The Relation Between Insecure Attachment and Child Anxiety: A Meta-Analytic Review

Attachment theory suggests that children's attachment insecurity plays a key role in the development of anxiety. In the present study we evaluated the empirical evidence for the link between insecure attachment and anxiety from early childhood to adolescence. A meta-analysis of 46 studies, from...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology 2011-07, Vol.40 (4), p.630-645
Main Authors: Colonnesi, Cristina, Draijer, Evalijn M., Jan J. M. Stams, Geert, Van der Bruggen, Corine O., Bögels, Susan M., Noom, Marc J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescence
Adolescent
Adolescents
Age Differences
Age Factors
Anxiety
Anxiety - etiology
Anxiety - psychology
Anxiety Disorders - etiology
Anxiety Disorders - psychology
At Risk Persons
Attachment
Attachment Behavior
Child
Child Behavior
Child Behavior Checklist
Child development
Child, Preschool
Children
Childrens health
Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale
Correlation
Cross-sectional studies
Effect Size
Europe
Foreign Countries
Humans
Informants
Meta Analysis
Moderators
Object Attachment
Parent Child Relationship
Psychological Patterns
Questionnaires
Research Methodology
Revised Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale
Socioeconomic Status
State Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger)
Systematic review
Young Children
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Summary:Attachment theory suggests that children's attachment insecurity plays a key role in the development of anxiety. In the present study we evaluated the empirical evidence for the link between insecure attachment and anxiety from early childhood to adolescence. A meta-analysis of 46 studies, from 1984 to 2010, including 8,907 children, was conducted. The results show an overall effect size of r = .30, indicating that attachment is moderately related to anxiety. Moderator analyses indicated that ambivalent attachment showed the strongest association with anxiety. Further, the relation was stronger during adolescence, when attachment and anxiety were measured through questionnaires, when the informant was the child, when attachment was measured as internal working model, in cross-sectional studies, and in studies conducted in Europe. No difference was found between studies that measured anxiety as symptoms or as a disorder, and when different kinds of anxiety were considered.
ISSN:1537-4416
1537-4424
DOI:10.1080/15374416.2011.581623