Poster #55 - First Q-sort Based Sensitivity Measures in the Context of Attachment in Japan

• In Event: Poster Session 12

Abstract

Parental sensitivity, maternal sensitivity in particular, has historically been a topic of investigation for attachment studies. Prior to developing her seminal lab procedure to study attachment, the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), Mary Ainsworth’s early recognition that differences in maternal behaviors toward their infants appeared to reflect the differing quality of the dyadic relationship naturally led to assumptions that sensitive mothers promote secure attachment. By 1995, however, the first meta-analysis that examined the associations between the SSP and parents’ attachment states of mind, assessed by another ground-breaking measure of attachment, Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and sensitivity, revealed the unclear or inconsistent role of sensitivity connecting parents’ attachment security and the offspring’s attachment security, the phenomenon van IJzendoorn called the “transmission gap.” Two years later, a meta-analysis of parental sensitivity (De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997) reported that differing definitions of sensitivity assessed with differing measures of sensitivity might partly explain this inconsistency. In the past two decades, efforts to “close” or “narrow” the transmission gap have instead resulted in a variety of theories proposing reasons for the gap (Verhage et al., 2018).

In 1995, Pederson and Moran devised a Q-sort measure of maternal behaviors (MBQS), as opposed to more commonly used contingent-based measures of maternal behaviors. The MBQS was developed to assess sensitivity in more naturalistic situations when mothers are often expected to attend multiple daily activities. Indeed, a later meta-analysis of sensitivity (Atkinson et al., 2000) confirmed that the MBQS showed significantly stronger associations with attachment security than other sensitivity measures. Cross-culturally, Mesmen et al. (2016) showed the applicability of the MBQS to 751 mothers across 26 cultural groups in 15 countries. In fact, Japan was included in this cross-cultural study, validating the applicability of the MBQS in Japan. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that independently administered the MBQS in Japan to investigate maternal sensitivity in association with the SSP security and the AAI security.

Forty-five Japanese mother-child dyads participated in the SSP and the AAI (sample characteristics and findings based on the two measures were previously reported elsewhere) and mothers’ sensitivity was measured with the MBQS during the 25-30 min observation that included free play. Independent samples T-test showed that the SSP secure group had significantly higher MBQS scores than the insecure group (p = .019). No significant differences in MBQS scores were found between the AAI secure group and the insecure group although there was a trend (p = .097). In addition, Pearson correlation analyses showed sensitivity was significantly, negatively correlated with SSP avoidant scores during the 2nd reunion, SSP disorganized scores, AAI anger scores, and AAI Unresolved scores.
While secure-insecure group differences in sensitivity scores were expected, significant correlations between sensitivity and several child and mother variables were worthy of note (see Table 1). The mothers with high U or Anger scores were found less sensitive and were more likely to have children who avoided their mothers during the more stressful 2nd reunion.

Authors

• Kazuko Y. Behrens, State University of New York Polytechnic Institue
  Presenting Author

• Kiyomi Kondo-Ikemura, Teikyo University

• Karen M. Jones-Mason, University of California, San Francisco