statistical power in small sample studies, n=33
- Statistical maps were thresholded at p≤0. 05
- Analyses focused on GM volume and thickness
- Multiple regression analysis predicted GM volumes in late childhood from attachments security in infancy
- All confounding variables were addressed
- Right and left hemispheres were separately analyzed, and the intracranial volume differences were controlled for in the VBM analyses.
- Cortical thickness was controlled for in the SBM analyses
- Child age and sex, pubertal status, as well as maternal education were included as covariates in SBM and VBM analyses
- Multiple imputations (10) were used to estimate missing values using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure in SPSS software version 24.0.
- Parental age and education levels of the parents were used as predictors in the imputation equation.
- Imputations were based on the original 64 families at the beginning of the study, using the sex and age of the children.
Findings
Descriptive statistics
- N=33
- Mothers and fathers: median of 31.73 (SD=5.10), Age 33.27 (SD=5.00)years old, 15.58 (SD=2.00; range 11-17) years of education.
Income: average income $60, 0000 to $79, 000.
Race: 78.80% mothers and 75.80% fathers were Caucasians
- 80% of families had French as their first language
- T1 attachment security scores varied from -0.28 to 0.75 (M=0.49, SD-0.26)
- T2 scores: 45% of children were pre-pubertal, 6% early pubertal, 145% mid pubertal and 3% post-pubertal
- Average brain volumetric data: 1529.34cm3 (SD=106.58, range-1317.63-1854.37); ICV, 833.27cm3 (SD=53.40, range= 1317.63–1854.37); ICV; 833.27 cm3 (SD= 53.40, range = 725.37–987.76); GM volume; 442.40 cm3 (SD = 44.44, range = 367.07–552.58); total WM volume; and CSF; 253.67 cm3 (SD = 23.68, range = 205.73–314.04
Regional volumes significantly associated with attachment security in infancy (p < 0.05)
Correlations between attachment security, average brain volumetric data, and covariates
Correlations between attachment security, average brain volumetric data, and covariates
Association between attachment security in infancy and GM volume in late childhood
Discussion
- Children with secure attachments with their mothers at 15 months old had larger GM volume in the bilateral superior temporal sulci, right superior temporal gyrus, right temporo-parietal junction (Leblanc, et al., 2017).
- They also had large GM volume in the bilateral precentral gyri in late childhood (10–11 years).
- No association was discovered between attachment security and cortical thickness (Leblanc, et al., 2017).
- The results were consistent with animal studies that indicated caregiving practices affect brain development.
- Mother-child relationships in infancy predicted specific GM volumes in late childhood
- Maltreated children have smaller volumes of GM in the superior and middle temporal gyri (Leblanc, et al., 2017)
- The affected brain areas are critical in processing emotional stimuli.
- Maltreated children have impaired emotional processing capabilities.
- Variation in mother-child relationships has long-lasting effects on overall brain development.
- Past studies have associated attachments with the cortical thickness that contradicts with this study (Leblanc, et al., 2017). However, the difference could have resulted from a small sample size and limited statistical power used in this study.
- Caregivers should develop effective ways to protect and secure their attachment with children to make them feel safe and secured even in the absence of the caregivers’ presence.
Significance and contribution
- Results contribute to literature indication that variations in parenting practices affect child brain morphology
Future studies
- Future studies should focus on rhythmic cortical thinning and thickening in association with mother-child attachments
Reference
- Leblanc Élizabel, Dégeilh Fanny, Daneault Véronique, Beauchamp Miriam H., & Bernier
Annie. (2017). Attachment Security in Infancy: A Preliminary Study of Prospective Links to Brain Morphometry in Late Childhood. Frontiers in Psychology , Volume 8, pages 2141 https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02141 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02141