Prospective Examination of Psychodynamic Core Assumptions on the Biographical Determinants of Psychological Vulnerability and Symptom Burden:
Predicting personality functioning, psychodynamic conflicts, and psychological well-being based on early relationship experiences and current personality development during the transition to adulthood
This longitudinal study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, 2007–2012), the Center for Research Funding (ZFF) at KU Eichstätt–Ingolstadt (2024), and the Lotte Köhler Foundation (since September 2025).
Building on data collected in 2007 from a sample of expectant parents—which included, among other measures, observations of mother–child interactions, early mother–child attachment, and representations of the couple relationship as an attachment relationship (Crowell et al., 2002; Treboux et al., 1996)—many of the adolescents, who were 17 years old at the time, were surveyed in 2024 regarding their well-being, predominant life themes, and psychological distress (youth questionnaire; Döpfner et al., 2014).
In addition, psychodynamic constructs such as the level of structural integration (“structural level”) and psychodynamic conflicts were operationalised and assessed using interviews and a questionnaire (OPD-CA Structure Questionnaire; Schrobildgen et al., 2019) based on the Operationalised Psychodynamic Diagnostics in Childhood and Adolescence (OPD-CA; Working Group OPD-CA-2, 2020). Levels of personality functioning were measured using the Levels of Personality Functioning Questionnaire (LoPF-Q 12–18; Got, Birkhölzer, & Schmeck, 2018).
Initial analyses indicate that the level of structural integration and the level of personality functioning, as assessed via self-report, mediate the association between the quality of early mother–child interaction and symptom burden related to internalising problems.
Project Team
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Dr. Johanna Behringer (Principal Investigator)
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Julia Festini (Co-Principal Investigator; data collection 2025/26)
Subproject: Assessment of body representation as an “Outcome of Development”
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Anja Wagner (Doctoral researcher, KU Eichstätt–Ingolstadt) – anjawagner@posteo.de
Publications to date from the project:
Behringer, J. (2017). Das Innere Arbeitsmodell von Bindung bei Erwachsenen. In H. Schauenburg & B. Strauß (Hrsg.), Bindung in Psychologie und Medizin: Grundlagen, Klinik und Forschung – Ein Handbuch (S. 55-79). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
Behringer, J., Reiner, I. & Spangler, G. (2016). Mütterliche Bindungsrepräsentation, Paarbindung und Elternverhalten. In G. Gloger-Tippelt (Hrsg.) Bindung im Erwachsenenalter (S. 319-354). Bern: Hans Huber.
Leyh, R., Heinisch, C., Behringer, J., Reiner, I., & Spangler, G. (2016). Maternal attachment representation and neurophysiological processing during the perception of infants’ emotional expressions. PLoS One (Public Library of Science). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147294.
Briggs, S., & Behringer, J. (2012). Linking infant observation research and other paradigms. In C. Urwin & J. Sternberg (Eds.), Infant observation and research: Emotional processes in everyday lives. (pp. 149-159). New York, NY US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Behringer, J., Reiner, I. & Spangler, G. (2011). Maternal representations of past and current attachment relationships, and emotional experience across the transition to motherhood, Journal of Family Psychology, 25(2), 210-219. doi: 10.137/a0023083