The role of attachment insecurity in the emergence of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents with migraine: an empirical study

The Journal of Headache and Pain

Research Article

Rita Cerutti¹  Riccardo Williams¹  Vincenzo Guidetti²  Benedetta Bellini²  Paola Verdecchia²  Elisa Salvi²  Giulia Natalucci²  Luigi Leone³  Marco Arruda⁴  Noemi Faedda⁵ 

[1] Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy;Department of Paediatrics and Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Sabelli 108, 00185, Rome, Italy;Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy;Glia Institute, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil;Phd program in Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Paediatrics and Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy;

关键词: Migraine;    Anxiety;    Attachment;    Developmental age;    Perception of security;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s10194-017-0769-3

 received in 2017-03-31, accepted in 2017-05-22,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIt is widely recognised that there are associations between headache, psychiatric comorbidity and attachment insecurity in both adults and children. The aims of this study were: 1) to compare perceived attachment security and anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine without aura and a healthy control group; 2) to test whether the child’s perceived security of attachment to the mother and the father mediated the association between migraine and anxiety.MethodsOne hundred children and adolescents with Migraine without Aura were compared with a control group of 100 children without headache. The Security Scale (measures perceived security of attachments) and the Self-Administered Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents, a measure of anxiety symptoms, were administered to all participants.ResultsThe clinical group had lower attachment security than the control group and higher scores on all anxiety scales. Anxiety was negatively correlated with attachment. Children’s attachment to their mother mediated the increase in global anxiety in the clinical group. Insecure paternal attachment was associated with greater insecurity in maternal attachment, suggesting that there is a complex pathway from migraine to anxiety symptoms mediated by perceived insecurity of paternal attachment and hence also by perceived insecurity of maternal attachment.ConclusionThese results suggest that insecure parental attachment may exacerbate anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine and point to the importance of multimodal interventions, perhaps taking account of family relationships, for children and adolescents with migraine.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017