Heart rate correlates of attachment status in young mothers and their infants.
OBJECTIVE
To explore heart rate (HR) correlates of attachment behavior in young mothers and their infants to generate specific hypotheses and to provide pilot data on which studies to test those hypotheses might be based.


METHODS
Using the strange situation procedure, patterns of attachment were assessed in 41 low-income adolescent mothers and their infants. During the procedure, the HRs of the infants and mothers were recorded. The HR changes were analyzed and infant attachment group differences were examined.


RESULTS
Infants in all attachment groups demonstrated a similar HR response. There were, however, notably different behavioral reactions in the insecure groups: relatively increased behavioral distress in the insecure/resistant infants and relatively decreased behavioral distress in insecure-avoidant infants. Mothers of insecure-resistant infants demonstrated elevated HRs during reunions and the insecure/resistant dyads demonstrated lower consistency between HR changes in infant and mother than the secure dyads.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest the discrepancy between attachment-related behavioral reactions and HR response in insecurely attached infants. Maternal and dyadic HR changes vary between the attachment groups.
Zelenko
Marina
M
Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. Marina.Zelenko@kp.org
Kraemer
Helena
H
Huffman
Lynne
L
Gschwendt
Miriam
M
Pageler
Natalie
N
Steiner
Hans
H
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D010865:Pilot Projects; D014743:Videotape Recording