background Following Bowlby's attachment theory one can hypothesize that the association between early parent-child interactions and adult depression is effected via interpersonal relationships in adult life.
method This hypothesis was tested in 106 depressed outpatients. Parental bonding was studied and so was the nonverbal communication between patients and interviewers during a baseline clinical interview. For this purpose the interviews were videotaped. The nonverbal patients' and interviewers' displays that indicate involvement were registered and it was calculated how much the patients and interviewers converged these displays over the course of the interview.
results We found that poor outcome of depression was predicted by high paternal overprotection and low maternal care. Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between maternal care and nonverbal convergence. However, nonverbal convergence did not explain the association between the Parental Bonding Instrument (pbi) and outcome of depression. Instead, it was found that nonverbal convergence between patients and interviewers acted upon the relationship between maternal care and outcome: the more similar these displays became, the stronger the association between maternal care and outcome.
conclusion These findings point to a more flexible interplay between early parental inp teractions and adult social interaction in the course of depression than was originally proposed by attachment theory.