Maternal Representations of Attachment during Pregnancy Predict the Organization of Infant-Mother Attachment at One Year of Age
Conducted a prospective study to investigate the associationbetween 96 primiparous mothers' Adult Attachment Interviews before birth and infant attachment (46 boys, 50 girls) at 12 months assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure.
75% of secure mothers were found to have secure infants at 1 year. There was 75% concordance between mother/infant attachment when comparing secure with insecure attachment styles. This reduced to 66% concordance between the three specific attachment styles. Strong concordance was found between the autonomous and dismissing AAI classifications and the secure and anxious avoidant SSP classification. Anxious resistance was not well predicted by AAI classification and preoccupied AAI classification was predictive only of infant insecurity, not the type of insecurity involved.
|
Mothers |
Infants |
| AAI Classification |
No. |
Most likely to be: |
Least likely to be: |
| Autonomous |
59 |
Secure |
Anxious avoidant. |
| Dismissing |
22 |
Anxious/avoidant |
Secure |
| Preoccupied |
15 |
Avoidant or Resistant |
Secure |
| |
|
|
|
Adult Attachment Interview ratings were examined with respect to infant attachment style and the following effects were observed:
Associations between Maternal AAI Rating Scale and Infant SSP Attachment Style
| Mothers' AAI Rating Scale |
Infant's Attachment Style |
| Loving mother |
Secure and anxious resistant |
| Rejecting mother |
Secure and anxious resistant |
| Idealization |
Insecure |
| Inability to recall |
Anxious avoidant |
| Coherence |
Secure |
It was informally observed that mother who were classified as Autonomous during pregnancy but who then had insecurely attached children reported high degrees of disillusionment with being a mother.