These results are also consistent with the idea that those at greatest risk may benefit the most from later supportive environments (Rutter, 1999). For individuals who experienced low quality early care, a high quality romantic relationship may violate their expectations for what it means to be in a close relationship, promoting a change in cognitive models and representations of the self and/or close others. Such a shift may be reflected in fewer anxious-depressed symptoms. Romantic relationship processes such as the inclusion-of-other-in-the-self (Aron, Aron, & Paris, 1995), partner idealization (Murray, Holmes, & Griffin, 1996), and caregiving (Crowell, Treboux, & Waters, 2002) may also challenge one's previously held ideas of the self and others, decoupling the link between poorer early caregiving and later internalizing symptomatology (Bowlby, 1988).
