Poster #47 - Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment Disorganization: Maltreatment as a Mediator of the Relation between Maternal Hostile-Helpless State of Mind and Child Disorganized Attachment

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

Attachment disorganization is associated with higher risk of child psychosocial maladaptation (Fearon et al., 2010). Previous studies on the determinants of attachment disorganization have shown that disrupted parent-child affective communication (Madigan et al., 2006) and child maltreatment (Cyr et al., 2010) are related to the development of a disorganized attachment. Maternal Hostile-Helpless (HH) state of mind, which is a form of adult disorganized attachment, has been found to be related to both offspring attachment disorganization (Lyons-Ruth, 2005) and the risk of offspring maltreatment (Frigerio et al., 2013). Although many studies have examined the intergenerational transmission of attachment, few have been conducted using maternal HH state of mind, and none has assessed the role of maltreatment in the transmission of attachment disorganization. The aim of this study is to evaluate the mediating role of offspring maltreatment in the association between maternal HH state of mind and offspring disorganized attachment.

Participants were 144 mother-child dyads (aged 4 to 6 years; 71 boys, 73 girls) from low-income families: 52 maltreated children (according to Child Protection Services records) and 92 non-maltreated children. Child attachment was measured through a modified Strange Situation procedure, the Separation-Reunion Procedure (Cassidy et al., 1992). Maternal HH state of mind was evaluated with the Adult Attachment Interview (George et al., 1996) using the Hostile-Helpless Coding System (Lyons-Ruth & al., 2005). Mothers’ state of mind and children’s attachment were coded by two independent teams of certified coders.

Attachment distribution in mothers and children was as follows: 70 mothers (48.6%) had a HH state of mind and 74 mothers (51.4%) a non-HH state of mind; 54 children (37.5%) had a disorganized attachment and 90 (62.5%) had an organized attachment. Chi square analyses showed no significant association between maternal HH state of mind and offspring disorganized attachment. However, results indicated that a greater proportion of maltreated children presented a disorganized attachment and had a mother with a HH state of mind than non-maltreated children (see Figure 1). The mediating role of offspring maltreatment in the relation between maternal HH state of mind and offspring attachment disorganization was examined using Mplus (version 8.8) with 5,000 bootstrap samples. As shown in Figure 2, analyses revealed a significant indirect effect of maternal HH state of mind on offspring attachment disorganization through offspring maltreatment (ab = 0.227; 95% CI: 0.084-0.395), and no direct effect of HH state of mind on offspring attachment disorganization (c' = -0.103; 95% CI: -0.249-0.040).

These results suggest that child maltreatment is one mechanism through which attachment disorganization is transmitted from the mother to the child. Specifically, maternal HH state of mind is associated with a higher risk of maltreating the child, which is in turn related to a higher risk of the child developing a disorganized attachment. Discussion focuses on how children’s behaviors, emotions and needs may act as a trigger of their own history of early trauma in mothers with a HH state of mind, which is then re-enacted in their relationship with their children.

Authors

• charlotte urbain, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)
  Presenting Author

• Diane St-Laurent, Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres

• Karine Dubois-Comtois, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)

• Tristan Milot, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières