The Relationship Between Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Infant/Child-Caregiver Attachment: A Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Developmental Pediatrics

Background:

• Secure infant/child-caregiver attachment is vital for social-emotional development and long-term outcomes.
• Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) presents complex challenges for children, often compounded by early life adversity.
• Existing evidence suggests a potential increased risk of insecure attachment in children with PAE, but findings are inconsistent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and synthesize the existing literature on the relationship between prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and infant/child attachment.
• To identify gaps in the current research and highlight areas for future investigation.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature search was conducted across seven academic databases.
• The review followed PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines.
• Eleven studies (published 1987-2021) met the inclusion criteria, with quality assessments performed.

Main Results:

• Five of the eleven included studies found a significant relationship between PAE and insecure or disorganized attachment.
• Two of these studies indicated that infant irritability and caregiver-infant interaction mediated the PAE-attachment link.
• The remaining six studies found no significant association between PAE and attachment.

Conclusions:

• There is a notable lack of published research specifically examining the link between PAE and attachment.
• Preliminary evidence suggests potential mediating factors like infant irritability and caregiver-infant interaction, but findings are not definitive.
• Further research is crucial, particularly studies incorporating the impact of early life adversity and recent neurodevelopmental insights.