Maternal adult attachment representations across relationship domains and infant outcomes: the importance of family and couple functioning.
This study focused on maternal adult attachment with respect to family of origin experiences (assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview) as well as maternal marital attachment (assessed using the Marital Attachment Interview), both obtained during the prenatal period, to evaluate the extent to which accounting for family interaction patterns helps to elucidate links between mothers' adult attachment and children's attachment security. This conceptualization begins to address the complex nature of attachment within the family context, and findings suggest that family process (marital and family unit relationships) is an important mechanism to examine as a link between adult attachment and child outcomes.
Dickstein
Susan
S
Bradley/Hasbro Children's Research Center and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, USA. susan_dickstein@brown.edu
Seifer
Ronald
R
Albus
Kathleen E
KE
D002657:Child Development; D004644:Emotions; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D012951:Socialization