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Relationships between depression and attachment styles in parent- and institution-reared Turkish children
1Department of Psychology, Middle East Technical University, Turkey.
Insights
Children raised in institutions showed less secure attachment styles and more depressive symptoms compared to those from two-parent families. This highlights the impact of early separation on child development and mental health.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychiatry
- Attachment Theory
Background:
- Early childhood separation from parents can impact psychological development.
- Attachment theory posits that early relationships form foundational schemas.
- Institutional rearing presents unique challenges to secure attachment formation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate attachment security in institution-reared versus parent-reared children.
- To examine the relationship between depressive schemas and attachment styles.
- To test if systems theory explains a stronger link between depression and attachment in institutionalized children.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Hazan and Shaver's attachment-style inventory.
- Administered the Beck Depression Inventory to assess depressive symptoms.
- Sample comprised 20 institution-reared and 20 parent-reared Turkish boys.
Main Results:
- Institution-reared children exhibited less secure attachment schemas than parent-reared children.
- Depressive schemas were positively associated with insecure attachment.
- Depressive schemas were negatively associated with secure attachment.
Conclusions:
- Early separation and institutional rearing are linked to insecure attachment.
- Depression and insecure attachment are closely related in children.
- Findings support attachment theory predictions regarding early life experiences and psychological outcomes.
Abstract:
The present study, using a sample of Turkish children, aimed to test two attachment-theory predictions: (a) institution-reared children who were separated from their parents at an early age are less likely to have secure attachment schemata than children from two-parent families, and (b) depressive schemata are positively related to insecure attachment schemata and negatively related to secure attachment schemata. Following a systems-theory perspective, we also predicted that the relationship between depression and attachment styles would be stronger for institution-reared children than for children from two-parent families. Hazan and Shaver's (1987) attachment-style items and the Beck Depression Inventory were administered to 20 institution-reared and 20 parent-reared boys by a female interviewer. The results supported the first two predictions of the study.