Examining Potential Factors that Contribute to Maternal Co-construction Skills with Preschoolers

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Bowlby (1988) highlighted the role that parental verbal communication plays in attachment relationships. Recently researchers (Lu et al., 2018; Posada & Waters, 2018) proposed that a caregiver’s verbal communication skills (i.e., verbal co-construction skills) during attachment-related conversations with her/his child play a significant role in the construction of attachment representations and attachment security at preschool age (Lu et al., 2018). Further, mothers’ own attachment representations (i.e., secure base scripts), were found to be associated with maternal co-construction skills (Waters et al., 2018). If maternal verbal co-construction skills are indeed an important factor in children’s construction of mental representations and attachment security overall, it is crucial to investigate the factors that may influence those skills. This study focuses on some of those factors considering both maternal (i.e., age, education, depression, sensitivity, and mothers’ secure base scripts), child characteristics (i.e., age, gender, temperament, attachment security) and family SES (e.g., annual income).

Fifty-three (of 75) families completed all assessments, child’s mean age is 29.25 months old. Mother-child dyads visited a university lab to complete a joint story telling task that was used to code maternal co-construction skills. Two trained coders employed three 7-point scales “Creating a co-constructive atmosphere,” “Content elaboration,” and “Providing an explanatory framework” (Posada & Waters, 2018). A composite score was created by averaging the scores on the three scales (alpha=.92). Mother-child interaction was observed at home and park by independent trained observers, maternal behavior was described using The Maternal Behavior for Preschoolers Q-set (Posada et al., 2007), child’s secure base use (security) was assessed with the Attachment Q-set (Waters, 1995). A maternal sensitivity scores was derived from those descriptions. Maternal secure base scripts were assessed with the Attachment Script Assessment (Waters & Waters, 2006), maternal depression was obtained through Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977, alpha=.89). Child’s temperament (i.e., difficulty) was assessed with the Child Characteristics Questionnaire (CCQ; Bates, 1985, alpha=.74). Family demographic information was also obtained.

Correlational analysis results are presented in Table 1. Regarding maternal characteristics, mothers’ co-construction skills were significantly correlated to maternal sensitivity; mother’s age and maternal secure base scripts approached significance; and neither mother’s education nor maternal depression were significantly associated with co-construction skills. As child characteristics are concerned, the associations between maternal co-construction and child temperament approached significance; associations with child age and child security were not significant. The association between co-construction skills and family annual income approached significance. A regression analysis (Table 2) with significantly associated variables indicated that maternal sensitivity significantly predicted maternal co-construction and mothers’ secure base scripts contributions approached significance. Mother age, child temperament, and family annual income did not contribute significant information in the regression model.

Co-construction is a dynamic process and findings indicate that it is potentially influenced by multiple factors. In our model, maternal sensitivity played a central role in that process. Low statistical power, however, was a potential threat for this study due to its small sample size.

Authors

• Muqing Liu, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Presenting Author

• Geurim Kim, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Non-Presenting Author

• Megan Bieber, Western Illinois University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Samuel Morehead, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author