Preschool child-mother attachment, infant disorganization, and maternal sensitivity among Asian families in Singapore

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Attachment theory provides a framework to understand the role of early interactions with a caregiver for children’s development (Bowlby, 1969/1982). To this day, however, there is an “absurdly small” body of literature on children’s attachment strategies in non-Western cultures (Mesman et al., 2016), and thus a need to replicate important tenets of attachment theory in such cultures. In particular, it is unknown whether infant disorganization morphs into controlling attachment in the preschool years in non-Western cultures (Moss et al., 2005). Additionally, more research is needed on the additional contextual determinants of attachment. Indeed, most lab-based attachment research has not considered how much time parents spend with their children, perhaps assuming that only a very minimal amount is necessary to ensure a dose-response effect of parental behavior and continuity of attachment relationships over time. However, previous southeast Asian research has suggested a moderating effect of parental exposure upon relations between parental sensitivity and child outcomes (e.g., Wen et al, 2017). This study furthers our inter-cultural understanding of attachment by assessing child-mother attachment longitudinally in a Singaporean sample with early maternal exposure as a contextual variable, along with maternal sensitivity and disorganized infant attachment as precursors. We expected (1) infant disorganization and maternal (in)sensitivity to predict higher behavioral-disorganization, caregiving-control, and punitive-control in the preschool years, and (2) stronger associations when maternal exposure levels are high. The sample comprised a subset of 207 child-mother dyads drawn from a prospective pregnancy cohort study in Singapore, the Growing Up in Singapore Toward Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO; Soh et al., 2013). When infants were 6-months old, mothers reported on the time spent with their infant during the infant’s waking hours. Following guidelines by Wen and colleagues (2017), proportions of 50% or more were coded as ‘high maternal exposure’, and proportions below 50% as ‘low maternal exposure’. Maternal sensitivity at 6 months was measured during a 15-minute free-play task using the Maternal Behavioral Q-Sort-V (MBQS; Pederson et al., 1999). Infants’ disorganized attachment was measured on a 1-9 scale at 18 months during the Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth et al., 1978). The six types of preschool attachment behaviors (security, avoidance, ambivalence, behavioral-disorganization, caregiving-control, punitive-control) were measured at 41 months during a modified separation-reunion procedure (Cassidy & Marvin, 1992) and coded on 1-9 scales using the Preschool Attachment Rating Scales (Deneault et al., 2020). Descriptive statistics and correlations are shown in Table 1. A multi-group model examined the stability from early maternal sensitivity to infant disorganization to preschool attachment across maternal exposure status. In the ‘high exposure group’ (see Figure 1), higher infant disorganization predicted lower security and higher caregiving-control in the preschool years. Higher early maternal sensitivity also predicted lower caregiving-control. In the ‘low exposure group’, higher infant disorganization predicted higher security and lower ambivalence in the preschool years, but did not predict any disorganized scales. These results provide insight into the stability of attachment behaviors in Asian children, and highlights the role of early exposure to the mother in the formation of attachment bonds.

Group Authors

Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO)Group

Authors

• Audrey-Ann Deneault, University of Calgary (U of C)
  Presenting Author

• Jean-Francois Bureau, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kim Yurkowski, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jeffry Quan, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anqi Qiu, National University of Singapore
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yap Seng Chong, National University of Singapore
  Non-Presenting Author

• Fabian Yap, Singapore Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kok Hian Tan, Singapore Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michael Meaney, McGill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anne Elise Rifkin-Graboi, National Institute of Education
  Non-Presenting Author