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IV. CO‐CONSTRUCTION OF ATTACHMENT REPRESENTATIONS AND AFFECT‐REGULATING COGNITIONS: THE ROLE OF MATERNAL ATTACHMENT SECURITY
Author(s) -
Waters Harriet S.,
Steiner Michelle A.,
Zaman Widaad,
Apetroaia Adela,
Crowell Judith A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
monographs of the society for research in child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.618
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1540-5834
pISSN - 0037-976X
DOI - 10.1111/mono.12391
Subject(s) - psychology , affect (linguistics) , elaboration , developmental psychology , general partnership , storytelling , task (project management) , attachment theory , attachment measures , cognition , social psychology , narrative , communication , philosophy , linguistics , management , finance , neuroscience , humanities , economics
This study focused on the role of maternal co‐construction skills in building attachment relevant representations in early childhood. Thirty‐four mothers and their 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children were presented with two co‐construction tasks, one an attachment storytelling task, the other an affect discussion task about emotion‐laden situations. Maternal co‐construction skills were assessed with several scales that scored the quality of the co‐construction partnership, the mother's skill in prompting elaboration, and helping build an explanatory framework. Mothers completed the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA) and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) as well. Results indicated that mothers’ secure base script knowledge (ASA) was significantly related to communication effectiveness, encouraging elaboration of storylines, and using open‐ended and why questions. Maternal AAI coherence showed similar relations to co‐construction support.