Behavioural Genetics

Attachment in the Twins Early Development Study

This major project is a collaboration with the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at Kings College.  The study is examining the genetic and environmental influences on attachment relationships in adolescence, and is testing the extent to which common genes and common environmental experiences account for the connection between the quality of attachment and adolescent functioning. The study uses the Child Attachment Interview with a large group of adolescent mono- and dizygotic twins, who are involved in the large national study of twins, known as TEDS (The Twins Early Development Study).  The study is a unique opportunity to test the hypothesis that attachment may represent an important aspect of the shared environment in adolescent development, something that an earlier study of ours found in infants. The study will help to clarify the determinants of attachment in this age group and test important predictions of attachment theory about the social—and relational—determinants of attachment.

Lead Researchers: Yael Shmueli-Goetz, Alison Hughes, Eve Burrough, Jo Mollon, Harriet Mills