Poster #138 - Incarcerated Mothers’ Sensitivity and Their Children’s Attachment Security: The Moderator Role of Child Temperament

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Incarcerated mothers are the primary and only caregivers of their children who stay with them in the prison facilities. Turkish law permits these mothers to keep their children with them during infancy and early childhood. It is widely known that relationship with primary caregiver is critically important in terms of child development in such an early period of life. Moreover, studies consistently indicate that incarcerated mothers and their children are at risk for a variety of problems in these adverse environmental conditions. One important protective factor for adverse outcomes of living in prison facilities is attachment security between mother and the child (Belsky & Fearon, 2012). Although researchers mainly focus on maternal behaviors as a vital determinant of child attachment security, studies also suggest that children’s temperamental characteristics affect their attachment security. According to differential susceptibility hypothesis, temperamentally reactive children are more susceptible to the environmental conditions compared to their less reactive peers (van IJzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012). To our knowledge, there is no study investigating the role of child temperamental reactivity in the relationship between maternal sensitivity and child attachment security with incarcerated mothers and their children. Thus, the main aim of this study was to explore how maternal sensitivity and children’s temperamental characteristics interact in order to predict attachment security of children. In line with the differential susceptibility hypothesis, we predicted that highly reactive children would benefit most from maternal sensitivity to develop secure attachment.
Participants were 85 incarcerated mothers (Mage = 30.16) and their children (Mage = 2.5, 55.7% boys) who were staying together at 8 different prisons of Turkey. Maternal sensitivity (Berument et al., in press) and children’s attachment security (TAS45; Bimler & Kirkland, 2002) were evaluated with observational methods by two-raters. In addition, mothers completed frustration, inhibitory control, perceptual sensitivity, and soothability subscales of Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (Putnam, Gartstein, & Rothbart, 2006).
Results of PROCESS macro models showed that maternal sensitivity tended to be a negative predictor of children’s avoidant attachment for children showing (a) low and average levels of frustration (b) average and high levels of inhibitory control (c) high level of perceptual sensitivity. In line with our hypothesis, maternal sensitivity negatively predicted children’s anxious attachment only for children showing high frustration and low inhibitory control. Furthermore, maternal sensitivity and children’s avoidant attachment were negatively related only for children showing high perceptual sensitivity. Lastly, maternal sensitivity negatively predicted children’s disorganized attachment only for children showing average and high levels of soothability.
Findings of the current study is partially consistent with the differential susceptibility hypothesis. It seems that children with favorable temperamental characteristics had the most profit from maternal sensitivity. However, in line with our expectations, children who are more frustrated and who have lower inhibitory control, compared to their peers, were less likely to develop anxious attachment when their mothers are sensitive. Based on these findings, it can be argued that in Turkish culture that has collectivistic tendencies, temperamentally reactive children may benefit more from maternal sensitivity which protects them from anxious attachment.

Authors

• Zülal İşcanoğlu, Hacettepe University
  Presenting Author

• Zehra Ucanok, Hacettepe University
  Non-Presenting Author