Mothers' attachment representation and mother-daughter discourse.
Item
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Title
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Mothers' attachment representation and mother-daughter discourse.
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Identifier
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AAI9108174
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identifier
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9108174
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Creator
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Sirey, Jo Anne.
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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, Social
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Abstract
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The present study investigates the theoretical notion that individual differences in mothers' attachment representations of their relationships with their adolescent daughters will influence the way the mother-daughter pair negotiates the individuation process and the daughter's development of autonomy.;Data for 30 mothers and their ninth grade daughters were used in the analysis. Each mother-daughter pair participated in two ten-minute videotaped discussions of their ongoing conflicts. Mothers and daughters were asked to explain their positions in the conflict to each other and attempt to come to a resolution. After the videotaping, each mother was interviewed individually about her perception of the relationship. A coding scheme was developed to capture the structure of argumentation mothers and daughters used in their discussions. The type of argumentation mothers and daughters used was predicted to be related to mothers' attachment representation. Mothers were classified as Autonomous, Preoccupied or Dismissing based on their representations of their relationship with their daughters. This classification was based on a modification of the Adult Attachment Interview coding scheme.;The findings support a relation between mothers' attachment representations and mother-daughter speech. Secure mothers were able to refer to the grounds underlying their arguments and provide a principle or developmental goal to justify their claims. This capacity to justify a claim was defined as legitimating argumentation. Secure mothers produced more legitimated arguments than either of the two insecure groups of mothers. Insecure mothers did not legitimate their arguments. They tended to rely on assertions of authority rather than logical justifications. Preoccupied mothers were distinguished by their use of pragmatic arguments. No specific speech type distinguished Dismissing mothers from the other groups of mothers.;Daughters of mothers who were secure produced more legitimated arguments than daughters of insecure mothers. The legitimated arguments justified daughters' needs on the basis of self-development or developmental goals. Daughters of insecure mothers were more compliant towards their mothers and resisted mothers' claims in a passively negativistic manner. They were less likely to construct their own arguments.;The study establishes links between mothers' attachment representation and mothers' and daughters' speech in interaction. It suggests that the representation a mother holds influences mother-daughter interaction during adolescence.
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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.
