Mother–Child Relationships and Children’s Psychosocial Functioning: The Specific Roles of Attachment Security and Maternal Behavior

Abstract

Objective. This paper aimed to examine the contributions of a second assessment time point of attachment security, along with assessments of maternal behavior (sensitivity and autonomy support), to the prediction of children's behavior problems. Design. The sample included 73 mother-child dyads. Maternal behavior and mother-child attachment were assessed when children were between 15 months and 2 years old. Children's internalizing and externalizing problems were reported by their teachers in kindergarten and first grade. Results. The results indicated that each assessment time point of attachment security, as well as maternal behavior, explained a comparable portion of the variance in children's anxious/depressed behavior, jointly predicting more than three times the variance that would have been explained by either measure of attachment alone. Conclusion. Researchers should consider a multidimensional approach to the assessment of the quality of mother-child relationships, at least when attempting to explain the development of child internalizing problems. MOTHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS AND CHILD FUNCTIONING 3 INTRODUCTION Early childhood is a salient period for social, emotional and cognitive development (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006; Goswami, 2008). Research shows that children's psychosocial adjustment during this period is one of the main factors influencing their adaptation to school and academic success (Chen, Rubin, & Li, 1997; Duncan & Magnuson, 2011). Although psychosocial adjustment can be conceptualized in several ways, studies have often focused on the assessment of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Research shows that such behavior problems not only are concerning and disruptive in their own right, but also relate to several other important aspects of children's functioning, such as cognitive development

Understanding the terrible twos: A longitudinal investigation of the impact of early executive function and parent–child interactions

“…Our model showed no direct effect of maternal support upon children's externalizing behavior. This is consistent with a study reporting no direct association between autonomy supportive parenting at 15 months and child aggression at age 6 (Sirois & Bernier, 2018). While these findings may challenge self‐determination theory (Ryan et al., 2015), the results are consistent with predictions from vantage sensitivity (e.g., Pluess & Belsky, 2013).…”

“…Our model showed no direct effect of maternal support upon children's externalizing behavior. This is consistent with a study reporting no direct association between autonomy supportive parenting at 15 months and child aggression at age 6 (Sirois & Bernier, 2018).…”

Early maternal autonomy support as a predictor of child internalizing and externalizing behavior trajectories across early childhood

“…Therefore, sensitive mothers could soothe an upset child but not necessarily support his or her autonomy while doing so. In line with this, sensitivity and autonomy support have been observed to predict unique portions of children's socioemotional functioning (Sirois & Bernier, 2018; Whipple et al., 2011). Controlling for sensitivity thus allowed us to test our predictions specific to maternal autonomy support, and ensure that any found associations did not represent a halo effect of a more competent mother in the broader sense.…”

Parental consideration of children's experiences: A critical review of parenting constructs

“…Whipple et al's (2011) AS scheme coded how mothers interacted with their infants faced with a challenging puzzle task by rating the extent to which mothers adjusted the level of help they offered, followed their 15-month-olds' pace, conveyed availability and encouragement, manifested perspective taking and flexibility, and fostered choices and agency. Together, these ratings predicted children's secure attachment (Bernier et al, 2014;Whipple et al, 2011), executive functioning (Bernier et al, 2010), and fewer internalizing symptoms (Sirois & Bernier, 2018). Observational measures have also been used to assess parental AS of toddlers during play (Bindman et al, 2015;Frodi et al, 1985;Grolnick et al, 1984).…”