Attachment security: A meta-analysis of maternal mental health correlates

This meta-analysis addresses the association between attachment security an d each of three maternal metal health correlates. The meta-analysis is base d on 35 studies, 39 samples, and 2,064 mother-child pairs. Social-marital s upport (r = .14; based on 16 studies involving 17 samples and 902 dyads), s tress (r = .19; 13 studies, 14 samples, and 768 dyads), and depression (r = .18; 15 studies, 19 samples, and 953 dyads) each proved significantly rela ted to attachment security. All constructs showed substantial variance in e ffect size. Ecological factors and approach to measuring support may explai n the heterogeneity of effect sizes within the social-marital support liter ature. Effect sizes for stress varied according to the time between assessm ent of stress and assessment of attachment security. Among studies of depre ssion, clinical samples yielded significantly larger effect sizes than comm unity samples. We discuss these results in terms of measurement issues (spe cifically, overreliance on self-report inventories) and in terms of the nee d to study the correlates of change in attachment security, rather than jus t the correlates of attachment security perse. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Lt d.