3-032 - Body Representations and Attachment in Childhood and Adolescence

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Three papers will be presented in this symposium discussing the use of the Mirror Paradigm in evaluating body image in toddlers, school-aged children, and adolescents. The paradigms used in these studies (i.e., The Toddler Mirror Paradigm, The Child Mirror Interview, and The Mirror Interview) have been adapted from Kernberg, Buhl-Neilsen, & Normandin (2006) and are used to evaluate body representations in individuals at a range of developmental stages. The studies included in this symposium present findings on the transmission of body image from mothers to daughters, the relationship between attachment representations and body representations, and the body- and self-representations of adolescents with diagnoses of personality disorders.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Hannah Yves Knafo, The New School for Social Research

Individual Presentations

• Relationship Between Attachment Organization, Mirror Behavior and Body Image Dissatisfaction in Mothers and Their Toddler Children - Tiffany Haick, The New School for Social Research; Kristin Tosi, The New School for Social Research; Presenting Author: Miriam Steele, The New School

• The Intergenerational Transmission of Body Representations from Mothers to School-Aged Daughters - Presenting Author: Hannah Yves Knafo, The New School for Social Research; Miriam Steele, The New School

• Attachment and Body Image in Adolescents: Reflections from the Mirror Interview - Presenting Author: Bernadette Buhl-Nielsen, University of Copenhagen