Iii. The Organization of Attachment Behavior in Early Childhood: Links With Maternal Sensitivity and Child Attachment Representations

Abstract

This article investigated two central questions about mother–child attachment relationships during early childhood: (1) the association between maternal sensitivity and child attachment behavior (Study 1) and (2) the link between child attachment behavior and representations (Study 2). In Study 1, maternal sensitivity and child security were assessed in naturalistic contexts among 74 middle‐class dyads, when children were about 3.5 and again 5.5 years of age, using the Maternal Behavior with Preschoolers Q‐set (MBPQS) and the Attachment Q‐set (AQS), respectively. Sensitivity and security were significantly related at each point in time and stable from 3.5 to 5.5 years of age. Furthermore, changes in sensitivity predicted changes in child security. In Study 2, the relationship between the organization of preschoolers’ attachment behavior and the structure of attachment representations (secure base script knowledge) was assessed. Participants were 158 preschoolers between 3 and 5.5 years. Children's secure base behavior was described with the AQS, whereas their attachment script knowledge was assessed with the MacArthur Attachment Story Completion Task. The organization of children's secure base behavior was significantly, if modestly, associated with their knowledge of the secure base script.

Taxometric Analysis of Secure Base Script Knowledge in Middle Childhood Reveals Categorical Latent Structure

“…Further downward extension of taxometric study of secure base script knowledge is critical. The secure base script has been measured in younger children and with other narrative based tests (e.g., Apetroaia & Waters, ; Posada, Trumbell, Lu, & Kaloustian, ; Psouni & Apetroaia, ), but these could not be included here because of methodological differences.…”

Interparental conflict predicts developmental trajectories of maternal sensitivity across early childhood

“…Additionally, 13 mothers were missing information on two visits. Missingness was related to family mobility, an inability to contact families, or families explicitly expressing conflicts with study participation (for more information on sample attrition, see Posada et al [2018]). Overall, 83.33% of participants had data from at least three collection points.…”

“…Given that there were only two home visits, it is impossible to compare trajectories between home and park contexts. For the current subsample, although within context associations were moderately correlated over time, associations between the home and park context varied significantly in magnitude (see Posada et al, 2018). For these reasons, and given the particular relevance of the park context for assessing maternal sensitivity beyond infancy, the current study focuses only on maternal behavior in the park.…”

“…Variability in maternal sensitivity is situated at the forefront of explanations for inter-and intraindividual differences in the quality of children's attachment relationships (Ainsworth et al, 1978(Ainsworth et al, /2015Bowlby, 1969Bowlby, /1982 and subsequent developmental outcomes. To date, a robust body of empirical work has validated the role that sensitivity plays in promoting children's developmental outcomes (e.g., Raby et al, 2015) and confirms that changes over time in sensitivity predict related changes in child outcomes such as attachment security (e.g., Posada et al, 2018). Of particular interest to developmentalists then is how sensitivity might vary as a child ages.…”