http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
Insecure attachment in women at high risk
correlations to abandonment and abuse in childhood
This study assessed the adult attachment styles of women at high risk--102 women prisoners--to determine whether adult security in relationships is inf luenced by maltreatment in childhood, and if so, whether it is affected more by past or recent violence. The variables included emotional abuse, parental alcoholism, abandonment, physical, and sexual abuse in childhood, and being battered or raped as an adult. Canonical correlation analysis found that these variables account for .32 of the variance in insecure adult attachment, E=1.62 (p <.0225). Maternal abandonment was the strongest common predictor of adult insecure attachment for this sample, followed by being battered. Regression analysis confirmed that abandonment accounts for the greatest portion of variance: .18, E=18.8 (p < .0001). Being battered was the second strongest explanatory variable, and accounted for an additional .06, E=6.8 (p <.0001). There was a strong intergenerational component to abuse: 68% of women who were incestuously abused had mothers who were battered; 62% of the battered women had mothers who also were battered. Additionally, a strong pattern of revictimization was evident: 89% of incest victims later became rape victims. Only twenty-five (26.32%) of this sample were classified as Secure. Thirty-four (33.33%) classified themselves as Fearful adult attachment had a strong positive correlationwith paternal