Transmission of attachment in mothers and their preschool-aged children

A new method is presented in order to assess attachment representations in preschoolers. Using the symbolic medium of doll play and story completions the internal representations of attachment in children beyond infancy can b e assessed. Additionally the thesis of transmission of attachment across ge nerations was tested empirically in a sample of 28 German families from mid dle class socioeconomic background as part of longitudinal study. Transmiss ion of attachment means that parents transmit their different attachment re presentations to preschool-aged children. Secure and insecure attachment re presentation in mothers assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview, are a ssociated systematically with their childrens' attachment representations c oded from the doll play. In the present study the Adult Attachment Intervie w was conducted with mothers during the fifth year post delivery. Their fir st-born children, 17 boys and 11 girls with a mean age of 6;4 years partici pated in the story completion session. Using a two-fold distinction (secure and insecure) as well as a converted 4-level scale of attachment security, results revealed a correspondence between maternal and child attachment re presentations. According to psychometric indicaters the story completion pr ocedure demonstrates satisfying reliability and convergent validity with th e Separation Anxiety Test. Finally, reasons for the high match of mothers' and childrens' attachment representations are discussed. Maternal sensitive behavior, maternal reflection of their own childhood triggered by the obse rvation of their own child, and various learning processes may operate as m ediating factors in this case.