Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Marcus, Lisa Moller

Titel

Separateness and attachment: Maternal referencing in toddlers

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

1988

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The present study investigates the theoretical notion that individual differences in the internal working models underlying infants' attachment to their mothers will influence the way in which the dyad negotiates the child's increasing independence and separateness in toddlerhood. Data were gathered on 16 mother-toddler dyads from videotaped play sessions when the toddlers were 28-months old. Each toddler was encouraged to play alone while mother sat at the side of the play area and conversed with an examiner. The setting did not impose complete separation, but rather required the dyad to actively choose and maintain separateness in whatever way they were able. A coding system was developed to record instances when the child referenced mother (by looking at, touching, or speaking to her) and instances when mother responded to her child's bids for attention. All dyads had been classified according to attachment status in Ainsworth's Strange Situation paradigm when the infants were 18 months old; eight dyads were classified as securely attached and eight were classified as insecurely attached. The findings support the hypothesis that the different internal working models of attachment which are presumed to characterize the secure and insecure groups will be reflected in different patterns of maternal referencing. Insecurely attached toddlers manifest the pattern of referencing predicted on the basis of their internal working models of mother as an inconsistently available resource. They reference mother less frequently, their referencing is more often non-verbal, and they are less flexible in choosing the distance from which they reference mother. Mothers of insecure toddlers are also less responsive to their toddlers' bids for attention. In contrast, securely attached toddlers manifest the pattern of referencing predicted on the basis of their less rule-bound internal working models of the attachment relationship. They reference mother more frequently, their referencing is more often verbal, and they show greater flexibility in the distance from which they reference mother. Mothers of securely attached toddlers are also more responsive to their children's bids for attention.