Attachment patterns in 522 7 year old children born to parents with severe mental illness and controls measured by the Story Stem Attachment Profile
Poster B33, Tuesday, October%209, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
Anne A. E. Thorup1,2,4, Maja Gregersen1,2, Ditte Ellersgaard1,2, Jens Richardt Jepsen2,4, Ditte Gantriis2,5, Nicoline Hemager1,2, Birgitte K. Burton2,4, Camilla Christiani1,2, Anne Søndergaard1,2, Aja Greve2,5, Ole Mors2,5, Kerstin Plessen2,4; 1Mental Health Center, Research Unit, Capital Region of Denmark, 2The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, 3University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, 4Child and Adolescent Mental Health Center, Research Unit, Capital Region of Denmark,, 5Psychosis Research Unit, Risskov, Aarhus University Hospital .
Results from The Danish High Risk and Resilience Study – VIA7; a population based cohort study Secure attachment is considered a fundamental resilience factor in many ways and our experiences of early attachment figures are thought to be of great importance when we form and maintain social relations later in life. Children born to parents with severe mental illness like schizophrenia (FHR-SZ) or bipolar disorder (FHR-BP) are known to be vulnerable in many aspects of life due to higher risk of developmental delays, cognitive problems and higher risk of trauma and psychopathology. Less is known about if or how severe mental illness among their parents may affect their attachment patterns. We aimed to compare attachment constructs among children with FHR-SZ, FHR-BP and controls measured at age 7 with a validated and recommended instrument SSAP (The Story Stem Assessment Profile). A representative cohort of 7-year-old children with FHR-SZ (N=202), FHR-BP (N=120) and none of those two disorders (N=200) was retrieved using Danish nationwide registers. Children with FHR-SZ were matched to controls on age, sex and municipality. The child examiners were blind to parental diagnoses. Results on level of secure, insecure and disorganized attachment constructs showed no differences when comparing the three groups at an overall level. Subgroup analysis will be presented together with results concerning the parents’ own attachment style measured by questionnaire PAM (Psychosis Attachment Measure).
Topic Area: Neurodevelopmental