The Attachment Studies Group - ASG (Grupo de Estudos de Vinculação - GEV) is devoted to the research in the area of attachment and developmental psychopathology.

In the past years, several studies were carried out in order: a) to examine adolescents' and their mothers' attachment representations within an intergenerational approach; b) to explore the relations between the quality of adult attachment and intimate relationships in couples; c) to analyze attachment in clinical (eating disorders; adolescents with internalized and externalized disorders) and high risk groups (adolescent mothers and institutionally-reared children). These studies were based on distinct attachment assessment tools including interviews, observations of interactions in different settings, questionnaires, and psychophysiological procedures.

Our current research is now focused on two main lines, based on similar assessment tools:

(i) Children's attachment disordered behaviors - inhibited and indiscriminate behaviors - using a multilevel approach considering GXE and the role of neural activity in 3 distinct groups of children - institutionally reared, with autism, and with Williams Syndrome, aged between 3 and 5 years old.

(ii) The efficacy of the Video-feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) in high socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers and their children, with the collaboration from Leiden University, Child and Families Studies Team (Judi Mesman & Marinus Van IJzendoorn).

Grants:

2003/2006 – “Vinculação e regulação autonómica: Desenvolvimento da versão 2.0 do BioDreAMS e aplicação a um grupo não-clínico”, Fundação Bial (ref 25/02)

2007/2009 - "Vinculação em bebés institucionalizados e competência narrativa dos seus principais cuidadores: estudo sobre a actividade cardíaca do bebé na interacção com a figura de cuidados através do BioBeAMS 2.0", Fundação Bial (ref. 13/06).

2010/2013 - "Comportamentos perturbados de vinculação de tipo inibido e de tipo indiscriminado em crianças institucionalizadas: comparação multi-nível com perturbações do espectro do autismo e com o síndrome de Williams", Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (ref. PTDC/PSI-PCL/101506/2008)