The relationship between quality of attachment and affective experiences within the parenting relationship: A pilot study.
Item
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Title
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The relationship between quality of attachment and affective experiences within the parenting relationship: A pilot study.
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Identifier
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AAI9029951
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identifier
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9029951
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Creator
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Kaufmann, Jenny E.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Arietta Slade
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical | Psychology, Developmental | Psychology, General
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Abstract
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This thesis looks at the relationship between quality of attachment, as measured by the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan & Main, 1985) and affective experiences within the parenting relationship, as measured by the Parent Development Interview (Aber, Slade, Berger & Bresgi, 1985).;The subjects were nine white, middle-class mothers whose children were enrolled in a toddler group at the Barnard Toddler Center. Subjects were interviewed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and the Parent Development Interview (PDI). Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and were coded by independent raters. Data were analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U Test. Results were analyzed by statistical and clinical analyses. The qualitative analysis provided an in-depth examination of two mothers; one was classified as anxious in her attachment to her own parents on the AAI, the other was secure.;In the quantitative analysis, eleven PDI variables were correlated with two AAI classifications, secure or anxious. Quantitative analysis suggested that securely attached mothers were more aware of their own and their children's affective experiences, and the significance of the dyadic relationship than mothers who were anxiously attached. For the mothers' view of her own experience, variables that appeared to be significant were: acknowledgment of anger (.01), recognition of source of anger (.05), modulation of anger (.01) and acknowledgment of neediness (.10). For the mother's view of her child's experience, the variables that appeared to be significant were: recognition of anger (.10) and recognition of autonomy-1 (.10). For the mother's view of the dyadic relationship, results suggested that recognition of the importance of her effect was significant (.10). However, in view of the fact that reliability coefficients were low for some of these variables, positive results need to be interpreted cautiously.;The qualitative analysis showed that the anxiously attached mother was prototypical of the other anxiously attached mothers in our study in that she had little awareness of her own or her child's affective experiences. However, the securely attached mother deviated from the other securely attached mothers in her moderate rather than high degrees of awareness for five out of the seven variables that were examined. While the two mothers were different from one another, they were not so dramatically different as one might have expected. The findings of the present study suggest that secure attachment should not be regarded as synonymous with mental health or perfection. Rather, it implies a state of mind in which the subject is aware of her own experience and that of her child and is thus able to be appropriately flexible in dealing with the child.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
