Providing Adolescents with a Secure Base:

An Attachment Perspective

Jude Cassidy
Overview
I. The Secure Base: Bowlbys most central Concept
Secure Base Construct
No concept within the attachment framework
is more central to developmental psychiatry
than that of the secure base.
Bowlby, 1988
 CIRCLE OF SECURITY
PARENT ATTENDING TO THE CHILDS NEEDS

I need
you to...

Watch over me
Delight in me
Help me
Support My
Enjoy with me
Exploration

I need
you to...

Welcome My
Coming To You
Comfort me
Protect me Glen Cooper
Delight in me Kent Hoffman
Organize my Robert Marvin
feelings Bert Powell
As [an individual] grows into adolescence his
excursions are extended to weeks or months,
but a secure home base remains indispensable
nonetheless for optimal functioning and mental
health.
Bowlby, 1988
 III. From Childhood to Adolescence:
A Normative Developmental Shift

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
(Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr)

Life is change, change is stability. (Zen Saying)

Nothing endures but change. (Heraclitus)

There is nothing so stable as change. (Bob Dylan)

 - most prefer spending time with friend;
adolescents would rather tell secrets to friend
- by age 11, seek peers when
distressed
- no data; example: at dance,
if buddies are there, increased confidence to ask girl to dance
- before age 15 most missed is parent; after
age 15, peer is most missed
- parents until young
adulthood; replicated in several cross-cultural samples; new
couples spend much time together, yet dont view each other as
the person of whose availability they are most confident.
Attachment Bond
--- To whom do you feel closest?
--- Imagine you are walking by yourself. While crossing the street, you are suddenly hit
by a car. The next thing you know, you are waking up in a hospital emergency room.
Who do you call first?

Support-seeking behavior
--- Imagine you are having a bad day. A lot of things have built up and are bothering
you. To whom would you go to first to make you feel better?
--- You heard that someone you know is having a party and you are not invited. You feel
left out and hurt. Who would you talk to first to make you feel better?

Affiliation
--- most choose to be with if you wanted to have fun and have a good time?
--- most likes to do the things that you enjoy?
--- most enjoy being with when you have free time?

1.Connections across domains

2.Mothers are principal attachment figures
3.Hierarchy placement
4. Developmental trajectory Rosenthal & Kobak, 2010
5. Individual differences
 Review

1. Secure Base Concept

2. Adolescent
Need Moments Around the Circle, and
Emotional Learning when Needs Met and Unmet

3. NormativeDevelopmental Transition
evolutionary underpinnings
developing circles
 Leaving Home Task (Kobak et al., 1994)

Imagine that (adolescents name) is ready to leave

home after finishing high school for example, for a
job or to start college. Discuss (adolescents name)
goals and plans for the future and how your
relationship with each other is going to change.
V. A Move from Behavior and Emotion to the
Representational World: Adolescent Secure
Base Scripts
 What is a script? Bretherton, 1985

a knowledge structure containing a sequence of events

that typically occurs in a particular situation, such as going
to the movies.

a series of if-then contingency statements

 Why are attachment-related scripts
important?

Scripts are the raw material, the building blocks of

more complex attachment representational models.
Representational models are the mental structures that

people develop about others, themselves, and relationships,

that, in turn, guide behavior, emotions, and the processing
of information.
Bretherton proposed that script-related techniques could
help researchers better understand attachment
representations.
 How are attachment scripts assessed?

secure base script

H. Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh, 2001
Characteristics of stories receiving high secure
base script scores

Caregiver supports childs exploration

Caregiver remains responsive and available as a
resource if needed
Child encounters an obstacle or threat and becomes
distressed
Child and caregiver come together

Difficulty is resolved or removed

Proximity and/or contact with the caregiver comforts

the child
The child returns to constructive play
 Assessment of Secure Base Scripts

procedure taps scripts by using word sets to elicit narratives

shows adolescents a set of 12 words for each narrative
asks for a story using these words
initial practice word set
then a total of 6 word sets, in counterbalanced order
2 stories about a mother
2 stories about a father
2 stories about 2 adults
easily understand the task
stories tape-recorded
coded from transcripts
 The Party

Friday night sulk Mom

party couch movie rental
uninvited Mom popcorn
miserable talk smile
 The Party/ High Secure Base Script

Um, it's Friday night and, one of my friends is having a big

party, but, I wasn't invited, so I go up to my mom and she
asked me what I was doing and I told her, nothing all my
friends are going to this party and, my friend didn't invite
me, and I was really upset about it, so, I was sulking a little
bit, I was a little bit upset, and finally my mom, asked me if
I wanted to watch a movie with her, so, we're talking about
it, and, we go, we have direct tv so we rent a movie on tv,
she makes popcorn cause it's her favorite thing, and we end
up just watching movies all night and laughing and talking
and smiling.
 The Party/ High Secure Base Script 2

Okay the party. -- Um last Friday night I was getting ready to go to a party
and my friends called and said that they cancelled because um the boy's
parents were coming home from their trip and it's not a party anymore.
And I was excited about going to it cause there's a boy there that I liked
and I wanted to see him. So um then I was really sad the whole night and
I sat on the couch and I, my mom could tell because and then she started
talking to me and trying to make me feel better and just joking with me and
said you know why don't you call the guy. And I just started laughing and
then she took me to go see uh to go get a movie at Blockbuster and we got
um "The Wedding Singer" cause that's one of my favorites. We watched it
and um it was just the two of us the girl's night. And we got popcorn and
candy and just laughed and had a good time. And I totally forgot about the
party.
 The Party/Low Secure Base Script

Its Friday night and well all getting ready for a party. Got
To run out to Blockbuster to rent some movies, -- get some
popcorn, snacks, get everything all ready. Gonna have a big
party in un in an hour. Gotta call my friends come and help
me out. Get all the stuff, get ready, move the couch, move
everything out of the way that can break, fall down,
everything in value put it away. Uh {3 sec} um party gets
started cool, its all right. Everythings hanging out. Um
mom comes home, early than usual. Finds the party.
Everybody runs out through the basement. Uh - she nags
yags yells talks about it. Next morning, she ends up smiling
cause none of the stuff is broken.
 The Party/Low Secure Base Script 2

My friends were going to a party one night they all got invited from school,
and they were all like you know all man, San par, sare, pa, a Sarah's
party's going to be so great, you know it's Friday night and everything
and, you know we get back from lunch and I'm waiting my a, my invitation
on my desk this is like, 6th grade or whatever, and um, and like, we're all
sitting there, and my friend Josh picks up and awe we're goin, I'm going,
I'm going, I got, I got, I got an invitation, my friend Dave runs over to his
desk he's like, ah, I got one too, I got back mine, like everyone's got a
desk but, everyone's got one on the desk but I don't I'm like ah man, that
sucks I mean, I was like, completely uninvited from the party, I was like all
right, you know I, those are usually the teachers will be like while he can
invite, as long as you invite everyone in the class, that don't, (continued)
continued
so I go to my mom, when I get home I talk to my mom and I'm like
oh I didn't get invited to party and my friend Josh is then going, and
I'm, sulking my brains out, I'm just like you know I really, sitting there,
sad as hell, my mom was like, ah, all right, so, she goes out to the
store and she's like oh I'm going to go, I'm going, get some groceries
and she comes back with a movie rental, and a, one of those,
microwavable popcorn, stuff, and she's like smiling away and I'm like I
don't see what's so funny you know, my friends are at a party and I'm
standing over here, you know, wasting my time you know, with a,
video rental and, a popcorn, so I'm miserable, my mom is just
laughing and having a great time watching the movie and I'm, I try to
have a good time, after my mom talks to me, you know -- she smiles
and she's like, you know, we had a great time, and I was like, I sure
as hell did not did not.
 Studying for an Exam

studying Dad tutor

exam newspaper discuss
difficult lookup smile
worried help sleep
 Studying for exam/High Sec Base Script

Okay well one night I was studying for uh really hard uh Pre-Cal
exam. Um I knew itd be really difficult and I was starting to
get a little worried about you know the time pressures and I
was getting a little stress. Um my dad was at the table reading
the newspaper at night. And um when he saw me getting
frustrated he looked up. And um he was pretty good at math
so he decided to help me out with it. Um he sat there and you
know went over some problems with me acted like a tutor. Um
he was helping me discuss the problems in relation to like real
life kind of questions. Um I started to understand things and so
I started to smile cause I was feeling a little happier about this
and I felt a little relieved. And uu I felt that I was ready so then
I went to sleep.
 Studying for exam/Low Sec Base Script

One night I was home and I had an exam the next day so I
was gonna study with my dad. But he wasnt really available
so I had to call up one of my friends to come over and tutor
me for my exam. Before I got there I was really bored so I
read the newspaper and I discussed what I was reading with
my dad. So when I when my friend got there and we were,
studying for the exam some of the questions he asked me
were really difficult. So I had to look up the answers in my
textbook. I was really worried that we werent gonna get
enough studying in but it didnt really matter because he was
helping me with the stuff I needed. After he left we smiled I
gave him a smile goodbye and I went to sleep.
Study Goal

to examine for the first time the link between

attachment scripts and attachment in adolescents
Participants

44 11th graders
55% female

63% Caucasian

all from two-parent families

 Are adolescent secure base scripts related
to AAI attachment?

mother stories w/coherence, partial r = .51***

father stories w/coherence, partial r = .26 ^
adult stories w/coherence, partial r = .31*

*** p < .001

* p < .01
^ p = .06
Overview
I. The Secure Base: Bowlbys most central Concept
II. Adolescent Secure Base Use and Related Emotion Learning
III. From Childhood to Adolescence: The Normative Developmental Shift
TEA BREAK
IV. Adolescent-Parent Interaction: Videotape Review
V. A Move from Behavior and Emotion to the Representational World:
Adolescent Secure Base Scripts
LUNCH
VI. Helping Parents Provide a Secure Base for Adolescents
TEA BREAK
VII. Videotape Review: The Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment
from Father to Son
VIII. Summary and Discussion
Helping Parents Provide a Secure Base for Adolescents

1. Recognize their Importance as a Secure Base

2. Understand and Recognize Adolescents Secure

Base Needs

3. Increase Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral

Capacities for Serving as a Secure Base
When you put feelings into words, youre activating
this prefrontal region [the RVLPFC] and seeing a
reduced response in the amygdala. [. . .] In the same
way you hit the brake when youre driving when you
see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words,
you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional
responses.

Lieberman, 2007
Summary hypothesis:
Targeting parental emotion regulation can be a central
clinical component in fostering parental secure base
provision.
 VII. Videotape Review: The Intergenerational
Transmission of Attachment from Father to
Son
A Move from Behavior and Emotion to the
Representational World II: The Adult
Attachment Interview
 Adult Attachment Interview

60-minute structured clinical interview

Participants are asked to discuss:

attachment-related experiences during childhood, such as
memories of being upset, ill, hurt
memories of separation, rejection, and loss

Participants are asked to provide:

general descriptions of relationships with each parent

specific examples supporting these descriptions

state of mind with respect to attachment

END