Abstract
Main, Kaplan, and Cassidy's (1985) conceptualizations of disorganization in infancy and controlling behavior in preschool forged new directions in attachment research. However, there currently is no valid coding system for behavioral manifestations of attachment after 7 years of age. The present study presents the validity of an instrument for coding both disorganized and role-reversed behavior from ages 7 to 9; the Middle Childhood Disorganization and Control (MCDC) scales. In the present study, 43 mother–child dyads at socio-economic risk, followed from infancy, were assessed on the MCDC at age 8. Analyses revealed that children with higher combined punitive/disorganized scores were significantly more likely to: (1) come from families referred for clinical home visiting because of concerns about the quality of the parent–infant relationships; (2) have higher scores for disorganization in infancy if from the clinically-referred subgroup; (3) are more likely to show disorganized representations; and (4) show higher externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Higher caregiving MCDC scores were associated with more maternal withdrawal behavior in infancy. In conclusion, the present study provided the first validity data for an observational measure of disorganization and control in middle childhood.
Highlights
Longitudinal research on attachment beyond infancy has documented that disorganized behavior in infancy may, over time, become organized as controlling patterns of attachment, as preschoolers may attempt to control parental behavior in a caregiving or punitive fashion (Main & Cassidy, 1988; Wartner, Grossmann, Fremmer-Bombik, & Suess, 1994)
There is no valid system for coding behavioral manifestations of attachment disorganization after 7 years of age; this is despite the fact that one might anticipate changes in the markers of attachment disorganization beyond early childhood, given increasingly sophisticated communicative, perspective-taking and cognitive capacities
Due to the uniformly low-income nature of the sample in infancy, preliminary analyses did not reveal any significant relations of family income or single parenthood with either of the Middle Childhood Disorganization and Control (MCDC) factors
Summary
Longitudinal research on attachment beyond infancy has documented that disorganized behavior in infancy may, over time, become organized as controlling patterns of attachment, as preschoolers may attempt to control parental behavior in a caregiving or punitive fashion (Main & Cassidy, 1988; Wartner, Grossmann, Fremmer-Bombik, & Suess, 1994). The present study aims to assess the validity of an instrument for coding aspects of attachment disorganization in middle childhood (age 8). Lyons-Ruth, Bronfman, and Parsons (1999) developed the AMBIANCE coding system for assessing such disrupted caregiver responses to infant affective cues when under stress. This system allows coding for a variety of forms of disrupted responses to infant cues, including role confusion, disorientation, intrusiveness and hostility, affective communication errors and withdrawal. Four studies (N = 384) have shown associations between disrupted maternal communication as assessed on the AMBIANCE scales and disorganized attachment in infancy, with a meta-analytic effect size of r = .35 (Madigan, Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, Moran, Pederson, & Moran, 2006). Results from recent studies (see Lyons-Ruth & Jacobvitz, 2008, for a review) suggest that genetic predisposition may moderate the association between the quality of parenting and child disorganization
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