Research Interests: Psychology and Medicine
This is a document that follows up on the pre-registered protocol: An individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis on the attachment network to multiple caregivers (https://osf.io/a3qs9). Specifically, we follow up on section (4) under... more
This is a document that follows up on the pre-registered protocol: An individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis on the attachment network to multiple caregivers (https://osf.io/a3qs9). Specifically, we follow up on section (4) under "Sensitivity analysis" (p. 13), and report on a series of sensitivity power analyses based on the number of triads (a triad is comprised of an infant/child and his or her mother and father) that are available for analysis as indicated from the intention to collaborate of primary study PIs within the Collaboration for Attachment to Multiple Parents and Outcomes Synthesis (CAMPOS; See Appendix A of this document for the current list of committed studies and Appendix B of the protocol for full list of eligible studies that provided the basis for the current sensitivity analyses).
This project contains a document preregistering a research project that uses secondary data investigating the antecedents of adult attachment representations.
Research Interests:
Supplemental material, Dagan_Supplemental_Material for Preoccupied and Dismissing Attachment Representations Are Differentially Associated With Anxiety in Adolescence and Adulthood: A Meta-Analysis by Or Dagan, Christopher R. Facompré,... more
Supplemental material, Dagan_Supplemental_Material for Preoccupied and Dismissing Attachment Representations Are Differentially Associated With Anxiety in Adolescence and Adulthood: A Meta-Analysis by Or Dagan, Christopher R. Facompré, Marissa D. Nivison, Glenn I. Roisman and Kristin Bernard in Clinical Psychological Science
Early attachment has been commonly hypothesized to predict children's future developmental outcomes, and robust evidence relying on assessments of single caregiver-child attachment patterns has corroborated this hypothesis.... more
Early attachment has been commonly hypothesized to predict children's future developmental outcomes, and robust evidence relying on assessments of single caregiver-child attachment patterns has corroborated this hypothesis. Nevertheless, most often children are raised by multiple caregivers, and they tend to form attachment bonds with more than one of them. In this paper, we briefly describe the conceptual and empirical roots underlying the notion of attachment networks to multiple caregivers. We detail potential reasons for research focusing on a single caregiver (most often mothers, but recently also fathers) and the historical attempts to establish a more ecologically valid assessment of attachment to multiple caregivers. Finally, we describe a recently developed organizational framework that includes testable models on which future research may rely for assessing the predictive power of attachment networks to multiple caregivers on children's developmental outcomes.
Research Interests:
An unsettled question in attachment theory and research is the extent to which children’s attachment patterns with mothers and fathers jointly predict developmental outcomes. In this study, we used individual participant data... more
An unsettled question in attachment theory and research is the extent to which children’s attachment patterns with mothers and fathers jointly predict developmental outcomes. In this study, we used individual participant data meta-analysis to assess whether early attachment networks with mothers and fathers are associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Following a pre-registered protocol, data from 9 studies and 1,097 children (mean age: 28.67 months) with attachment classifications to both mothers and fathers were included in analyses. We used a linear mixed effects analysis to assess differences in children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms as assessed via the average of both maternal and paternal reports based on whether children had two, one, or no insecure (or disorganized) attachments. Results indicated that children with an insecure attachment relationship with one or both parents were at higher risk for elevated internalizing symptomatolog...
Research Interests: Psychology and Medicine
A program of research that examines the quality of infants' attachment relationships with both parents to evaluate their integrative effects on later life functioning.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Attachment theory posits that early experiences with caregivers are made portable across development in the form of mental representations of attachment experiences. These representations, the secure base script included, are... more
ABSTRACT Attachment theory posits that early experiences with caregivers are made portable across development in the form of mental representations of attachment experiences. These representations, the secure base script included, are thought to be stable across time. Here, we present data from two studies. Study 1 (N = 141) examined the degree of empirical convergence between the two major measures of secure base script knowledge in Study 2, we examined stability of secure base script knowledge from late adolescence to midlife combining data from both a high- and normative-risk cohort (N = 113). Study 1 revealed evidence for convergent validity (r = .50) and Study 2 revealed moderate rank-order stability (r = .43), which was not moderated by cohort risk status. Results support the validity of secure base script knowledge assessments and prediction that attachment representations show moderate stability across early adulthood and into midlife.
Research Interests:
The claim that insecure attachment predisposes individuals to anxiety was put forth by attachment theorists more than 45 years ago, yet evidence of this association has produced mixed results. By conducting a series of meta-analyses ( k =... more
The claim that insecure attachment predisposes individuals to anxiety was put forth by attachment theorists more than 45 years ago, yet evidence of this association has produced mixed results. By conducting a series of meta-analyses ( k = 53, N = 4,970), we found that individuals with secure and insecure attachment representations did not differ in their reported anxiety symptoms. However, individuals with preoccupied ( d = 0.35) but not dismissing attachment representations ( d = −0.02) endorsed significantly more anxiety symptoms than secure individuals. Individuals with preoccupied attachment representations also endorsed greater anxiety symptoms than people with dismissing attachment representations ( d = 0.31), and this difference was stronger when assessed in high-risk samples than low-risk samples. Unresolved individuals were more anxious than nonunresolved individuals ( d = 0.29), but exploratory analysis suggested that secondary preoccupied attachment subtype drove this eff...
Research Interests:
Researchers have long discussed the rich clinical applications of attachment theory. Specifically, clinicians have been compelled by the idea that insecure attachment may bring about stressful (real or perceived) interpersonal experiences... more
Researchers have long discussed the rich clinical applications of attachment theory. Specifically, clinicians have been compelled by the idea that insecure attachment may bring about stressful (real or perceived) interpersonal experiences that increases risk for internalizing symptoms. However, recent meta-analyses examining the links between attachment representations and internalizing symptoms have challenged the assumption that insecure attachment, broadly speaking, is associated with negative mental health outcomes. Rather, findings highlight the importance of considering insecure attachment subtypes in understanding one’s vulnerability for internalizing symptoms. Here we expand on this special issue’s target papers and propose that, despite an increase in citation impact of clinically relevant attachment research, there are still core theoretical and methodological questions left unanswered. We highlight three clinical conundrums: (1) hyperactivating, but not deactivating, atta...
Research Interests:
A core premise of attachment theory is that the quality of early care shapes the development and consolidation of later constructed mental representations, which in turn influence mental health (Bowlby, 1973, 1980; Sroufe et al., 2005).... more
A core premise of attachment theory is that the quality of early care shapes the development and consolidation of later constructed mental representations, which in turn influence mental health (Bowlby, 1973, 1980; Sroufe et al., 2005). Following this premise, this set of pre-registered analyses aims to build on a programmatic line of research (Dagan et al., 2018; Dagan et al., 2020) to investigate the predictive significance of attachment representations in general, and scripted attachment representations (i.e., secure base script knowledge) more specifically, on depressive symptoms in adulthood.
Since the seminal 1992 paper by van IJzendoorn, Sagi, and Lambermon, putting forward the “The multiple caretaker paradox”, relatively little attention has been given to the potential joint effects of the role early attachment network to... more
Since the seminal 1992 paper by van IJzendoorn, Sagi, and Lambermon, putting forward the “The multiple caretaker paradox”, relatively little attention has been given to the potential joint effects of the role early attachment network to mother and father play in development. Recently, Dagan and Sagi-Schwartz (2018) have published a paper that attempts to revive this unsettled issue, calling for research on the subject and offering a framework for posing attachment network hypotheses. This Collaboration for Attachment Research Synthesis project attempts to use an Individual Participant Data meta-analyses to test the hypotheses put forward in Dagan and Sagi-Schwartz (2018). Specifically, we test (a) whether the number of secure attachments (0,1, or 2) matter in predicting a range of developmental outcomes, and (b) whether the quality of attachment relationship with one parent contributes more than the other to these outcomes.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Exposure to childhood adversity has been linked to accelerated telomere shortening, a marker of cellular aging and an indicator of physical health risk. In the current study, we examined whether adult attachment representation moderated... more
Exposure to childhood adversity has been linked to accelerated telomere shortening, a marker of cellular aging and an indicator of physical health risk. In the current study, we examined whether adult attachment representation moderated the association between childhood adversity and telomere length. Participants included 78 young adults (M age = 20.46, SD = 1.57), who reported on their exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and were administered the Adult Attachment Interview, which was coded for attachment state of mind. Relative telomere length was assayed from buccal cells. Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant interaction between attachment state of mind and ACE in predicting telomere length. Whereas the association between number of ACE and telomere length was nonsignificant for secure-autonomous, r (50) = -.15, p = .31, and insecure-preoccupied young adults, r (9) = -.15, p = .71, there was a strong negative association between number of ACE and telomer...
Research Interests:
Attachment scholars have long argued that insecure attachment patterns are associated with vulnerability to internalizing symptoms, such as depression and anxiety symptoms. However, accumulating evidence from the past four decades,... more
Attachment scholars have long argued that insecure attachment patterns are associated with vulnerability to internalizing symptoms, such as depression and anxiety symptoms. However, accumulating evidence from the past four decades, summarized in four large meta-analyses evaluating the link between insecure attachment subtypes and internalizing symptoms, provide divergent evidence for this claim. This divergent evidence may be accounted for, at least in part, by the developmental period under examination. Specifically, children with histories of deactivating (i.e., insecure/avoidant) but not hyperactivating (i.e., insecure/resistant) attachment patterns in infancy and early childhood showed elevated internalizing symptoms. In contrast, adolescents and adults with hyperactivating (i.e., insecure/preoccupied) but not deactivating (i.e., insecure/dismissing) attachment classifications showed elevated internalizing symptoms. In this paper, we summarize findings from four large meta-analy...