Linking lack of care in childhood to anxiety disorders in emerging adulthood: the role of attachment styles

Schimmenti, Adriano and Bifulco, Antonia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8316-9706 (2015) Linking lack of care in childhood to anxiety disorders in emerging adulthood: the role of attachment styles. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 20 (1) . pp. 41-48. ISSN 1475-357X [Article] (doi:10.1111/camh.12051)

Abstract

Background: Emotional neglect can be characterized as cold or critical parenting and denotes a parent intentionally
or unintentionally overlooking the signs that a child needs comfort or attention and ignoring its emotional
needs. Parental emotional neglect is widely posited as an antecedent of anxiety disorder, with
attachment researchers arguing for anxious–ambivalent attachment style as a mediating factor. Method:
Childhood experience of neglect and abuse, including antipathy (cold, critical parenting), attachment styles,
and anxiety disorders were assessed in a high-risk sample of 160 adolescents and young adults by means of
interview measures. Results: Antipathy was associated with 12-month prevalence of anxiety disorders in the
sample. Anxious–ambivalent attachment scores statistically mediated the relationship between antipathy and
anxiety disorders. Conclusions: Clinicians treating anxiety disorders in youths need to consider that emotional
neglect in childhood in the form of antipathy could lead to anxious–ambivalent internal working models operating
around fear of rejection and fear of separation.

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