Citation

Barone L, Carone N. Attach. Hum. Dev. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Lab on Attachment and Parenting - LAG, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/14616734.2020.1738510

PMID

32253983

Abstract

The present study represents the first empirical investigation of the mechanisms - a Hostile-Helpless (HH) attachment and reflective functioning (RF) - through which childhood abuse and neglect (CA&N) experiences may impact a mother's likelihood to commit filicide. The sample was comprised of 46 mentally ill mothers. Differences in attachment-derived risk variables between filicidal mothers (FM) and non-filicidal mothers (NFM) were also examined. FM (n = 23) reported lower RF, higher HH attachment, and a more severe history of CA&N, compared to NFM (n = 23), but did not differ on the severity of childhood experiences of loss of and/or separation from attachment figures. Bayesian analysis indicated that the mediated effect of more severe CA&N on the likelihood of committing filicide through higher HH attachment was significantly amplified by lower RF. A developmental interpretation of filicide is proposed and clinical implications for prevention and attachment-based interventions with at-risk mother-child dyads are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

Hostile-Helpless attachment; childhood abuse and neglect; filicide; mental illness; reflective functioning