Marinus van IJzendoorn | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Dutch |
Alma mater | University of Amsterdam, Free University of Berlin |
Known for | Contributions to attachment theory |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Child and family studies |
Institutions | Leiden University, Erasmus University |
Thesis | (1978) |
Website | www |
Marinus H. "Rien" van IJzendoorn (May 14, 1952) is professor of human development and one of the co-leaders of Generation R at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. His work has focussed on the social, psychological, and neurobiological determinants of parenting and child development, with special emphasis on attachment, emotion regulation, differential susceptibility hypothesis, and child maltreatment.
In 1976, van IJzendoorn graduated cum laude at the University of Amsterdam. Two years later he obtained his PhD magna cum laude at the Free University of Berlin/Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education. After this he continued his work at Leiden University. In 1981, at age 29, he became full professor. [1] Van IJzendoorn worked as a guest researcher at several places in the United States and Israel. He received a Pionier-grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research in 1991, [2] which was used for the start of a new research group. In 1998 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. [3] In 1998 and 1999 he was the dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. In 2004 Van IJzendoorn received the Spinoza Prize for his work. [4] In 2007 he was awarded for his Distinguished International Contributions to Child Development by the Society for Research in Child Development, [5] and in 2008 he received an honorary doctorate at the University of Haifa. [6] In 2011 he received the Aristotle Prize of the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations, [7] and the Bowlby-Ainsworth Founder Award of the Center for Mental Health Promotion and The New York Attachment Consortium. [8] In 2013 he was awarded the Dr Hendrik Muller Prize from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. [9] He has been a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science since 2011. [10] Van IJzendoorn is an ISI Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher 2016 [11] [12] placing him in the top 1% most cited scientists in the psychology/psychiatry world over the years 2004–2014. [13]
Van IJzendoorn was one of the founders of the Lolle Nauta Foundation (now extinct) [14] that aimed to stimulate the study of education, developmental psychology, and child and family studies on the African continent.
Van IJzendoorn still holds an appointment (until 2022) as professor of human development at the Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and is a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge. [15]
Van IJzendoorn's main research topic is attachment across the life-span. Attachment has been briefly defined as children's "strong disposition to seek proximity to and contact with a specific figure and to do so in certain situations, notably when they are frightened, tired or ill". [16] Inspired by Darwinian evolutionary theory and Harlow's experimental work with rhesus monkeys, John Bowlby was the first to propose that human genetic selection had favoured attachment behaviours since they increased infant-parent proximity, which in turn enhanced the chances for infant survival. Attachment is considered to be an inborn capacity of every exemplar of the human species. Individual differences in the quality of attachment emerge in the first years of life, and central to attachment theory is the idea that parenting, more specifically parental sensitive responsiveness to the infant's distress signals, determines whether children develop a secure or an insecure attachment relationship with their primary caregiver. Van IJzendoorn introduced in 1995 the quantitative model of the ‘transmission gap’ between parents’ attachments and their infants’ attachment as mediated by parental sensitive responsiveness. This model generated a host of empirical studies trying to bridge the gap (see [17] for a meta-analysis of this work).
Together with Femmie Juffer and Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, Van IJzendoorn developed and tested In the Video Intervention to promote Positive Parenting (VIPP) program [18] Video feedback provides the opportunity to focus on the infant's videotaped signals and expressions, thereby stimulating the parent's observational skills and empathy for his/her child. It also enables positive reinforcement of the parent's moments of sensitive behaviour shown on the videotape. In the Video Intervention to promote Positive Parenting-Sensitive Discipline] (VIPP-SD) thematic discussions about limit setting issues are included, based on Patterson's ideas about coercive cycles [19] (see: Morality throughout the Life Span), in order to support parents of ‘terrible two's and three's' to deal with discipline in a consistent and warm manner.
Twenty years of thoroughly testing the VIPP and VIPP-SD programs in randomized trials in various at-risk and clinical groups have demonstrated its efficacy in improving positive parenting skills: [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] The combined effect size on parenting sensitivity is substantial. [25] Separate modules have been developed for use with home-based and centre-based child care (VIPP-CC), Turkish-Dutch families (VIPP-TM), and families with a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (VIPP-AUTI).
The differential susceptibility hypothesis proposes that in positive environments vulnerable children may outperform their peers who turn out to be less susceptible not only to bad environments but also to optimal environments. Moreover, the same characteristics that make individuals vulnerable to adversity also make them disproportionately likely to benefit from contextual support. [26] What characteristics render individuals susceptible to environmental influences? Three broad constructs have been proposed and tested as markers of susceptibility: (a) reactive temperament, (b) biological sensitivity to stress, and (c) genetic make-up. The idea of genetic susceptibility was coined by the Leiden team. [27] [28] Importantly, the efficacy of interventions might be underestimated or even go undetected as a main effect when it is hidden in interactions with (genetic, biological or temperamental) characteristics of the recipient of the intervention. [29]
In humans, oxytocin has been shown to be associated with delivery, mood regulation, sexual functioning and parenting behaviours. Emerging studies are showing an increasing link between oxytocin levels in humans and parent-child relationships. One idea is that increased oxytocin levels facilitates postnatal parental behaviour and the formation of an emotional bond between parent and infant, in mothers and fathers alike, by acting to reduce anxiety and ameliorate responses to external stresses. Parents who have a less anxious state of mind are able to increase their focus on infant care, improve mood, and facilitate the capacity to read non-verbal infant cues and stimulate the social learning and reward system in response to infant cues. Although there are strong animal models for the role of oxytocin in parental behaviour, one of the key questions in the development of a psychobiology of human care-giving and attachment is the degree to which the considerable variation in parenting can be accounted for through similar biological mechanisms such as the moderating role of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms and experimentally induced oxytocin levels. Van IJzendoorn and colleagues conducted several correlational studies documenting the role of OXTR in parenting, and carried out various randomized control trials showing that oxytocin enhances male and female sensitivity to child signals, in natural play settings as well as with a cry test, using behavioural assessments, EEG/ERP, and fMRI. A meta-analysis of experimental studies with intranasal oxytocin administration was conducted showing that feelings of trust are elevated and that the expected lowering of out-group trust was not confirmed. [30]
The first nationwide prevalence study of child maltreatment in the Netherlands (NPM-2005) was designed as a replication of the National Incidence Studies conducted in the United States. [31] It was followed by the second National Prevalence Study on Maltreatment (NPM-2010). [32]
At the request of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Dutch Ministry of Justice ("commissie Samsom"), a study on the prevalence of sexual abuse in youth living in out-of-home care was conducted in the Netherlands in 2008–2010. [33] [34] [35]
Van IJzendoorn has been personally interested and deeply involved in a series of studies on the Holocaust, including the (long-term) effects on the first, second, and third generation of Holocaust survivors. In one of the first studies that avoided recruitment of participants through convenience groups (e.g., mental health clinics, Holocaust-related organizations, and advertisements), basic population-wide demographic information provided by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior were used to invite participants. It was shown that Holocaust survivors (now grandmothers) had more signs of traumatic stress and, more often, lack of resolution of trauma than comparison subjects, but they were not impaired in their general adaptation. Also, the traumatic effects did not appear to transmit across generations. Thus, Holocaust survivors may have been able to protect their daughters from their war experiences, [36] although they themselves still suffer from the effects of the Holocaust.
In the first population-based retrospective cohort study of the Holocaust, it was tested whether surviving genocidal experiences, like the Holocaust, leads to shorter life-expectancy. However, against all odds, it was found that genocidal survivors were likely to live longer. Differential mortality during the Holocaust and "posttraumatic growth" associated with protective factors in Holocaust survivors or in their environment after World War II were suggested as explanations for these findings. [37]
Attachment parenting (AP) is a parenting philosophy that proposes methods aiming to promote the attachment of parent and infant not only by maximal parental empathy and responsiveness but also by continuous bodily closeness and touch. The term attachment parenting was coined by the American pediatrician William Sears. There is no conclusive body of research that shows Sears' approach to be superior to "mainstream parenting".
Attachment disorder is a broad term intended to describe disorders of mood, behavior, and social relationships arising from unavailability of normal socializing care and attention from primary care giving figures in early childhood. Such a failure would result from unusual early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers between three months and three years of age, frequent change or excessive numbers of caregivers, or lack of caregiver responsiveness to child communicative efforts resulting in a lack of basic trust. A problematic history of social relationships occurring after about age three may be distressing to a child, but does not result in attachment disorder.
Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is described in clinical literature as a severe and relatively uncommon disorder that can affect children, although these issues do occasionally persist into adulthood. RAD is characterized by markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate ways of relating socially in most contexts. It can take the form of a persistent failure to initiate or respond to most social interactions in a developmentally appropriate way—known as the "inhibited form". In the DSM-5, the "disinhibited form" is considered a separate diagnosis named "disinhibited attachment disorder".
Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development. The theory was formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby (1907-1990).
Attachment in children is "a biological instinct in which proximity to an attachment figure is sought when the child senses or perceives threat or discomfort. Attachment behaviour anticipates a response by the attachment figure which will remove threat or discomfort". Attachment also describes the function of availability, which is the degree to which the authoritative figure is responsive to the child's needs and shares communication with them. Childhood attachment can define characteristics that will shape the child's sense of self, their forms of emotion-regulation, and how they carry out relationships with others. Attachment is found in all mammals to some degree, especially primates.
Charles H. Zeanah Jr. is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who is a member of the council (Board) of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).
Attachment-based therapy applies to interventions or approaches based on attachment theory, originated by John Bowlby. These range from individual therapeutic approaches to public health programs to interventions specifically designed for foster carers. Although attachment theory has become a major scientific theory of socioemotional development with one of the broadest, deepest research lines in modern psychology, attachment theory has, until recently, been less clinically applied than theories with far less empirical support. This may be partly due to lack of attention paid to clinical application by Bowlby himself and partly due to broader meanings of the word 'attachment' used amongst practitioners. It may also be partly due to the mistaken association of attachment theory with the pseudo-scientific interventions misleadingly known as attachment therapy. The approaches set out below are examples of recent clinical applications of attachment theory by mainstream attachment theorists and clinicians and are aimed at infants or children who have developed or are at risk of developing less desirable, insecure attachment styles or an attachment disorder.
The differential susceptibility theory proposed by Jay Belsky is another interpretation of psychological findings that are usually discussed according to the diathesis-stress model. Both models suggest that people's development and emotional affect are differentially affected by experiences or qualities of the environment. Where the Diathesis-stress model suggests a group that is sensitive to negative environments only, the differential susceptibility hypothesis suggests a group that is sensitive to both negative and positive environments. A third model, the vantage-sensitivity model, suggests a group that is sensitive to positive environments only. All three models may be considered complementary, and have been combined into a general environmental sensitivity framework.
Mary Main was an American psychologist notable for her work in the field of attachment. A Professor at the University of California Berkeley, Main is particularly known for her introduction of the 'disorganized' infant attachment classification and for development of the Adult Attachment Interview and coding system for assessing states of mind regarding attachment. This work has been described as 'revolutionary' and Main has been described as having 'unprecedented resonance and influence' in the field of psychology.
Maternal sensitivity is a mother's ability to perceive and infer the meaning behind her infant's behavioural signals, and to respond to them promptly and appropriately. Maternal sensitivity affects child development at all stages through life, from infancy, all the way to adulthood. In general, more sensitive mothers have healthier, more socially and cognitively developed children than those who are not as sensitive. Also, maternal sensitivity has been found to affect the person psychologically even as an adult. Adults who experienced high maternal sensitivity during their childhood were found to be more secure than those who experienced less sensitive mothers. Once the adult becomes a parent themselves, their own understanding of maternal sensitivity will affect their own children's development. Some research suggests that adult mothers display more maternal sensitivity than adolescent mothers who may in turn have children with a lower IQ and reading level than children of adult mothers.
Parental experience, as well as changing hormone levels during pregnancy and postpartum, cause changes in the parental brain. Displaying maternal sensitivity towards infant cues, processing those cues and being motivated to engage socially with her infant and attend to the infant's needs in any context could be described as mothering behavior and is regulated by many systems in the maternal brain. Research has shown that hormones such as oxytocin, prolactin, estradiol and progesterone are essential for the onset and the maintenance of maternal behavior in rats, and other mammals as well. Mothering behavior has also been classified within the basic drives.
Studies have found that the father is a child's preferred attachment figure in approximately 5–20% of cases. Fathers and mothers may react differently to the same behaviour in an infant, and the infant may react to the parents' behaviour differently depending on which parent performs it.
Video interaction guidance (VIG) is a video feedback intervention through which a “guider” helps a client to enhance communication within relationships. The client is guided to analyse and reflect on video clips of their own interactions. Applications include a caregiver and infant, and other education and care home interactions. VIG is used in more than 15 countries and by at least 4000 practitioners. Video Interaction Guidance has been used where concerns have been expressed over possible parental neglect in cases where the focus child is aged 2–12, and where the child is not the subject of a child protection plan.
Video feedback interventions are used in health and social care situations. Typically a "guider" helps a client to enhance communication within relationships. The client is guided to analyse and reflect on video clips of their own interactions. Applications include a caregiver and infant, and other education and care home interactions. Video feedback interventions have also been used where concerns have been expressed over possible parental neglect in cases where the focus child is aged 2–12, and where the child is not the subject of a child protection plan.
Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg is a Dutch psychologist focused attachment and emotion regulation in parents and their children, with special emphasis on the neurobiological processes involved in parenting and development. She is currently a Full Professor at Ispa-Instituto Universitário (Portugal), a visiting Scholar & Research Associate in the Center for Attachment Research at The New School for Social Research, and a visiting Consultant at the National Institute of Education of the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).
Attachment and health is psychological model which considers how attachment theory pertains to people's preferences and expectations for the proximity of others when faced with stress, threat, danger or pain. In 1982 the American Psychiatrist, Lawrence Kolb, noticed that patients with chronic pain displayed behaviours with their healthcare providers akin to what children might display with an attachment figure, thus marking one of the first applications of attachment theory to physical health. Development of adult attachment theory and adult attachment measures in the 1990s provided researchers with the means to apply attachment theory to health in a more systematic way. Since that time, it has been used to understand variation in stress response, health outcomes and health behaviour. Ultimately, the application of attachment theory to health care may enable health care practitioners to provide more personalized medicine by creating a deeper understanding of patient distress and allowing clinicians to better meet their needs and expectations.
Synthetic oxytocin, sold under the brand name Pitocin among others, is a medication made from the peptide oxytocin. As a medication, it is used to cause contraction of the uterus to start labor, increase the speed of labor, and to stop bleeding following delivery. For this purpose, it is given by injection either into a muscle or into a vein.
Lauren Bernstein Adamson was a developmental psychologist known for her research on communicative development, parent-child interaction, and joint attention in infants with typical and atypical developmental trajectories. She was a Regents' Professor Emerita of Psychology at Georgia State University.
The dynamic-maturational model of attachment and adaptation (DMM) is a biopsychosocial model describing the effect attachment relationships can have on human development and functioning. It is especially focused on the effects of relationships between children and parents and between reproductive couples. It developed initially from attachment theory as developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, and incorporated many other theories into a comprehensive model of adaptation to life's many dangers. The DMM was initially created by developmental psychologist Patricia McKinsey Crittenden and her colleagues including David DiLalla, Angelika Claussen, Andrea Landini, Steve Farnfield, and Susan Spieker.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are identified as serious and traumatizing experiences, such as abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, substance use, and other harmful events or situations that occur within a child's household or environment. Unfortunately, exposure to ACEs within the child's community is all too common in low-income households and neighborhoods, with close to 43% of children in the United States (U.S.) living in low-income families. ACEs were first identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente's Adverse Childhood Experiences Study conducted from 1995 to 1997, where ACEs were examined and correlated with later-life well-being. With one in four children experiencing or witnessing a potentially traumatic event, children who grow up in an unsafe environment are at risk for developing adverse health outcomes, affecting brain development, immune systems, and regulatory systems.