Unfolding Attachment in Triadic Families: An Integrative Framework of Synchrony and Internal Working Models As Pathway To Resilience

Resilience in childhood is increasingly understood as a relational achievement, shaped
not solely by individual capacities but by the quality of the interpersonal environments
in which children develop. Yet the mechanisms through which family relationships
translate into adaptive outcomes under stress remain poorly understood, particularly
when examined across multiple levels of analysis simultaneously. This thesis addresses
this gap by proposing an integrative theoretical framework that spans individual
attachment processes, interactional dynamics, and family-level coordination as a
pathway to child resilience. This framework adopts a triadic perspective, considering
the family as a system in which mother, father, and child simultaneously and mutually
shape one another’s regulatory processes. Drawing on attachment theory and family
systems perspectives, the framework examines how children’s internal working models
and attachment-related anxiety may shape the quality of behavioral synchrony within
family interactions, and how this synchrony connects to broader patterns of triadic
family coordination and, ultimately, to children’s capacity to adapt in the face of
adversity.
Findings across five empirical studies converge on the conclusion that resilience is best
understood as an emergent property of the family system rather than a fixed individual
trait. Attachment representations, interactional synchrony, and family coordination
each contribute meaningfully to adaptive outcomes, and their associations are
shaped by the relational and contextual conditions under which families operate.
Together, these results support a multi-level, dynamic understanding of resilience and
point toward the importance of targeting family relational processes in clinical and
preventive intervention.