Abstract
Anxiety is an evolutionary construct, our understanding of which has grown significantly. Research has shown that 15.7 million people living in the United States are affected by anxiety in any given year and that as many as 30 million suffer from anxiety at one point during their life (Lépin 2013). Different manifestations of anxiety indicate its nature and often severity. For instance, Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene (1970), describing anxiety as commonly experienced, distinguished state anxiety from trait anxiety. However, people often experience a more severe, more primal kind of anxiety, introduced by Freud as annihilation anxiety (AA). AA is defined as an “individual’s subjective fear of impending psychic or physical destruction when faced with unanticipated overwhelming situations” (Benveniste et al. 1998, p. 537). Moreover, AA is characterized as experiencing feelings of being overwhelmed, of merger, disintegration, and impingement, as well as an inability to cope, feelings of loss of support and self-cohesion, and fears of impending catastrophe threatening one’s survival (Benveniste et al. 1998). Hurvich (1989) has noted that “AA is more likely to be activated in adults when any of the following are present, and the more of these that are present, the more likely it is that the derivatives of annihilation anxieties will be found: (1) a history of traumatic life experiences; (2) current traumatic stress; (3) significant ego weakness and deficits; (4) a threat of loss of the sense of self; (5) tendency for substantial ego regressions” (p. 319).
Studies investigating the severity of AA have found a variety of characteristics. First, a study investigating AA in a clinical and nonclinical population revealed higher levels of AA in patients at risk for psychosis (Davidsen and Rosenbaum 2011). Further, Miller (2002) found that high anxiety symptomatology and PTSD symptoms served as significant predictors of subsequent AA. Hurvich (1989) noted that repeated experiences of helplessness or feelings of being overwhelmed during early development interfere with children’s psychic content as these experiences surpass their ego capacities. Hurvich concluded that “childhood traumas such as accidents, surgery, abuse, adoption and deaths” are associated with and make children more prone to experience AA (p. 320). Even though AA has been in the literature since Freud’s conceptualization of traumatic anxiety (1926), relatively little research has been conducted on the concept.
Purpose
This study sought to fill some of the gaps. First, even though childhood trauma has been reported to correlate with AA (Jantzen 1992; Jovic 2005), this relationship needed to be validated. However, aside from child abuse, children are exposed to other negative life events (LEs) that might not be considered as severe, though an accumulation of negative LEs might have similar effects on adult psychic organization. Research has found that early parental loss, parental discord, or being bullied in school was associated with adult anxiety symptomatology (Nickerson et al. 2013; Riggio 2004; Gladstone, Parker, and Malhi 2006). Thus, the current study sought to examine how more tangible life events are related to AA frequencies. Last, according to attachment theory, early insecure attachment to a caregiver corresponds to insecure adult attachment patterns (Ainsworth et al. 1978). Consistent with this rationale, research has shown that adults with insecure attachment styles are more prone to anxiety (Jinyao 2012), particularly social anxiety (Bifulco et al. 2006; Eng et al. 2001). The second purpose of the current study, then, is to determine whether adult attachment is related to heightened AA frequencies. Thus, our research question is twofold: (1) How do child abuse and adverse life events affect the frequency of AA in adults? (2) What is the relationship between adult attachment styles and adult manifestations of AA?
Variables
Independent variables included (1) childhood trauma, defined as sexual, physical, or emotional abuse, assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein et al. 2003); (2) life events, assessed using the Life Event Questionnaire for Young Adults (LEQ; Steele and Steele 2001); and (3) attachment, assessed using the Relationship Scale Questionnaire (RSQ; Griffin and Bartholomew 1994).
The dependent variable was AA, measured using the Hurvich Experience Inventory–50 (HEI-50; Hurvich, Allen, and McGuire 2009).
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses are thought to be supported in the current sample: (1) High prevalence of early child abuse is positively correlated with high levels of AA. (2) Higher frequencies of negative life events are positively related to higher frequencies of AA. (3) Secure adult attachment is negatively correlated with AA, whereas insecure attachment is positively correlated.
Method
A sample of 127 undergraduate psychology students (28 male and 99 female) with an age range from 18 to 43 (mean = 20.28) completed the battery of questionnaires (HEI-50, CTQ, LEQ, RSQ) at a northeastern university.
Results
Initial examination of the variables for normality revealed non-normal distribution of AA and CTQ data. Coefficients were computed using Spearmen’s rho correlations, and a p value of less than .005 (.05/10 = .005) was required for significance. Regarding hypothesis 1, nonparametric Spearman’s rho correlations between child abuse and levels of AA were significant with r(128) = .348, p < .005. As for hypothesis 2, Spearman’s rho correlations between the quantity of negative LE and levels of AA were significant with r(128) = .401, p < .005. Findings for hypothesis 3 evidenced statistically significant relationships for secure attachment and AA with r(128) = -.381, p < .005. However, among the insecure attachment patterns, fearful adult attachment was significant with r(128) = 341, p > .005, and preoccupied adult attachment was also significant with r(128) = .385, p > .001. However, dismissive adult attachment pattern was not significant, with r(128) = .058, p > .515.
Discussion
Our findings are in line with earlier research suggesting that early trauma increases anxiety symptomatology in adulthood (Banyard et al. 2002; Fedoroff et al. 2000), in that frequencies of AA were found to be higher in participants who experienced either child abuse or heaped negative LEs. Our results strengthen earlier findings on the strong correlation between child abuse and AA (Jantzen 1992; Jovic 2005). These three studies suggest that the adult consequences of childhood trauma are much more serious than was assumed by other research that indicated a relationship to anxiety symptomatology. As such, consequences of early childhood trauma reach beyond generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), seasonal affective disorder (SAD), personality disorders (PD), or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, in that it evokes adults’ fears of psychic and physical destruction.
The present research showed that an accumulation of negative LEs relates to higher frequencies of AA in adulthood. Using the diathesis-stress model, negative LEs might constitute stressors that make children more vulnerable to experiencing threat and thus gradually becoming more prone to develop higher frequencies of AA.
The finding of a positive relationship between secure adult attachment and lower frequencies of AA accords well with attachment theory. Mother-infant attachment is based on maternal mirroring that allows the infant to understand its own and others’ emotional states. The understanding that one is able to securely predict patterns of behaviors and responses of self and others requires cohesive ego functions, which thus lower AA frequencies.
On the flip side, insecure attachment evidences failure of parental containment of intolerable infant affective states due to a parental flight into defense mechanisms (Fonagy and Target 2003). It can be speculated that the inability to regulate distress and the heightened experience of threat cumulate into higher experiences of AA.
Interestingly, dismissive adult attachment did not yield significant results. This can be explained by dismissive individuals’ tendency to minimize the role of important attachment figures and to downplay or dismiss anxiety-provoking life events. This denial of AA is reflected in the nonsignificant relationship between dismissive attachment and AA.
The findings of the present study are significant on several levels. First, the study strengthens the concept of AA and stresses its severity above and beyond state or trait anxiety (Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene 1970). The correlations of AA and childhood events solidify its character as a form of trait anxiety that affects one’s psyche beyond childhood well into adulthood. The study further stresses the severity of child abuse, in that it has long-lasting effects that are likely to influence adult ego integration, self-cohesion, and boundary maintenance. Further, this research stresses the importance of a thorough evaluation of a patient’s early history and suggests a consideration of the diatheses-stress model for that particular patient. Last, this study contributes greatly to the literature on attachment. Most research focuses on early attachment to caregivers; there is, however, a paucity of research on adult attachment and its antecedents. Applying attachment theory, this study explains how secure attachment serves as a protective factor well beyond childhood, whereas insecure attachment exposes adults to higher frequencies of AA, which is likely to affect their overall psychological well-being.