ATTACHMENT AND EMOTION IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY DEVELOPMENT

The relation of attachment status to autobiographical memory was asses sed in 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds. Of specific interest was the relation be tween attachment status and the emotional content of parent-child memo ry conversations. Forty-six mother-child dyads discussed four events d esigned to elicit positive and negative emotional themes. Both attachm ent status and gender moderated the emotional content of this memory t alk. Mother-daughter dyads with insecurely attached girls engaged in r elatively more negative memory talk than mother-daughter dyads with se curely attached girls. However, the dyads of secure girls elaborated m ore often on both positive and negative emotional themes than did the dyads of insecure girls who primarily elaborated on positive themes. T he relations between attachment status and emotion talk for mother-son dyads were inconsistent. Findings were discussed in terms of the role of attachment in the social construction of autobiographical memories . (C) 1997 Academic Press.