Background

Previous clinical and theoretical work supports the idea that parental attachment style and complicated grief affect young persons’ mental health, but empirical research investigating their impact on young person’s adjustment to bereavement is lacking.

Objective

This study investigated the impact of parental attachment style and complicated grief on young person’s adjustment to bereavement. It was hypothesised that a) parental attachment anxiety, avoidance, and complicated grief would moderate the link between bereavement experience and psychological distress in young persons and b) parental attachment style would moderate the link between parental complicated grief and psychological distress experienced by bereaved young persons.

Method

This was a questionnaire-based case control study, involving two participant groups: 133 parents of young persons who had experienced the loss of the loved one and 101 parents of young persons with no bereavement experience.

Results

Bereaved young persons experienced greater externalising and internalising problems than the non-bereaved only when they were raised by an anxiously attached parent, but when parental attachment anxiety was low, bereaved children had fewer problems than the non-bereaved. When parental attachment avoidance was low, bereaved children also had fewer externalising problems than the non-bereaved. Among the bereaved, high levels of parental attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance amplified the link between parental complicated grief and child post-traumatic stress, while in the presence of low parental anxiety, complicated grief was negatively associated with an immediate distressing response and numbing-dissociative symptomatology.

Conclusions

Psychological vulnerability in bereaved young persons was associated with an insecure parental attachment style.

中文翻译：

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父母的依恋方式与年轻人对丧亲的适应

背景

以前的临床和理论工作支持以下观点：父母的依恋方式和复杂的悲伤情绪会影响年轻人的心理健康，但缺乏调查研究对年轻人的丧亲适应产生影响的实证研究。

客观的

这项研究调查了父母的依恋方式和复杂的悲伤情绪对年轻人对丧亲的适应的影响。假设a）父母的依恋焦虑，回避和复杂的悲伤将减轻年轻人的丧亲经历和心理困扰之间的联系； b）父母的依恋方式将减轻父母的复杂悲伤和失去亲人的年轻人所经历的心理困扰之间的联系。

方法

这是一项基于问卷的病例对照研究，涉及两个参与者组：133名遭受亲人丧生的年轻人父母和101名没有丧亲经历的年轻人父母。

结果

失去亲人的年轻人只有在由焦虑依恋的父母抚养时比没有亲人经历更大的外部化和内在化问题，但是当父母依恋的焦虑程度较低时，失去亲人的孩子比没有亲人的孩子遇到的问题要少。当避免父母依恋时，失去亲人的孩子与没有亲人的孩子相比，外部化问题也更少。在丧亲者中，高水平的父母依恋焦虑和避免依恋扩大了父母复杂悲痛与儿童创伤后压力之间的联系，而在父母亲焦虑情绪低下的情况下，复杂悲痛与即刻令人困扰的反应和麻木与解离负相关。症状学。

结论

失去亲人的年轻人的心理脆弱性与不安全的父母依恋风格有关。