The effect of the nurturant bonding system on child security of attachment and dependency

Abstract

This paper uses a biopsychosocial theory of human bonding to explore the intergenerational transmission of bonding traits. More specifically, it examines how the nurturant bonding system of the mother affects the succorant bonding system of the young child. In the first section of the paper, we take the bonding framework proposed by Miller and Rodgers (2001) and elaborate its implications for mother-child dyads. Next, we describe the collection of data from 78 mothers prior to their pregnancy with an index child and again when that child is between the ages of two and four and a half. These data allow the creation of a number of mother and child variables that are derived from the bonding framework. Using these variables, we construct a temporally organized, structural equation model of maternal effects on the child, with the two main outcome variables being child security of attachment and child dependency. We then test the model using LISREL. Although the results are tentative and require further confirmatory research, they lend support to three broad hypotheses derived from the bonding framework. In particular, the results support the construct of a motivational substrate that affects both maternal childbearing and her child-rearing behaviors. They also indicate the importance of child temperament in the formation of the succorant bond. Finally, they demonstrate that the preconception nurturant characteristics of the mother have multiple effects on the two main outcome variables, child security of attachment and dependency. Two submodels based on predictors of these two outcomes reveal a number of pathways along which these effects take place. We conclude with a brief discussion of the lessons learned that might strengthen future studies of mother-child bonding and, more generally, the intergenerational transmission of bonding traits.

Preconception Motivation and Pregnancy Wantedness: Pathways to Toddler Attachment Security

“…These two feelings then have an impact on the woman's parenting behavior and the interactions she has with her infant child, which in turn ultimately affect the attachment security of her 2‐year‐old child. This connection between the woman's motivational substrate for childbearing, which reflects her desire and capacity to bond with a child, and the quality of her 2‐year‐old child's bond with her confirms and strengthens the findings of previous research (Miller et al, 2002, 2008). At the same time it increases our understanding of the psychosocial processes involved in the intergenerational transmissions of patterns of bonding or attachment (George & Solomon, 1999).…”

“…Previous research has indicated that being born an unwanted child has long‐term effects on self‐esteem (Axinn, Barber, & Thorton, 1998) and psychiatric status (Kubicka, Roth, Dytrych, Matejcek, & David, 2002) when the child becomes an adult. This study extends the existing evidence (Miller et al, 2002, 2008) that these adult manifestations of unwantedness may be rooted in the preconception readiness of the mother to bond with the child and the effect that her consequent postconception emotional states and behaviors have on the quality of the child's bond with her.…”

“…In previous research, Miller, Feldman, and Pasta (2002) showed in a middle‐class married sample that childbearing motivational traits measured months and years before a conception predicted the attachment security of 78 2‐ to 4.5‐year‐old children resulting from that conception and that this effect was mediated by maternal warmth and child temperament. In a second study that involved a largely unmarried, Black sample of Early Head Start applicants, Miller, Sable, and Csizmadia (2008) showed in a multivariate analysis that both positive and negative maternal motivations measured during the pregnancy, although not pregnancy wantedness itself, predicted attachment security in 78 14‐month‐old children.…”

Birth status and adult attachment

“…A few studies have already found an association between birth status (or pregnancy wantedness) and attachment style. In one study of 78 middle-class married mothers, Miller, Feldman, and Pasta (2002) assessed attachment security using the attachment Q-Set (Waters, 1995) and found that childbearing motivational traits (wanting to have a baby or not) measured before the conception positively predicted the child’s attachment security at the age of 2–4.5 years. In a different study, Ispa, Sable, Porter, and Csizmadia (2007) studied 173 young, low-income, first-time African American mothers.…”