Reflective functioning,maternal attachment,mind-mindedness,and emotional availability in adolescent and adult mothers at infant 3 months

The study evaluated reflective functioning (RF), maternal attachment, mind-mindedness, and emotional availability among 44 adolescent mother–infant dyads and 41 adult mother–infant dyads. At infant age 3 months, mother–infant interaction was coded with the mind-mindedness coding system and Emotional Availability Scales; mother attachment and RF were evaluated with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Adolescent mothers (vs. adult mothers) were more insecure and had lower RF; they were also less sensitive, more intrusive and hostile, and less structuring of their infant’s activity; they used fewer attuned mind-related comments and fewer mind-related comments appropriate to infant development. In adult mothers, the Mother Idealizing and Lack of Memory AAI scales were correlated to non-attuned mind-related comments and the Father Anger scale to negative mind-related comments. In adult mothers, RF was associated with sensitivity. This was not the case with adolescent mothers. In both groups of mothers, there were no associations between sensitivity and mind-mindedness.     

Maternal mind-mindedness and its association with attachment: the case of Arab infants and mothers in Israel

ABSTRACT

We examined the association between maternal Mind-Mindedness (MM) and secure attachment in an Arab sample in Israel. Seventy-six infant–mother dyads were observed during free play to assess maternal MM and in the Strange Situation Procedure to assess attachment. Mothers of secure infants were hypothesized to use more appropriate and fewer non-attuned mind-related comments than mothers of insecure infants. The results showed that mothers of secure infants used more appropriate mind-related comments than mothers of disorganized infants, with no significant differences compared to mothers of ambivalent infants. Also, mothers of secure infants used less non-attuned mind-related comments than both mothers of disorganized infants and mothers of ambivalent infants. In addition, the findings showed that: (1) mothers of secure infants were most likely to show the combination of high appropriate and low non-attuned mind-related comments; (2) mothers of disorganized infants were most likely to show the combination of high non-attuned and low appropriate mind-related comments; and (3) a nonsignificant trend indicated that mothers of ambivalent infants were most likely to show a combination of high appropriate and high non-attuned mind-related comments.The findings support the relevance of MM in an Arab sample.     

It takes two to talk: Longitudinal associations among infant–mother attachment,maternal attachment representations,and mother–child emotion dialogues

Research on the attachment-dialogue link has largely focused on infant–mother attachment. This study investigated longitudinal associations between infant–mother attachment and maternal attachment representations and subsequent mother–child emotion dialogues (N = 50). Maternal attachment representations were assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview when children were 3 months, infant–mother attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure at 13 months, and mother–child emotion dialogues were assessed using the Autobiographical Emotional Events Dialogue at 3.5 years. Consistent with past research, the three organized categories of infant–mother attachment relationships were associated with later mother–child emotion dialogues. Disorganized attachment relationships were associated with a lack of consistent and coherent strategy during emotion dialogues. Autonomous mothers co-constructed coherent narratives with their children; Dismissing and Preoccupied mothers created stories that were less narratively organized. Although the Unresolved category was unrelated to classifications of types of mother–child discourse, mothers’ quality of contribution to the dialogues was marginally lower compared to the quality of their children’s contributions to the emotion discussion. Secure children showed highest levels of child cooperation and exploration. Autonomous mothers displayed highest levels of maternal sensitive guidance during emotion dialogues. We provide preliminary evidence for role reversal in dialogues between Preoccupied and Unresolved mothers and their children.     

Maternal responsivity and oxytocin in opioid-dependent mothers

Although prenatal opioid exposure and postnatal withdrawal (neonatal abstinence syndrome) are associated with infant neurobehavioral deficits, little is known about the impact of continued maternal opioid treatment in the postnatal period on maternal responsivity and relationship to mother's oxytocin release during dyadic interactions in the Still Face paradigm. Mother and infant dyads (N = 14) were recruited and comprised of mothers on opioid replacement throughout pregnancy and postpartum (opioid-exposed group, n = 7) and a demographically controlled, non-exposed group (n = 7). Salivary oxytocin was collected following 10 min of infant separation before and immediately after a 6-min Still Face paradigm. Oxytocin measures correlated strongly with sensitive and prosocial maternal behaviors in response to infant initiation. Opioid-exposed compared to non-exposed mothers had significantly lower pre-test to post-test rise in salivary oxytocin concentration level as well as fewer sensitive behaviors during the reunion condition of the Still Face paradigm. Maternal opioid dependence during early infancy may impair maternal responsivity and sensitivity through suppression of the oxytocin reflex to infant stimulation.     

The role of maternal attachment in children's attachment and cognitive executive functioning: A preliminary study

The influence of maternal attachment on children's attachment and executive functioning skills through maternal sensitivity and decentered tutoring were studied in 40 middle-class mother–child dyads. Infant attachment security in the Strange Situation Procedure was related to maternal attachment security, evaluated with the Adult Attachment Interview. When the children were six–seven months of age, maternal sensitivity was evaluated. When the child was six years old, maternal decentered tutoring and the children's executive functioning were evaluated. Regression analyses indicated that maternal tutoring accounted for the association between maternal attachment and child cognitive functioning, whereas maternal sensitivity accounted for the association between maternal and child attachment.     

Maternal attachment influences mother–infant styles of regulation and play with objects at nine months

We examined the association between the quality of maternal representations of attachment evaluated by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and mother styles of regulating attention and emotion during free play with objects in 41 mother dyads when infants were nine months old. The secure mother dyads showed a greater duration of engagement matches, with more positive matches, and a greater capacity to move from non-matched to matched states. Secure mother dyads demonstrated greater involvement in play with objects than insecure mother dyads. Insecure mother dyads showed a greater duration of mismatches and spent more time in negative matches. Correlations between maternal AAI scores and the variables studied also showed that the maternal Passivity and Unresolved scales were associated with less adequate dyadic attention and emotion regulation, while the maternal Coherence scale was associated with more adequate dyadic attention and emotion regulation.     

Bringing up baby: Maternal responsiveness,secondary attachments,and the development of infant social competence in wild olive baboons (Papio anubis)

Caregiver responsiveness and presence of secondary attachments play a crucial role in children's socio-cognitive and emotional development, but little is known of their effect on the development of non-human primates. Here we present the results of a 16-month behavioral study conducted on 22 wild infant olive baboons (Papio anubis) at the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project, Kenya. This is the first study to examine the effects of maternal responsiveness and secondary attachments on the development of infant social behavior in a wild primate species that does not breed cooperatively. The data track maternal responsiveness and the rates of two behavioral indicators of infant social competence—orienting toward interactions and social play—over the course of the first year of life. Maternal responsiveness decreased as infants grew older, while infant orientation toward interactions and play behavior increased. Infants with poorly responsive mothers were more likely to have secondary attachments, and infants with secondary attachments to siblings oriented more frequently to social interactions than those with secondary attachments to adult/subadult males or with no secondary attachments. These findings indicate that variation in maternal responsiveness and presence of secondary attachments can influence the development of social competence in olive baboon infants.     

Maternal anxiety,behavioral inhibition,and attachment

In a community sample of mothers (N = 763), 46% rated their anxiety above a “normal” range compared with only 15% for depression. Mothers without a partner had significantly higher anxiety (but not depression) than those with a partner. In a subsample of intact families with 1–3 children and mothers selected for low, medium, or high anxiety levels (N = 98), their 4.5-year-olds were observed for behavioral inhibition (BI) and attachment. Although ratings of maternal anxiety (MA) and BI were each significantly negatively correlated with ratings of attachment security, regression analyses showed MA as the only significant predictor. With patterns of attachment, only the Ambivalent group had significantly high levels of both BI and MA. When regression slopes of BI against MA were compared for each attachment group, the Ambivalent group differed significantly from the rest. Further analyses suggest that a child with high BI may be particularly vulnerable to MA, resulting in an Ambivalent attachment.     

Longitudinal association between adolescent attachment,adult romantic attachment,and emotion regulation strategies

Attachment security towards parents and peers in adolescence, and romantic attachment styles and emotion regulation strategies in young adulthood, were evaluated using an eight-year longitudinal design. Fifty-six young adults completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) at age 14, and then, at age 22, the Experience in Close Relationships (ECR) and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), an emotion regulation questionnaire concerning coping strategies, including task-oriented versus emotion-oriented foci. Results indicated that greater insecurity to parents and peers in adolescence predicted a more anxious romantic attachment style and greater use of emotion-oriented strategies in adulthood. Concurrently, anxious adult attachment style was related to more emotion-oriented strategies, whereas an avoidant attachment style was related to less support-seeking. Analyses also identified emotion-oriented coping strategies as a partial mediator of the link between adolescent attachment insecurity to parents and adult anxious attachment, and a complete mediator of the association between adolescent attachment insecurity to peers and adult anxious attachment. These findings support the core assumption of continuity in attachment theory, where relationships to parents influence close romantic relationships in adulthood.     

Maternal mind-mindedness during infancy,general parenting sensitivity and observed child feeding behavior: a longitudinal study

Maternal mind-mindedness, or the tendency to view the child as a mental agent, has been shown to predict sensitive and responsive parenting behavior. As yet the role of mind-mindedness has not been explored in the context of feeding interactions. This study evaluates the relations between maternal mind-mindedness at 6 months of infant age and subsequently observed maternal sensitivity and feeding behaviors with children at age 1 year. Maternal mind-mindedness was greater in mothers who had breast-fed compared to formula-fed. Controlling for breast-feeding, mind-mindedness at 6 months was correlated with observations of more sensitive and positive feeding behaviors at 1 year of age. Mind-mindedness was also associated with greater general maternal sensitivity in play and this general parenting sensitivity mediated the effect of mind-mindedness on more sensitive and positive feeding behaviors. Interventions to promote maternal tendency to consider their child’s mental states may encourage more adaptive parental feeding behaviors.     

Maternal reflective functioning among mothers with childhood maltreatment histories: links to sensitive parenting and infant attachment security

This study examined relationships among maternal reflective functioning, parenting, infant attachment, and demographic risk in a relatively large (N = 83) socioeconomically diverse sample of women with and without a history of childhood maltreatment and their infants. Most prior research on parental reflective functioning has utilized small homogenous samples. Reflective functioning was assessed with the Parent Development Interview, parenting was coded from videotaped mother–child interactions, and infant attachment was evaluated in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation by independent teams of reliable coders masked to maternal history. Reflective functioning was associated with parenting sensitivity and secure attachment, and inversely associated with demographic risk and parenting negativity; however, it was not associated with maternal maltreatment history or PTSD. Parenting sensitivity mediated the relationship between reflective functioning and infant attachment, controlling for demographic risk. Findings are discussed in the context of prior research on reflective functioning and the importance of targeting reflective functioning in interventions.     

Face–to–face interactions between mothers and female infants in wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)

Once considered uniquely human, mother–infant face–to–face interactions (FF) were observed in a few captive primates. In these studies, FF were correlated to physical contact suggesting a mechanism mediating proximity between mother and infant, as is the case for humans. We investigated this hypothesis in wild capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) during the first year of life of eight female infants. Data were weekly focal-day videos of infants from which we recorded FF with mothers. We expected FF would increase with infants’ age (as time in contact with mothers decreased) and would more likely occur in the absence of physical contact between the dyad. There was no effect of age in the proportion of interaction time spent in FF, nor in types of FF. A quarter of FF episodes occurred in the absence of physical contact between the dyad, and in most of them physical contact was resumed following the FF. Contrary to predictions, the stability in the first year, mainly when mothers–female infants were in contact, indicates that FF act primarily promoting opportunities for affective communication and intuitive care. However, we found some supportive evidence for the hypothesis that FF regulate proximity between mother and infant, mainly in resume physical contact.     

Attachment behavior and mother-child conversations as predictors of attachment representations in middle childhood: A longitudinal study

This study examines longitudinal links between mother–child conversations and attachment patterns in early childhood and later attachment representations. It also tests the role of conversations as mediators in the association between behavioral security and attachment representations. Mother–child conversations (snack-time) and attachment behaviors (Separation-Reunion procedure) were assessed for 83 5.5-year-olds while attachment representations (attachment narratives) were measured at 8.5 years of age. Results showed correspondence between attachment behaviors and representations for secure-confident, ambivalent-preoccupied, and disorganized/controlling-frightened groups. Affective quality of mother–child conversations predicted both child attachment behaviors and representations. Secure and confident children showed greater integration of affective information, ambivalent and preoccupied children more affect exaggeration, and disorganized/controlling and frightened children more chaotic conversations. Avoidant children tended to show more affect minimization in conversations. Finally, mother–child conversations centered on the sharing of emotions and thoughts mediated the relation between behavioral and representational attachment security, which underscores the importance of mother–child conversations in the development of attachment representations in childhood.     

Repeated cross-fostering affects maternal behavior and olfactory preferences in rat pups

Disturbances in early mother–infant relationships are strongly associated with changes in the development of a number of physiological and behavioral systems in the neonate that can create a complex change in patterns of vulnerability throughout life. Institutionalized children, despite receiving adequate care, display important behavioral changes in adult life, and such changes are strongly associated with a lack of selective and consistent attachment to the maternal figure in early life. It is not yet clear how human adoption processes alter the mother–infant relationship early in life. Here, to mimic the situation of human adoption and explore the impact on the formation of attachment between the infant and a caregiver, we use a repeated cross-fostering (RCF) model in rodents in two postnatal periods, postnatal days (PND) 1 to 3 (early RCF) and 9 to 11 (late RCF). Early exposure but not late exposure to RCF reduces the pups' preference for the odor of the mother figure. Moreover, early exposure and slightly later exposure to RCF reduce maternal care and motivation in collecting the pups and bringing them to the nest. The RCF protocol creates an unstable environment for mother–pup interaction, but it seems to affect learned attachment to the mother only when it occurs during the corresponding sensitive period of development.     

The role of sociodemographic risk and maternal behavior in the prediction of infant attachment disorganization

Predictors of infant attachment disorganization were examined among 203 primiparous mothers (52% European American, 48% African American) and their infants (104 female). The Strange Situation Procedure was administered at one year. Global maternal insensitivity and overtly negative maternal behavior were observed during distress-eliciting tasks when infants were six months and one year old. Mothers reported on their demographics to yield a measure of sociodemographic risk (i.e., age, education, income-to-needs). Overtly negative maternal behavior was positively associated with the infant attachment disorganization rating scale score, but did not predict being classified as disorganized. Global maternal insensitivity was associated with higher attachment disorganization, both the rating and the classification, when sociodemographic risk was high but not when sociodemographic risk was low. The pattern of results did not vary by maternal race. The results provide some support for the view that negative maternal behavior and the combination of sociodemographic risk and global maternal insensitivity play a role in the development of infant attachment disorganization.     

The inseparability of emotional and instrumental care in cancer: Towards a more powerful science of clinical communication

ObjectiveClinical communication literature currently distinguishes clinicians’ emotional care of patients from instrumental aspects of clinical care, and regards clinicians’ explicit emotional engagement with patients as the key to emotional care. Here we critically appraise this view.MethodsWe draw on empirical evidence and recent reviews and critiques focusing on cancer care.ResultsPatients and families do not generally seek explicit emotional engagement from their practitioners; nor does such engagement consistently improve patient outcomes. Instead some evidence indicates that anxious patients and families can be comforted by clinicians’ focus on instrumental care.ConclusionsSuch findings can be interpreted according to the view that clinical relationships evoke attachment processes. In the context of mortal illness, patients are comforted by being able to trust clinicians whom they regard as having the expertize to look after them. From this perspective, instrumental and emotional care are inseparable. Clinicians’ clinical authority and expertize are the basis for the emotional comfort they can provide.Practice implicationsFor researchers and educators, a consequence of appreciating the inseparability of emotional and instrumental care will be greater emphasis on learning from, and collaborating with, clinicians. Clinicians, in turn, can benefit by communication scientists developing new approaches to supporting their communication. These approaches will need to recognize that clinicians’ emphasis on their authority and clinical expertize in communicating with patients can be central to providing emotional comfort, and not necessarily a way to avoid doing so.     

Infant Vocalization: An Index of Maternal Attitude Toward the Child

Brief observations of mother-stimulated infant vocalizationwere perform ed during pediatric clinic visits on 4- to 6-month-oldinfants to determine whether mothers with positive attitudestoward the pregnancy and/or the in fant would have infants whovocalized more during clinic visits. Mothers with more positiveattitudes toward the pregnancy, assessed prenatally, had infantswho showed significantly more vocalization during clinic visitsat 5 months, 6 months, and the combination of 5 and 6 months.Mothers with more positive attitudes toward the infant had infantswho showed signcantly more vocalization at 4 months and thecombination of observations at 4 months and 6 months. Resultssuggest that brief observations of vocalization during clinicvisits may be useful as a rough index of the quality of themother-child interaction.     

Brain activity during emotion perception: the role of attachment representation

To examine emotional face processing in mothers of different attachment representations, event-related potentials were recorded from 16 mothers during presentation of infant emotion faces with positive, negative or neutral emotional expressions within a three-stimulus oddball paradigm, and frontal asymmetries were assessed. Insecure mothers, as compared to secure ones, showed a more pronounced negativity in the face-sensitive N170 component and a smaller N200 amplitude. Regarding the P300 component, secure mothers showed a stronger response to face stimuli than insecure mothers. No differences were found for frontal asymmetry scores. The results indicate that attachment differences may be related to neuropsychological functioning.     

Attachment disorders: Disinhibited attachment behaviours and secure base distortions with special reference to adopted children

This paper suggests that the behaviours associated with the formal diagnosis of the “disinhibited” form of reactive attachment disorder (RAD) might be seen as a functional adaptation rather than a mental health problem, a facultative response enhancing the probability of survival that is triggered by certain conditions. Although disinhibited RAD is most commonly observed in institutionalised children, similar behaviours may also be a part of the emotional difficulties displayed by some fostered and adopted children (the latter includes those once institutionalised), and these may demonstrate not so much a discrete attachment disorder as either the need to fend for oneself following loss of dedicated caregiving or a lack of opportunity to build specific intimate relationships with dedicated caregivers. In many cases this may be inextricably mixed with the neurobiological and psychological seqelae of maltreatment. Indiscriminate attachment behaviour, from this proposed evolutionary perspective, is less a syndrome of mental ill-health than an astute survival manoeuvre following being orphaned, abandoned or fecklessly reared. Such a response, allied to the innate facility to access caregiving from different adults, could be expected to be initiated by specific events as are the other attachment configurations. Classing disinhibited RAD as an adaptation has implications for helping children brought up under extreme duress when their caregiving environment has changed for the better.