The Intergenerational Transmission of Secure Base Script Knowledge: The Mediating Role of Maternal Sensitivity

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

According to attachment theory, childhood experiences with primary caregivers shape one’s internal working model (Bowlby, 1982). Having a caregiver who is available, responsive, and effective allows one to develop a secure base script—a cognitive schema about the temporal-causal sequence of relational events following a distressing experience (Waters & Waters, 2006). Given that the secure base script influences how a parent perceives, interprets, and responds to relational cues (Huth-Bocks et al., 2014; Waters et al., 2013), it is likely that caregivers’ secure base script knowledge is transmitted to the child via caregiving behaviors. Thus far, most studies testing the intergenerational transmission of attachment have focused on children’s attachment security assessed in the Strange Situation Procedure (Verhage et al., 2016). The current study aimed to examine predictive pathways in the development of children’s cognitive representations of secure base script knowledge during the preschool years using a narrative assessment.
Participants included 50 mothers and their children who were participating in a longitudinal study. Participants were socioeconomically and ethnically diverse, with 42% of the sample identifying as having non-White ethnicity. At Time 1, when children were 6 to 12 months old (M = 8.66 months, SD = 2.68), mothers were administered a brief version (first 6 questions) of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985), which was coded for SBSk (AAISBSK) on a 9-point scale (Waters, Brockmeyer, & Crowell, 2013). At Time 1, mother-infant play interactions were video-recorded and coded for maternal sensitivity using a 5-point scale (NICHD ECCRN, 2003). At Time 2, approximately three years later (Child age M = 50.11 months, SD = 2.78), mother-child play interactions were video-recorded and coded for maternal sensitivity using the same coding system. The children also participated in a story completion task, in which they were asked to complete three attachment-relevant storylines from the MacArthur Attachment Story Stem Completion Task using dolls and props (ASCT; Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990). The children’s narratives from the ASCT were scored for secure base scriptedness on a 5-point scale.
Structural equation modeling in Mplus 8 (Muthen & Muthen, 2013) was used to test the predictive pathways from maternal secure base script knowledge to child secure base script knowledge via maternal sensitivity at Time 1 and Time 2 (See Figure 1). Results showed that maternal secure base script knowledge significantly predicted maternal sensitivity at both timepoints. Furthermore, maternal sensitivity at Time 2, but not Time 1, predicted children’s secure base script knowledge. The indirect effect from maternal secure base script knowledge to child secure base script knowledge via maternal sensitivity was significant, β = 0.14, p = .035.
These results indicate that mothers’ attachment-related cognitive representations, likely formed from early experiences with their own caregivers, influence their maternal behavior, which in turn, shape children’s attachment-related scripts. Interestingly concurrent maternal sensitivity at preschool age was more predictive of children’s secure base script knowledge than past maternal sensitivity during infancy, raising important questions regarding developmental timing. Implications for attachment theory and clinical application will be considered.

Authors

• Galia Nissim, Stony Brook University
  Presenting Author

• Allison Lazzaro, Stony Brook University
  Non-Presenting Author

• German E Posada, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristin L Bernard, Stony Brook University
  Non-Presenting Author