Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Development Of Disorganized Attachment In Infants Of Adult And Adolescent Mothers, Tara Morley, Greg Moran, David Pederson, Sandi Bento, Heidi Bailey

Psychology Presentations

Attachment theory proposes that maternal sensitivity is the main developmental determinant of Organized attachment relationships (Ainsworth Blehar, Waters & Wall, 1978; DeWolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997); In contrast, Disorganized attachment relationships are held to be the product of frightened, frightening or atypical maternal behaviour (Lyons-Ruth, Bronfman, & Parson, 1999; Main & Hesse, 1990).

However, recent research has identified associations between low levels of maternal sensitivity and Disorganized attachment in high-risk populations (Bernier & Meins, 2008; Moran, Forbes, Evans, Tarabulsy, & Madigan, 2008; van IJzendoorn, Scheungel & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 1999); This raises the possibility that maternal sensitivity may contribute to the development …

Exploring The Development Of Attachment In Infants Of Adult And Adolescent Mothers, Tara Morley, Greg Moran, David Pederson, Heidi Bailey

Psychology Presentations

While many studies have looked at the development of attachment relationships for adult and adolescent mothers separately, few studies have directly compared these two groups in a single study

The current study further explored the origins of attachment relationships for adolescent mothers and their infants by directly comparing the development of these processes with adult mothers and their infants

The hypothesis that differences in the distributions of attachment classifications among these two populations is a result of low levels of sensitivity has yet to be tested in a mediational analysis

The current study will test a model whereby differences in …