The Joint Effect of Marital Conflict and Maternal Sensitivity within the First Year in Prediction of Infant Attachment

• In Event: 2-065 - Influences and Mechanisms of the Influence of Parental Conflict on Children

Integrative Statement

Parents who have more conflict with their partners experience higher distress that may negatively affect their parenting behaviors (Frosch et al., 2000). Compromised parenting may result in infants not being able to rely on their parents to regulate their stress, and thus developing insecure parent-child attachment relationships (Erel & Burman, 1995). A mediating model in which maternal sensitivity mediates the link between marital conflict and child outcomes has been supported in previous research (Crockenberg, Leerkes, & Lekka, 2007; Owen & Cox, 1997). Recently, a moderating effect of maternal sensitivity has received researchers’ attention such that the effect of marital conflict on child outcomes differs based on levels of maternal sensitivity (Hibel et al., 2011; Manning et al., 2014). A person-centered approach examining the joint effect of marital conflict and maternal sensitivity may reveal findings that cannot be found by testing independent and interactive effects. Therefore, we examine the joint effect of marital conflict and maternal sensitivity across the first year of life in predicting infant attachment. We hypothesized that infants whose families were characterized by lower conflict and high sensitivity would demonstrate better outcomes, whereas families characterized by high conflict and low sensitivity will demonstrate maladaptive outcomes compared to other profiles (Frosch et al., 2000).
Participants in the current study were drawn from a larger sample that consisted of 259 primiparous mothers (50% African American) and their infants (50% were female). The majority (71%) of mothers were married or living with their child’s father. Mothers came to the lab during the 3rd trimester, and mothers and infants came back at 6 months and 1 year of age and engaged in a series of interactive tasks. Marital conflict was measured using the Romantic Relationship Questionnaire (RRQ) (Braiker & Kelley, 1979) at all three time points. Trained raters rated maternal sensitivity separately for each observational task using Ainsworth’s et al (1974) 9-point Sensitivity/Insensitivity scale. Sensitivity to distress and to nondistress composite scores were created. Attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation procedure at 1 year. Infants were classified into secure-insecure categories (secure: N =168, insecure: N = 35) (k = .86). They were additionally scaled on the continuous dimensions of avoidance (M = 3.94, SD = 1.14, a = .86) and resistance/disorganization (M = 2.22, SD = 1.08, a =.53) (Fraley & Spieker, 2003).
The 4-profile solution emerged as the best solution and the profiles were named as: Profile 1 (low conflict, low sensitivity), profile 2 (low conflict, high sensitivity), profile 3 (high conflict, low sensitivity) and profile 4 (high conflict, high sensitivity). Results showed that infants from profile 3 (high conflict and low sensitivity) were more likely to have insecure attachment compared to profile 1 and 2, and had higher attachment avoidance compared to profile 2. Differences were not found for attachment resistance/disorganization across profiles. Therefore, infants from families characterized by both high conflict and low sensitivity were at greater risk for maladaptive attachment outcomes. These findings have implications for intervention with families with young children.

Authors

• Jin Qu, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, PA
  Presenting Author

• Esther Leerkes, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author