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Fifty-six middle-income children ages 5 to 10 were videotaped completing five stories thematically related to attachment experiences and classified according to representation of attachment disorganization (D, non-D). Mothers completed a self-report questionnaire assessing three core components of personality organization—identity diffusion, primitive defenses, and failure of reality testing—and two other self-report questionnaires assessing current depression and trait and state anger. Finally, mothers completed a questionnaire assessing their children's externalizing behavior. A series of multiple regression analyses demonstrated that identity diffusion and disorganized attachment representation
This research was supported by three generous grants to the first author from the International Psychoanalytical Association Research Advisory Board, the Long Island University Research Fund, and the Contemporary Freudian Society. The first author would like to recognize the extraordinary research assistance of Ancy Augustine, Kristan Baker, Christine DiBenedetto, Cherie Gerstadt, Amanda Gopen, Tina Lo, Shay Loftus, Dawn Lotter, Anna Marantidis, Marcia Miller, Zebbie Moral, Grace Palacio, Cynthia Pfeffer, Michael Sapp, Karen Schwartz, Lina Umylny, Adina Valdez, and Becky Whipple during all phases of this study. We thank Judith Solomon and Carol George for coding the Attachment Story-Completion Task transcripts, to Pamela A. Foelsch for providing the Inventory of Personality Organization and scoring criteria, and to Maurizio Zambenedetti for arranging access to the school district. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the children and mothers who participated in this study.
independently predicted externalizing behavior, particularly aggressive behavior. Identity diffusion alone predicted delinquent behavior. Two potential developmental pathways of externalizing behavior are delineated as a function of the significant roles played by maternal personality organization and disorganized attachment representations. Even in a nonclinical sample, mothers' identity diffusion—a key component of borderline personality organization—made a direct contribution to externalizing behavior over and above disorganized attachment representations. This finding suggests that mothers of children with externalizing behavior need psychotherapy to integrate split-off self and object representations and thus provide a coherent parenting experience, while their children need to perceive a coherent image of themselves in the mind of the therapist to facilitate affect regulation.