‘Somebody Watching You’: Impact of Reflecting Teams on Hope in Couple Relationships

Reflecting teams (RTs) represent both an epistemological stance and a therapeutic technique. Most commonly associated with narrative and systemic approaches to therapy, RTs offer an outsider perspective that can bring hope and alternative narratives and perspectives for therapists and clients to explore. Relational hope is a little researched concept in the field of couple therapy research. This study explores the experience of RTs in couple relationships and the aspects of the experience that couples describe as connected to a sense of hope for their relationship. The study also considers whether difference in attachment style shows any relationship with hope in couple relationships before and after the clients’ session with a reflecting team. Couples completed questionnaires about their attachment style, demographics, and relational hope and were given the option to complete an interview about their experience with the reflecting team within 1 month of their therapy session. Our findings suggest that RTs contribute positively to hope in couple relationships particularly for clients who present with an anxious attachment style. This direction for research is important because there is very little research about hope in couple relationships despite its importance (Merolla, 2014; Snyder, 2002) and there is no research about what aspects of a reflecting team contribute to hope in couple relationships. Analysis of interviews indicates a number of features of the reflecting team feedback that were valued by clients.     

Attachment theory: Application to clinical practice with adults

An application of attachment theory to clinical practice with adults is based on psychoanalytic-object relations theory, expanding and emphasizing the influence of affectional bonds with others. The role of the therapist is to provide the conditions in which to explore current and past experiences, especially those related to attachment, separation and loss, helping patients reappraise and reconstruct their inner representations of attachment relationships with others.     

An outsider in my own home: attachment injury in stepcouple relationships

This multiple-case study explored women's relational experiences as attachment injury patterns in distressed stepcouple relationships and how these experiences might be attributable to stepcouple status. The first author interviewed five stepmothers with biological children, using open-ended interview questions developed from attachment theory and existing research regarding attachment injury and stepfamily formation. Data analysis using the pattern-matching method derived and explored markers of attachment injury in the women's stepcouple relationships. The four categories of attachment injury showed significant attribution to stepfamily issues. This supports past stepfamily research suggesting that stepcouples face unique challenges. Further, these findings suggest that the language of attachment injury accurately describes stepcouples' problems and the usefulness of conceptualizing and addressing these problems in an attachment injury framework.     

RESEARCHING RELATIONSHIPS FROM AN ATTACHMENT PERSPECTIVE: THE USE OF BEHAVIOURAL,INTERVIEW, SELF‐REPORT AND PROJECTIVE MEASURES

Having demonstrated its credentials as one of the more elegant and robust conceptualisations of human relationships, attachment theory has considerable relevance to social work. Attachment‐based research has flourished over the past few years and it now includes an impressive array of studies across the lifespan. This article considers four different measures used in attachment‐based research, although more discussion is devoted to interview and projective measures because they specifically embrace a psychodynamic approach in their design and analytic focus. The aim of the article is to provide a brief overview of each measure and to offer some illustrative examples using practice‐related material.     

Separation anxiety,attachment and agoraphobia

Within a framework of attachment, developed by John Bowlby, the anxiety disorder of agoraphobia (fear of leaving familiar surroundings, especially when alone) is conceived as a condition of anxious attachment, related to fear of separation from those with whom one has formed affectional bonds. Bowlby attributes this anxiety to earlier separation or loss experiences or threat of separation. Uncertain about his/her attachment figures, the person is prone to separation anxiety and clinging behavior and lacks confidence for exploring the world and dealing with stressful situations. Psychotherapy offers a temporary attachment relationship, a secure base from which to explore and understand the effects of these experiences in order to develop more self reliance in relationships with others.     

Effects of a Foster Parent Training Program on Young Children’s Attachment Behaviors: Preliminary Evidence from a Randomized Clinical Trial

Young children who enter foster care experience disruptions in care and maltreatment at a point when maintaining attachment relationships is a key, biologically based task. In previous research, we have found that young children experience challenges as they form attachments with new caregivers. They tend to push their new caregivers away, even though such children are especially in need of nurturing care. Further, many caregivers do not respond in nurturing ways when their children are distressed, which we have found is problematic for young children in foster care. We developed an intervention that is designed to help caregivers provide nurturance even when children do not elicit it, and even when it does not come naturally to them. This paper presents preliminary findings of the effectiveness of this intervention on children’s attachment behaviors. Forty-six children were randomly assigned to either the experimental intervention or to an educational intervention. For three consecutive days, attachment behaviors were reported across three distress-eliciting situations. Children whose parents had received the experimental intervention showed significantly less avoidance than children whose parents had received the educational intervention. These preliminary results suggest that the intervention is successful in helping children develop trusting relationships with new caregivers.     

Attachment Style,Rules Regarding Sex,and Couple Satisfaction: A Study of Gay Male Couples

This article explores the characteristics of open and closed relationships in 170 gay men according to their levels of satisfaction, their attachment styles, and the rules of having sex outside their relationships for open couples. We found no significant difference between open or closed relationships in levels of satisfaction or attachment styles. However, we found that gay men in open relationships who have explicit rules about having sex with other men are significantly more satisfied that those gay men with no rules. A content analysis of the rules is presented and implications for therapy are drawn from the findings.     

Remarriage,Cohabitation, and Changes in Mothering Behavior

We used data from two waves of the National Survey of Families and Household to investigate changes in mothering behavior associated with remarriage or cohabitation by single mothers. We considered three dimensions of mothering: (a) time and supervision, (b) harsh discipline, and (c) relationship quality. Mothers and children agreed that mothers who remained in new partnerships used harsh discipline less frequently than mothers who remained single or whose new partnership had ended by the second interview. Mothers reported less supervision if they had experienced a disrupted partnership, whereas children reported less supervision if their mothers remained in a new partnership at the second interview. Children but not mothers reported better relationships with mothers in partnerships at the second interview, compared with children whose mothers remained single or whose new partnership had ended. Only a small part of the differences in harsh discipline, and none of the other observed differences, could be explained by maternal or family characteristics or by mothering behavior and relationships in the first interview. Although cohabiting partnerships were more likely to end than were marriages, we found no differences in effects of cohabiting or marital partnerships, net of their status at the second interview.     

Father-mother infant interaction in traditional and nontraditional Swedish families: A longtitudinal study

The effects of parental gender and caretaking role on parental attitudes, parent-infant interaction, infant-parent attachment, infants' sociability with strangers and their parental preferences were examined in a longitudinal study of fifty-one Swedish couples. Fathers who later spent more than a month out of the first nine as primary caretakers were considered involved or nontraditional. The parents were interviewed separately, prenatally, and five months postnatally. Parent-infant interaction was observed, security of attachment and sociability with strangers were assessed, and the infants' parental preferences were determined. Many parental attitudes were stable from the pre-to postnatal interview. Parenthood and work were more highly valued by nontraditional than traditional parents. Regardless of relative involvement in child care, infants directed more affiliative and attachment behaviors to their mothers than to their fathers. No relationship was found between relative parental involvement and the security of infant attachment. There was also no relationship between the security of infant-mother and infant-father attachments.     

A Dynamic‐Maturational Model of Attachment

This article provides an overview of an attachment‐based approach to formulation of behavioural and psychiatric disorder. The dynamic‐maturational model (DMM) of attachment places many such problems within a context of family‐attachment relationships. In the DMM, neurological maturation interacting with experience is central to the self‐protective strategies that individuals develop to regulate familial attachments. When the relationships fail to protect child (or parent), more extreme strategies are organised to wrest some measure of safety and comfort from an otherwise threatening environment. A wide range of such strategies is described. It is argued that recognising attachment strategies in patients is crucial to providing helpful treatment (and to reducing the risk of inappropriate treatment).     

South African social workers' knowledge of attachment theory and their perceptions of attachment relationships in foster care supervision

Despite the prominence of attachment theory in international foster care literature and the importance of attachment relationships in successful foster care, attachment theory and practices do not feature prominently in South African foster care research. Against this backdrop, we interviewed twenty South African social workers' about their knowledge of attachment theory and their perceptions of attachment relationships in their own foster care work. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. We found that the social workers had limited knowledge of attachment theory and interventions; experienced most biological parents as unmotivated to improve their circumstances and attachment relationships with children; indicated that family reunifications were rare occurrences; reported foster parents were mostly kin; and experienced constraining contextual factors that hindered optimal consideration of attachment relationships in foster care supervision.     

Living with the stigma of AIDS

This article uses interview data to explore how 23 gay and bisexual men who had AIDS were affected by and managed stigma. The article describes how stigma affects the relationships of persons with AIDS to their families, friends, lovers, colleagues, and health care providers. It explores how persons with AIDS avoid or reduce stigma by concealing their illnesses, learning when and to whom they should reveal their illnesses, changing their social networks, educating others about AIDS, developing nonstigmatizing theories of illness causation, and using bravado to convince others that they are still functioning social beings.     

An Attachment Primer for Couple Therapists: Research and Clinical Implications

According to attachment theory, humans are relational beings and even a child's earliest experiences with caregivers have a profound effect on emotional development and an overall approach to relationships. With increasing regularity, couple therapy has utilized attachment language as a conceptual tool, but more work is needed to understand the full clinical implications of attachment theory. These include understanding the intergenerational nature of attachment and adapting the delivery, timing, and pace of interventions to client attachment strategies. In this article, we summarize the origins of attachment theory, its measurement, the role of attachment in couple relationships, attachment stability and change, and ways that attachment informs therapy process and intervention. We hope that this article will provide an impetus for couple therapists to expand their conceptualization and use of attachment in their clinical work and for couple researchers to conduct more clinically relevant, attachment‐oriented process research.     

Adolescents' Attachment Representations and Their Capacity for Intimacy in Close Relationships

A secure state of mind with regard to attachment, as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), as well as attachment styles as assessed by questionnaires (the two most prevalent facets of attachment representations assessed in adolescence and adulthood) were examined as potential contributors to adolescents' capacity for intimacy. Eighty male Israeli adolescents were administered the two measures and reported on their impulsiveness during their senior year of high school. Four years later, at the end of their mandatory military service, they were interviewed regarding their capacity for intimacy, and they filled out questionnaires. State of mind with regard to attachment and attachment styles uniquely predicted capacity for romantic intimacy and affective relationships with friends. Impulsiveness interacted with attachment security (benefiting dismissing and avoidant participants, and hampering secure ones) in predicting romantic intimacy. The discussion underscores the distinctiveness and importance of different facets of attachment representations to close relationships with peers.     

Abilities in Romantic Relationships and Well-Being Among Emerging Adults

The psychological well-being of emerging-adult college students may relate to their success in romantic relationships. One hundred forty-five emerging-adult undergraduate students (117 women, 28 men) completed an online questionnaire about their attachment style, dating anxiety, fear of being single, self-efficacy, subjective happiness, self-esteem, and psychological distress. Low attachment anxiety and social distress in group dating situations and high levels of self-efficacy in romantic relationships predicted happiness. Low attachment anxiety and high self-efficacy predicted low psychological distress. Less fear of negative evaluation from a dating partner and high self-efficacy in romantic relationships predicted self-esteem. Given the findings of self-efficacy in romantic relationships on well-being, relationship education is recommended.     

Meaning and attachment in mothers and toddlers

This research explored if a mother's view of her attachment experience with her own mother was associated with sensitivity to her toddler's attachment related signals. Thirty mother-child dyads were videotaped and maternal sensitivity to toddler signals was coded. Mothers were interviwed and completed questionnaires regarding their experiences with their own mothers. Based on the subjects' responses to the questionnaires and the content and organization of their interview narrations, subjects were divided into two groups based on the security of their internal working model of attachment with their own mothers. Mothers with a secure working model of attachment were significantly more sensitive to toddler signals than those mothers with an insecure working model of attachment (p=.028) and differed in their style of narrating their lifespan attachment experiences.This study was completed as partial requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Institute for Clinical Social Work, Chicago, Illinois.     

The Social Relationships and Social Support of Aging Mothers Whose Adult Daughters Are Mentally Ill

Guided by a conceptual framework highlighting multiple facets of social relationships and social support, this study examined the extent to which aging mothers of adult daughters with a serious mental illness were socially integrated with members of their network. It further examined the relational content of these mothers’ social ties as tangible or intangible support and the nature of their supportive exchanges with network members, particularly their adult daughters with mental illness. A structured face-to-face interview was conducted with 22 aging mothers of these adult daughters. Two methods of analysis were used to analyze data: counting and content analysis. Findings showed aging mothers of daughters with mental illness were socially integrated with relatives and nonrelatives, evidenced relational content of tangible and intangible support in their social ties and engaged in bidirectional and asymmetrical support exchanges with network members, including their daughters with mental illness. These findings suggest that social resources in the form of social relationships and support are embedded in the networks of aging mothers who have adult daughters with serious mental illness. Practitioners should assess support contributions to the aging mothers of adult daughters with serious mental illness from a wide range of social relationships including their daughters.     

Relationship,Social, and Individual Well-Being in Italian Male Same-Sex Couples

This study aimed at investigating Italian male same-sex couples’ attitudes, behaviors, and emotions regarding their own well-being. The study involved included 60 couples, and utilized semistructured interview and subsequent content analysis based on Grounded Theory methods. Findings identified several themes, including recurrent high relationship quality; frequent rejection by members of the family of origin, especially the mother, contrasted by strong support from the “family of choice”; perception of stereotypes and prejudices against same-sex relationships; and feelings of non-acceptance by Italian society, reflected by the lack of sociocultural and legal support and recognition. Despite these difficulties, many of these Italian gay men were able to form durable and satisfying relationships with high levels of well-being.     

Attachment Relationships and the Career Exploration Process

This article examines the role of parent—adolescent attachment relationships in the career exploration process. We propose that college students who report secure attachment relationships with their parents would engage in greater environmental and self-exploration, as well as greater nontraditionality of exploration, as measured by the degree of gender traditionality of their primary occupational preference. One hundred and thirty-seven undergraduates (50 men, 87 women) completed measures of parent attachment, career exploration, and a demographic form. The results of a canonical correlation analysis indicated that attachment to parents associated positively with environmental exploration. However, the results indicated that parental attachment was not associated with traditionality of exploration. An examination of relevant demographic variables suggested that age played a significant role, whereas gender did not. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for career theory and practice.     

Intimate Relationships of the Intellectually Gifted: Attachment Style,Conflict Style,and Relationship Satisfaction Among Members of the Mensa Society

To date relatively little is known about the intimate relationships of the intellectually gifted and the way they attach themselves to and handle conflicts with their intimate partner. The present study examined these issues by examining the relationship between attachment styles, conflict styles, and relationship quality in a sample of 196 adult members of the Mensa society. These results were compared with findings from a general community sample (n = 145). Results showed that, overall, Mensa members showed similar levels of relationship quality compared with the control sample but also tended to deal less constructively with conflicts and reported higher levels of fearful attachment. Analyses showed that the relations between relationship quality, conflict styles, and attachment were comparable in the two samples, with the exception of the role of fearful attachment in the relationship. Conflict styles mediated the relations between attachment and relationship quality in both samples. Results are discussed in light of the scarce knowledge on the intimate relationships of the gifted.