Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:27:33.858Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The Dual Viewpoints of Mother and Child on Their Relationship: A Longitudinal Study of Interaction and Representation

from Part Two - Research Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

By
Anat Scher ,
Judith Harel ,
Miri Scharf  and
Liora Klein
Edited by
Ofra Mayseless
Anat Scher
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Israel
Judith Harel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Israel
Miri Scharf
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Israel
Liora Klein
Affiliation:
University of Haifa, Israel
Ofra Mayseless
Affiliation:
University of Haifa, Israel
Get access

Summary

Abstract

This chapter addresses behavioral and representational facets of the mother–child emotional tie at two developmental periods: towards the end of infancy and towards school entry. Using data from a longitudinal study with low-risk mothers and infants (Scher, 1991), we examined the predictive validity of mothers' sensitivity when playing with their 12-month-olds to parenting representations at age six years. The Attachment Story Completion Task (Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990) was administered to 42 children; their mothers (n = 26) participated in the Parent Development Interview (Aber et al., 1985). It was found that high maternal sensitivity during infancy was a precursor of mother's representations of her parenting competency, provision of secure base, and low levels of negative emotionality. Higher levels of negative emotionality, described by the mothers, correlated concurrently with more negative representations of the maternal figure in the narratives of the children. Mothers' sensitivity to the child's feelings correlated with more frequent representations of the mother as a protective figure in the children's stories. The links over time and across domains and perspectives are considered within the frameworks of attachment theory and psychoanalytic approaches.

The study of parenting is a fast-growing field that has yielded a comprehensive body of knowledge, with diverse perspectives (see Bornstein, 2002). Yet many questions remain unanswered on the interplay between the behavioral and representational levels in parent–child relationships.

Type
Chapter
Information
Parenting Representations
Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications
 , pp. 149 - 176
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aber, J. L., Slade, A., Berger, B., Bresgi, I., & Kaplan, M. (1985). The Parent Development Interview. Unpublished manuscript.
Aber, L., Belsky, J., Slade, A., & Crnick, K. (1999). Stability and change in mothers' representations of their relationship with their toddlers. Developmental Psychology, 35, 1038–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M. C., Waters, W., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of Attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ammaniti, M. (1991). Maternal representations during pregnancy and early infant-mother interactions. Infant Mental Health Journal, 12, 246–55.3.0.CO;2-8>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, J., Freeland, C., & Lounsbury, M. (1979). Measurement of infant difficultness. Child Development, 50, 794–803.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beebe, E., Lachman, F., & Jaffe, J. (1997). Mother-infant interaction structures and presymbolic self and object representations. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 7, 113–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellak, L. (1954). The Thematic Apperception Test and the Children's Apperception Test in Clinical Use. New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Belsky, J. & Cassidy, J. (1994). Attachment: Theory and evidence. In Rutter, M. & Hayes, D. (Eds.), Development through Life: A Handbook for Clinicians. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 373–402.Google Scholar
Ben-Aaron, M., Harel, J., Kaplan, H., & Avimeir-Patt, R. (2001). Mother-child and Father-child Psychotherapy: A Manual for the Treatment of Relational Disturbances in Childhood. London and Philadelphia: Whurr Publishers.Google Scholar
Benjamin, J. (1995). Like Subjects, Love Objects. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Benoit, D., Parker, K. C., & Zeanah, C. H. (1997a). Mothers' representations of their infants assessed prenatally: Stability and association with infants' attachment classifications. Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 307–13.CrossRef
Benoit, D., Zeanah, C. H., Parker, K. C., Nicholson, E., & Coolbear, J. (1997b). “Working Model of the Child Interview”: Infant clinical status related to maternal perceptions. Infant Mental Health Journal, 18, 107–21.3.0.CO;2-N>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biringen, Z., Matheny, A., Bretherton, I., Renouf, A., & Sherman, M. (2000). Maternal representation of the self as a parent: Connections with maternal sensitivity and structuring. Attachment & Human Development, 2, 218–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blatt, S. J. & Lerner, H. (1983). Investigations in the psychoanalytic theory of object relations and object representations. In Masling, J. (Ed.), Empirical Studies of Psychoanalytic Theories. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 189–249.Google Scholar
Bohlin, G. & Hagekull, B. (2000). Behavior problems in Swedish four-year-olds. In Crittenden, P. M. & Claussen, A. H. (Eds.), The Organization of Attachment Relationships: Maturation, Culture, and Context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 75–96.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.). (2002). Handbook of Parenting. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bornstein, R. F. (1993). Parental representations and psychopathology: A critical review of the empirical literature. In Masling, J. M. & Bornstein, R. F. (Eds.), Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Psychopathology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 1–41.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss:Volume 1. Attachment. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psychoanalysis.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and Loss:Volume 2.Separation: Anxiety and Anger. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psychoanalysis.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1988). A Secure Base: Clinical Applications of Attachment Theory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brazelton, B. T.& Cramer, B. G. (1991). The Earliest Relationship: Parents, Infants and the Drama of Early Attachment.Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Bretherton, I. (1985). Attachment theory: Retrospect and prospect. In Bretherton, I. & Waters, E. (Eds.), Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research. Monographs of the Society of Research in Child Development, 50 (1–2, serial No. 209), pp. 3–35.Google Scholar
Bretherton, I., Biringen, Z., Ridgeway, D., Maslin, C., & Sherman, M. (1989). Attachment: The parental perspective. Infant Mental Health Journal, 10, 203–21.3.0.CO;2-8>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretherton, I. & Munholland, K. A. (1999). Internal working models in attachment relationships. A construct revisited. In Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Application. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 89–111.Google Scholar
Bretherton, I., Ridgeway, D., & Cassidy, J. (1990). Assessing internal working models of the attachment relationship: An Attachment story completion task for 3-year-olds. In Greenberg, M. T., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, E. M. (Eds.), Attachment in the Preschool Years: Theory, Research, and Intervention. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 273–308.Google Scholar
Buchsbaum, H. & Emde, R. (1990). Play narratives in 36-month-old children's early moral development and family relationship. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 45, 129–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Button, S., Pianta, R. C., & Marvin, R. S. (2001). Mothers' representations of relationships with their children: Relations with parenting behavior, mother characteristics, and child disability status. Social Development, 10, 455–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassidy, J. (1988). Child-mother attachment and the self in six-year-olds. Child Development, 59, 121–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Clark, R. (1985). The Parent-child Early Relational Assessment. Instrument and Manual. University of Wisconsin Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Coleman, P. K. & Karraker, K. H. (1998). Self-efficacy and parenting quality: Findings and future applications. Developmental Review, 18, 47–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, M. & van-IJzendoorn, M. H. (1997). Sensitivity and attachment: A meta-analysis on parental antecedents of infant attachment. Child Development, 68, 571–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fivush, R. & Reese, E. (2001). Reminiscing and relating: Developing relations between parent-child narratives and attachment. Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN, April 22.
Fonagy, P. (2001). Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. New York: Other Press.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E., & Target, M. (2002). Affect Regulation and Mentalization: Developmental, Clinical and Theoretical Perspectives. New York: Other Press.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Steele, H., Moran, G., Steele, M., & Higgitt, A. (1991a). The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its significance for security of attachment. Infant Mental Health Journal, 13, 200–17.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Steele, H., & Steele, M. (1991b). Maternal representations of attachment during pregnancy predict the organization of infant-mother attachment at one year of age. Child Development, 62, 891–905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fonagy, P., Steele, M., Steele, H., & Target, M. (1997). Reflective functioning manual, version 4.1, for application to Adult Attachment Interviews. London: University College.
Fonagy, P. & Target, M. (2003a). Fonagy and Target's model of mentalization. In Fonagy, P. & Target, M., Psychoanalytic Theories: Perspectives from Developmental Psychopathology. London and Philadelphia: Whurr Publishing, pp. 270–82.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P. & Target, M. (2003b). Early intervention and the development of self-regulation. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 23, 307–35.Google Scholar
Fraiberg, S. H., Adelson, E., & Shapiro, V. (1975). Ghosts in the nursery: A psychoanalytic approach to the problem of impaired infant-mother relationships. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 14, 387–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, C. & Solomon, J. (1989). Internal working models of caregiving and security of attachment at age six. Infant Mental Health Journal, 10, 222–37.3.0.CO;2-6>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, C. & Solomon, J. (1999). Attachment and caregiving: The caregiving behavioral system. In Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 649–70.Google Scholar
Granot, D. & Mayseless, O. (2001). Attachment security and adjustment to school in middle childhood. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 530–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harel, J., Oppenheim, D., Tirosh, E., & Gini, M. (1999). Associations between mother-child interaction and children's later self and mother feature knowledge. Infant Mental Health Journal, 20, 123–37.3.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, E. (1964). The self and the object world: Vicissitudes of their infantile cathexes and their influence on ideational affective development. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 9, 75–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koren-Karie, N., Oppenheim, D., Dolev, S., Sher, E., & Etzion-Carasso, A. (2002). Mothers' insightfulness regarding their infants' internal experience: Relations with maternal sensitivity and infant attachment. Developmental Psychology, 38, 534–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lebovici, S. (1983). La mere, le nourisson et le psychoanalyste: Les interaction precoces. Paris: Paidos/Le Centurion.Google Scholar
Lieberman, A. F. & Pawl, J. (1993). Infant parent psychotherapy. In Zeanah, Ch. (Ed.), Handbook of Infant Mental Health. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 427–42.Google Scholar
Luborsky, L., Luborsky, E. B., Diguer, L., Schmidt, K., Dengler, D., Schaffler, P., Faude, J., Morris, M., Buchsbaum, H., & Emde, R. (1998). Stability of the CCRT from age 3 to 5. In Luborsky, L. & Crits-Cristoph, P., Understanding Transference. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 233–51.Google Scholar
Main, M. (1991). Metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive monitoring, and singular (coherent) vs. multiple (incoherent) model of attachment: Findings and directions for future research. In Parkes, C., Stevenson-Hinde, J., & Marris, P. (Eds.), Attachment Across the Life Cycle. London: Routledge, pp. 127–60.Google Scholar
Main, M. & Goldwyn, R. (1985, 1998). Adult Attachment Rating and Classification Systems. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In Bretherton, I. & Waters, E. (Eds.), Growing Points in Attachment Theory and Research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, Serial No. 209, 66–104.Google Scholar
Mayseless, O. (this volume). Studying Parenting Representations as a window to Parents' Internal Working Model of Caregiving.
Meins, E. (1997). Security of Attachment and Social Development of Cognition. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, S. A. (2000). Relationality: From Attachment to Intersubjectivity. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, D., Emde, R., & Warren, E. (1997). Children's narrative representations of mothers: Their development and associations with child and mother adaptation. Child Development, 68, 127–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raphael-Leff, J. (1983). Facilitators and regulators: Two approaches to mothering. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 5, 379–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raphael-Leff, J. (1993). Pregnancy: The Inside Story. London: Sheldon Press.Google Scholar
Raval, V., Goldberg, S., Atkinson, L., Benoit, D., Myhal, N., Poulton, L., & Zwiers, M. (2001). Maternal attachment, maternal responsiveness and infant attachment. Infant Behavior and Development, 24, 281–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sameroff, A. J.& Emde, R. (1989). Relationship Disturbances in Early Childhood. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sandler, J. & Sandler, A. (1998). Internal Objects Revisited. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Scharf, M., Mayseless, O., & Kivenson, I. (1998, 2000). Manual for Coding Parenting Representations. Unpublished manuscript, University of Haifa.Google Scholar
Scher, A. (1991). A longitudinal study of night waking in the first year. Child: Care, Health and Development, 17, 295–302.Google ScholarPubMed
Slade, A. (1999). Representations, symbolization, and affect regulation in the concomitant treatment of a mother and child: Attachment theory and child psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 91, 797–830.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slade, A., Belsky, J., Aber, L., & Phelps, J. (1999). Mothers' representations of their relationships with their toddlers: Links to adult attachment and observed mothering. Developmental Psychology, 35, 611–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slade, A., Grienenberger, J., Bernbach, E., Levy, D., & Locker, A. (2001). Maternal reflective functioning and the caregiving relationship: The link between mental states and mother-infant affective communication. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN, April 22.
Solomon, J. & George, C. (1996). Defining the caregiving system: Toward a theory of caregiving. Infant Mental Health Journal, 17, 183–97.3.0.CO;2-Q>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, J. & George, C. (2000). Toward an integrated theory of maternal caregiving. In Osofsky, J. D. & Fitzgerald, H. E. (Eds.), WAIMH Handbook of Infant Mental Health. New York: Wiley, pp. 325–67.Google Scholar
Steinberg, D., & Pianta, R. C. (this volume). Maternal representations of relationships: Assessing multiple parenting dimensions.
Stern, D. (1985). The Interpersonal World of the Infant. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Stern, D. (1989). The representation of relational patterns: Developmental considerations. In Sameroff, A. J. & Emde, R. (Eds.), Relationship Disturbances in Early Childhood. New York: Basic Books, pp. 52–69.Google Scholar
Stern, D. (1991). Maternal representations: A clinical and subjective phenomenological view. Infant Mental Health Journal, 12, 74–186.3.0.CO;2-0>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, D. (1995). The Motherhood Constellation: A Unified View of Parent-Infant Psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Toth, S. L., Cicchetti, D., Macfie, J., Maughan, A., & Vanmeene, K. (2000). Narrative representations of caregivers and self in maltreated preschoolers. Attachment & Human Development, 2, 271–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toth, S. L., Cicchetti, D., Macfie, J., Rogosh, F. A., & Maughan, A. (2000). Narrative representations of moral-affiliative and conflictual themes and behavioral problems in maltreated preschoolers. Journal of Clinical and Child Psychology, 29, 307–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
IJzendoorn, M. H. (1995). Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 387–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klitzing, K., Kimberly, K., Emde, R. N., Robinson, J., & Schmitz, S. (2000). Gender specific characteristics of 5-year olds' play narratives and associations with behavior ratings. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 1017–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westen, D., Huebner, D., Lifton, N., & Silverman, M. (1991). Assessing complexity of representations of people and understanding of social causality: A comparison of natural science and clinical psychology graduate students. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 10, 448–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolgar, M. (1999). Projective doll play methodologies for preschool children. Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review, 4, 126–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeanah, C. H. & Benoit, D. (1995). Clinical applications of a parent perception interview in infant mental health. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 4, 532–54.Google Scholar
Zeanah, C. H., Benoit, D., Barton, M., Regan, C.Hirshberg, L. M., & Lipsitt, L. (1993). Representations of attachment in mothers and their one-year-old infants. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 278–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×