How toddler-mother attachment impacts adolescent brain and behavior


Date:
March 10, 2022
Source:
University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and
Environmental Sciences
Summary:
Interpersonal trust is a crucial component of healthy
relationships. When we interact with strangers, we quickly gauge
whether we can trust them.

And those important social skills may be shaped by our earliest
relationship with caregivers. Adolescents who had an insecure
attachment to their mothers as toddlers are more likely to
overestimate the trustworthiness of strangers, according to a new
study from the University of Illinois.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Interpersonal trust is a crucial component of healthy relationships. When
we interact with strangers, we quickly gauge whether we can trust
them. And those important social skills may be shaped by our earliest relationship with caregivers.


========================================================================== Adolescents who had an insecure attachment to their mothers as toddlers
are more likely to overestimate the trustworthiness of strangers,
according to a new study from the University of Illinois.

"The idea is to understand whether early attachment relationships with
mothers have a longitudinal, predictive association with how adolescents process cues related to trustworthiness, both at the behavioral level and
the brain level," explains Xiaomei Li, doctoral student in the Department
of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) at U of I and lead author
on the paper.

The project builds on data from the Children's Social Development Project,
a longitudinal study conducted under the lead of Nancy McElwain, HDFS
professor and co-author on the paper.

In the first round of data collection, 128 toddlers and their mothers participated in a laboratory visit where researchers observed their interactions and evaluated their attachment style.

Ten years later, when the children were in their early adolescence,
they were invited back for a second round of studies. This time,
the researchers wanted to observe how the adolescents evaluated the trustworthiness of strangers.



========================================================================== Placed under an MRI scanner, the adolescents viewed pictures of faces
and were asked to rate the trustworthiness of each face on a scale from
1 to 5.

Simultaneously, the MRI scanner measured their brain activity. In rating trustworthiness, adolescents were told to consider how likely they would
be to approach the person for help or directions if they were alone in
an unfamiliar city.

The pictures were selected from an established database containing photos
of actors posing with emotionally neutral faces. The faces show varying
degrees of trustworthiness, determined and validated by prior studies
among independent observers who rated how trustworthy each face appears
to be according to their first impressions and gut feelings.

Securely and insecurely attached children agreed on rating the "high- trustworthiness" faces, but the children who were insecurely attached
as toddlers were less likely to rate "low-trustworthiness" faces as
such. Their brain scans also showed less activity in brain regions
associated with emotional processing when viewing untrustworthy faces.

"The adolescents who had a history of secure attachment showed
greater sensitivity to untrustworthy cues compared with their insecure counterparts," Li states.

"We were able to see how early relationship dynamics during toddlerhood,
which is a key period for social-emotional development, predicted
adolescent functioning, even at the level of the brain." The core of attachment theory is whether the child trusts their primary caregiver
to provide warmth and comfort when needed. Inconsistent or unreliable
support from the caregiver can lead to a pattern of insecure attachment.



========================================================================== "Because children with an insecure attachment have experienced
inconsistent and unreliable care when they are young, they may now
choose to avoid negative social cues as a defensive mechanism to protect themselves. The lack of brain activation supports this explanation,
suggesting that insecure adolescents are not processing untrustworthy
cues," Li says.

"In comparison, adolescents with a secure history of attachment may be
more open to thinking about and responding to negative social cues."
The findings also suggest the importance of parents being open to their
child's negative emotions, McElwain states.

"A secure attachment is likely to develop when the parent can accept their children's negative emotions and respond with comfort and support. When
parents avoid dealing with their child's negative emotions, children may
come to learn that these emotions are 'bad.' "It's okay for children to
be upset and these are important, teachable moments when parents can help children deal with their emotions in an age-appropriate way. By doing
so, children will be better prepared to engage in whatever comes their
way later on." McElwain emphasizes the effects of early experience are
not irreversible.

"So much brain development happens during adolescence. Teens are much
better able to consciously reflect on their experiences and emotions,
which makes it a great time to intervene and change behavioral patterns
that are not working well. Parents, as well as other adults such as
teachers or coaches, can help children and adolescents learn how to
engage with negative social cues or social situations through open
discussion, role playing, and positive modeling." The Department of
Human Development and Family Studies is in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois.

Funding: National Science Foundation, the USDA National Institute of
Food and Agriculture, the University of Illinois Research Board, and
the Jacobs Foundation, Switzerland.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Illinois_College_of_Agricultural,_Consumer and_Environmental_Sciences. Original written by Marianne Stein. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Xiaomei Li, Nathan A Jorgensen, Nancy L McElwain, Eva H
Telzer. Toddler-
mother attachment moderates adolescents' behavioral and neural
evaluation of trustworthiness. Social Cognitive and Affective
Neuroscience, 2022; DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac009 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220310115153.htm

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