Maternal attributions to a handicapped and a non-handicapped twin: a longitudinal study

Abstract

This study was designed to explore a mother's attributions toward her twins from 11 to 32 months. One twin was developing normally while the other was extremely handicapped. Results suggest that the mother fine-tuned her attributions in response to the children's developmental level of communicative development but not in other areas. Several hypotheses are explored for this lack of reflection of the children's developmental level. One possible explanation is the possibility that the mother needed to feel that she was interacting with a competent infant and thus overinterpreted the handicapped infant's behaviour in order to interact effectively.