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THE EYE OF THE BEGETTER: PREDICTING INFANT ATTACHMENT DISORGANIZATION FROM WOMEN'S PRENATAL INTERPRETATIONS OF INFANT FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
Author(s) -
Bernstein Rosemary E.,
Tenedios Catherine M.,
Laurent Heidemarie K.,
Measelle Jeffery R.,
Ablow Jennifer C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/imhj.21438
Subject(s) - concordance , psychology , strange situation , developmental psychology , psychosocial , normative , infant development , maternal sensitivity , clinical psychology , attachment theory , medicine , psychiatry , philosophy , epistemology
Infant–caregiver attachment disorganization has been linked to many long‐term negative psychosocial outcomes. While various prevention programs appear to be effective in preventing disorganized attachment, methods currently used to identify those at risk are unfortunately either overly general or impractical. The current investigation tested whether women's prenatal biases in identifying infant expressions of emotion—tendencies previously shown to relate to some of the maternal variables associated with infant attachment, including maternal traumatization, trauma symptoms, and maternal sensitivity—could predict infant attachment classification at 18 months postpartum. Logistic regression analyses revealed that together with women's adult history of high betrayal traumatization, response concordance with a normative reference sample in labeling infant expressions as negatively valenced, and the number of infant facial expressions that participants classified as “sad” and “angry” predicted subsequent infant attachment security versus disorganization. Implications for screening and prevention are discussed.