Relation Between Children\u27s Attachment Representations and Secure Base Behavior

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that there is a relation between preschool children\u27s forming attachment representations and the organization of their secure base behavior. Subjects were recruited from Greater Lafayette, Indiana. Participants were 50 children 36 to 67 months of age. Each child was presented an attachment story completion task to make up stories regarding attachment events. In addition, information about their secure base behavior was collected through live observation at home and park. Attachment representations were assessed on the extent of scriptedness and elaboration of the secure base phenomenon shown in the stories. A correlational model was used to examine the relationship between secure base behavior and cognitive aspects of attachment representations. It was hypothesized that more secure children will display more scripted and elaborated attachment representations. In addition, it was suggested that specific domains of the secure base phenomenon such as smooth interactions with mother and other adults, proximity and physical contact with the mother will also be positively correlated with scriptedness and content elaboration. A modest and significant correlation was found between secure base behavior and scriptedness but not with content elaboration. Smooth interaction with mother and with other adults seemed to be important for the organization of the secure base scripts but not for elaboration. Age of the child was positively related with scriptedness. Significant differences between boys and girls were found being girls more scripted in their stories than boys. It seemed that some contextual factors such as birth order position or the specific setting of assessment may be accounting for differences in secure base behavior scores. Both contextual and methodological issues were discussed. Limitations of the study and implications for future research were also included

Maternal Sensitivity As a Mediator of Maternal History of Care and Children\u27s Emotion Regulation and Attachment at 2 ½ Years of Age

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine whether maternal sensitivity acts as a mediator in the associations between a mother‟s childhood history of care and her child‟s emotion regulation and attachment security at 2 ½ years of age. It was hypothesized that children of mothers who perceived their own childhood experiences with parents as caring and accepting would display more adaptive regulatory behaviors in fear-eliciting contexts and be more securely attached than children of mothers who recollected rejection in their own childhood experiences, with maternal sensitivity mediating these associations. Participants were 82 toddlers and their mothers. Mothers rated their childhood experiences of care and acceptance with their own parents prior to the laboratory procedure. Each child was presented with four novel stimuli, with mothers present, but not involved for the first two tasks and involved in the remaining two. Presentation of the novel stimuli was in pairs including one toy task (i.e., monster or robot) and one person task (i.e., clown or masks). Children‟s emotion regulation behaviors were coded continuously during the mother not involved condition, whereas observed maternal sensitivity was rated in the mother involved condition. Information about maternal sensitivity and children‟s attachment behaviors was reported by mothers using a diary technique. A path analysis was used to test the model examining the relationship between maternal history of care and sensitivity and children‟s attachment security and emotion regulation behaviors (i.e., distraction, withdrawal, contact with mother). Maternal sensitivity mediated the association between a mother‟s childhood history of care and acceptance and child attachment. Post-hoc analysis showed that this conditional indirect effect was significant only for children of mothers with less than a complete college education. In contrast, a childhood history of care and acceptance did not predict children‟s emotional regulation behaviors, although it interacted with education to predict distraction. Maternal sensitivity was associated positively with distraction and negatively with withdrawal, whereas children‟s attachment security was not associated with any emotion regulation behavior. Results are discussed in relation to attachment theory and continuities and discontinuities in the transmission process in mother-child relationships