Children’s Narratives of Sad Events: Attachment Security and Psychopathological Symptoms

• Autores: Edoardo Saija, Susanna Pallini, Roberto Baiocco, Salvatore Ioverno
• Localización: Psicothema, ISSN-e 1886-144X, ISSN 0214-9915, Vol. 37, Nº. 2, 2025, págs. 50-60
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.70478/psicothema.2025.37.16
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Narraciones Infantiles de Acontecimientos Tristes: Seguridad del Apego y Síntomas Psicopatológicos
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Antecedentes: Esta investigación tiene como objetivo explorar cómo las experiencias de tristeza en los niños se relacionan con sus estrategias de afrontamiento, apego y psicopatología. Método: Una muestra de 517 niños describió un evento triste y una estrategia de afrontamiento relacionada. Los eventos incluyeron: intimidación/cuestionamiento, frustración, accidentes/enfermedad, separación experimentada/anticipada, pérdida. Estrategias de afrontamiento incluyeron: afrontamiento constructivo, desvinculación, ausencia de afrontamiento. Resultados: El afrontamiento constructivo se asoció con un apego seguro. Los niños con apego seguro utilizaron estrategias constructivas y de desvinculación para la frustración, estrategias constructivas particularmente en situaciones de acoso, y estrategias constructivas o de ausencia de afrontamiento para la pérdida. Los niños que reportaron ausencia de estrategias de afrontamiento durante episodios de frustración exhibieron más síntomas externalizantes. Conclusiones: Los resultados subrayan la relación entre dimensiones circunstanciales y experiencias emocionales específicas, y la importancia de estrategias de afrontamiento específicas según el contexto para promover el bienestar emocional.

     

  • English

    Background: This study aims to explore how children’s experiences of sadness are related to their coping strategies, attachment, and psychopathology. Method: A sample of 517 children described a sad event and related coping strategies. Events included bullying/quarrelling, frustration, accidents/illness, experienced/anticipated separation, and loss. Coping strategies included constructive coping, disengagement, and absence-of-coping. Results: Constructive coping was associated with secure attachment. Secure children used constructive and disengagement strategies for frustration, constructive coping particularly for bullying situations, and absence-of-coping for loss. Children reporting absence-of-coping during episodes of frustration exhibited more externalizing symptoms. Conclusions: The results highlight relationships between circumstancialdimensions and specific emotional experiences, and the importance of context-specific coping strategies in promoting emotional well-being.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Abraham, M. M., & Kerns, K. A. (2013). Positive and negative emotions and coping as mediators of mother-child attachment and peer relationships....
  • Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation....
  • Al-Halabí, S., & Fonseca-Pedrero, E. (2024). Editorial for special issue on understanding and prevention of suicidal behavior: Humanizing...
  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
  • Arias, J. A., Williams, C., Raghvani, R., Aghajani, M., Baez, S., Belzung, C., Booij, L., Busatto, G., Chiarella, J., Fu, C. H., Ibanez, A.,...
  • J., Lowe, L., Penninx, B. W. J. H., Rosa, P., & Kemp, A. H. (2020). The neuroscience of sadness: A multidisciplinary synthesis and collaborative...
  • Basit, T. (2003). Manual or electronic? The role of coding in qualitative data analysis. Educational Research, 45(2), 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013188032000133548
  • Borelli, J. L., West, J. L., Weekes, N. Y., & Crowley, M. J. (2014). Dismissing child attachment and discordance for subjective and neuroendocrine...
  • Bowlby, J. (1979). The making and breaking of affectional bonds. Tavistock. Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Loss, sadness and depression.
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
  • Brumariu, L. E. (2015). Parent–child attachment and emotion regulation. In G. Bosmans & K. A. Kerns (Eds.), Attachment in middle childhood:...
  • Brumariu, L. E., Madigan, S., Giuseppone, K. R., Movahed Abtahi, M., & Kerns, K. A. (2018). The security scale as a measure of attachment:...
  • Brumariu, L. E., & Kerns, K. A. (2013). Pathways to anxiety: Contributions of attachment history, temperament, peer competence, and ability...
  • Brumariu, L. E., Kerns, K. A., & Seibert, A. (2012). Mother–child attachment, emotion regulation, and anxiety symptoms in middle childhood....
  • Camodeca, M., & Goossens, F. A. (2005). Aggression, social cognitions, anger and sadness in bullies and victims. Journal of Child Psychology...
  • Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality...
  • Cassidy, J. (1994). Emotion regulation: Influences of attachment relationships. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development,...
  • Compas, B. E., Connor-Smith, J. K., Saltzman, H., Thomsen, A. H., & Wadsworth, M. (2001). Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence:...
  • Compas, B. E., Jaser, S. S., Bettis, A. H., Watson, K. H., Gruhn, M. A., Dunbar, J. P., Williams, E., & Thigpen, J. C. (2017). Coping,...
  • Contreras, J. M., Kerns, K. A., Weimer, B. L., Gentzler, A. L., & Tomich, P. L. (2000). Emotion regulation as a mediator of associations...
  • Cooke, J. E., Kochendorfer, L. B., Stuart-Parrigon, K. L., Koehn, A. J., & Kerns, K. A. (2019). Parent–child attachment and children’s...
  • Davis, E. L., Quiñones-Camacho, L. E., & Buss, K. A. (2016). The effects of distraction and reappraisal on children’s parasympathetic...
  • Deveney, C. M., Connolly, M. E., Haring, C. T., Bones, B. L., Reynolds, R. C., Kim, P., Pine, D. S., & Leibenluft, E. (2013). Neural mechanisms...
  • Dubois-Comtois, K., Cyr, C., & Moss, E. (2011). Attachment behavior and mother-child conversations as predictors of attachment representations...
  • Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Karbon, M., & Murphy, B. C. (1996). The relations of children’s dispositional prosocial behavior to emotionality,...
  • Edwards, A., Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., Reiser, M., Eggum‐ Wilkens, N. D., & Liew, J. (2015). Predicting sympathy and prosocial behavior...
  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A.-G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression...
  • Finlay-Jones, A. L., Ang, J. E., Brook, J., Lucas, J. D., MacNeill, L. A., Mancini, V. O., Kottampally, K., Elliott, C., Smith, J. D., &...
  • Forgas, J. P. (2017). Can sadness be good for you? Australian Psychologist, 52(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12232
  • Fraley, R. C., & Shaver, P. R. (2016). Attachment, loss, and grief: Bowlby’s views, new developments, and current controversies. In J....
  • Frick, P. J., & Morris, A. S. (2004). Temperament and developmental pathways to conduct problems. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent...
  • Gaylord-Harden, N. K., Taylor, J. J., Campbell, C. L., Kesselring, C. M., & Grant, K. E. (2009). Maternal attachment and depressive symptoms...
  • Golmaryami, F. N., Frick, P. J., Hemphill, S. A., Kahn, R. E., Crapanzano, A. M., & Terranova, A. M. (2016). The social, behavioral, and...
  • Goodman, R. (1997). The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(5), 581–...
  • Harter, S. (1982). The perceived competence scale for children. Child Development, 53(1), 87–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129640
  • Holmes, J. (2017). Roots and routes to resilience and its role in psychotherapy: A selective, attachment-informed review. Attachment &...
  • House, H. P., Kochendorfer, L. B., Brumariu, L. E., & Kerns, K. A. (2023). Validating the negative emotion regulation inventory measure...
  • Iwanski, A., Lichtenstein, L., Mühling, L. E., & Zimmermann, P. (2021). Effects of father and mother attachment on depressive symptoms...
  • Jeronimus, B. F., & Laceulle, O.M. (2017). Frustration. In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality...
  • Kerns, K. A., Klepac, L., & Cole, A. (1996). Peer relationships and preadolescents’ perceptions of security in the child-mother relationship....
  • Kerns, K. A., Mathews, B. L., Koehn, A. J., Williams, C. T., & Siener- Ciesla, S. (2015). Assessing both safe haven and secure base support...
  • Kerns, K. A., Abraham, M. M., Schlegelmilch, A., & Morgan, T. A. (2007). Mother–child attachment in later middle childhood: Assessment...
  • Kobak, R., Zajac, K., Madsen, S. (2016) Disruptions in attachment bonds: Theory, assessment and reparative processes. In J. Cassidy &...
  • Laible, D. J., & Thompson, R. A. (1998). Attachment and emotional understanding in preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 34(5),...
  • Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Cognition and motivation in emotion. American Psychologist, 46(4), 352–367.
  • https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.46.4.352
  • Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412952576.n198
  • Leibenluft, E. (2011). Severe mood dysregulation, irritability, and the diagnostic boundaries of bipolar disorder in youths. American Journal...
  • Lev‐Ari, L., & Levi‐ Belz, Y. (2019). Interpersonal theory dimensions facilitate posttraumatic growth among suicide‐loss survivors: An...
  • Lindblom, J., & Bosmans, G. (2022). Attachment and brooding rumination during children’s transition to adolescence: The moderating role...
  • Linder, L. A., & Hooke, M. C. (2019). Symptoms in children receiving treatment for cancer—part II: Pain, sadness, and symptom clusters....
  • López-Fernández, F. J., Moreno-Amador, B., Falcó, R., Soto-Sanz, V., Marzo, J. C., Ibáñez, M. I., Cervin, M., & Piqueras, J. A. (2024)....
  • Madigan, S., Brumariu, L. E., Villani, V., Atkinson, L., & Lyons-Ruth, K. (2016). Representational and questionnaire measures of attachment:...
  • Main, M. (2000). The organized categories of infant, child, and adult attachment: Flexible vs. inflexible attention under attachment-related...
  • Main, M., Hesse, E., & Hesse, S. (2011). Attachment theory and research: Overview with suggested applications to child custody. Family...
  • Mattimoe, R., Hayden, M., Murphy, B., & Ballantine, J. (2021). Approaches to analysis of qualitative research data: A reflection on the...
  • McElwain, N. L., Holland, A. S., Engle, J. M., Wong, M. S., & Emery, H. T. (2015). Child–mother attachment security and child characteristics...
  • Miller, J. G., Nuselovici, J. N., & Hastings, P. D. (2016). Nonrandom acts of kindness: Parasympathetic and subjective empathic responses...
  • Milojevich, H. M., Levine, L. J., Cathcart, E. J., & Quas, J. A. (2018). The role of maltreatment in the development of coping strategies....
  • Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Morris, M. D., Steinberg, L., Aucoin, K. J., & Keyes, A. W. (2011). The influence of mother–child emotion...
  • Obeldobel, C. A., Brumariu, L. E., & Kerns, K. A. (2023). Parent–child attachment and dynamic emotion regulation: A systematic review....
  • Pallini, S., & Barcaccia, B. (2014). A meeting of the minds: John Bowlby encounters Jean Piaget. Review of General Psychology, 18(4),...
  • Pallini, S., Baiocco, R., Schneider, B. H., Madigan, S., & Atkinson, L. (2014). Early child– parent attachment and peer relations: A meta-...
  • Pallini, S., Chirumbolo, A., Morelli, M., Baiocco, R., Laghi, F., & Eisenberg, N. (2018). The relation of attachment security status to...
  • Pallini, S., Marella, D., Bove, G., Saija, E., Laghi, F., Barcaccia, B. (2023). Attachment and complicated grief: A retrospective study. Psychology...
  • Pallini, S., Morelli, M., Chirumbolo, A., Baiocco, R., Laghi, F., & Eisenberg, N. (2019a). Attachment and attention problems: A meta-analysis....
  • Pallini, S., Vecchio, G. M., Baiocco, R., Schneider, B. H., & Laghi, F. (2019b). Student–teacher relationships and attention problems...
  • Pancekauskaitė, G., & Jankauskaitė, L. (2018). Paediatric pain medicine: Pain differences, recognition and coping acute procedural pain...
  • Parkes, C. M., & Prigerson, H. G. (2013). Bereavement: Studies of grief in adult life. Routledge.
  • Quiñones-Camacho, L. E., & Davis, E. L. (2019). Emotion regulation strategy knowledge moderates the link between cumulative stress and...
  • Saija, E., Ioverno, S., Baiocco, R., & Pallini, S. (2023). Children experiencing sadness: Coping strategies and attachment relationships....
  • Saija, E., Cervin, M., Baiocco, R., Barcaccia, B., Ioverno, S., & Pallini, S. (2024a). Dispositional and state sadness, interpersonal...
  • Saija, E., Pallini, S., Baiocco, R., Pistella, J., & Ioverno, S. (2024b). Sharing, comforting, and helping in middle childhood: An explorative...
  • Shenaar-Golan, V., Yatzkar, U., & Yaffe, Y. (2021). Paternal feelings and child’s anxiety: The mediating role of father–child insecure...
  • Shirai, M., Soshi, T., & Suzuki, N. (2021). Knowledge of sadness: Emotion-related behavioral words differently encode loss and failure...
  • Skinner, E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., & Sherwood, H. (2003). Searching for the structure of coping: a review and critique of category...
  • Spinrad, T. L., & Eisenberg, N. (2019). Socialization of moral emotions and behavior. In D. J. Laible, G. Carlo, & L. M. Padilla-Walker...
  • Tabachnick, A. R., He, Y., Zajac, L., Carlson, E. A., & Dozier, M. (2022). Secure attachment in infancy predicts context-dependent emotion...
  • Thompson, R. A., Simpson, J. A., & Berlin, L. J. (2022). Taking perspective on attachment theory and research: Nine fundamental questions....
  • Thompson, R. A. (2019). Emotion dysregulation: A theme in search of definition. Development and Psychopathology, 31(3), 805–815. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419000282
  • Van der Kolk, B. A. (2015). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.
  • Verduyn, P., Résibois, M., & Massar, K. (2020). Sadness. In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of personality...
  • Waugh, C. E., Shing, E. Z., & Furr, R. M. (2020). Not all disengagement coping strategies are created equal: Positive distraction, but...
  • Webb, T. L., Miles, E., & Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: a meta- analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the...
  • Zeman, J., Cameron, M., Price, N. (2019). Sadness in youth: Socialization, regulation, and adjustment. In V. LoBue, K. Pérez-Edgar, &...
  • Zeman, J., Shipman, K., & Suveg, C. (2002). Anger and sadness regulation: Predictions to internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children....
  • Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., Webb, H. J., Pepping, C. A., Swan, K., Merlo, O., Skinner, E. A., Avdagic, E., & Dunbar, M. (2017). Is parent–child...
  • Zimmermann, P., & Iwanski, A. (2018). Development and timing of developmental changes in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation during...