Mother-Child Attachment Representation and Relationships Over Time in Mexican-Heritage Families

Abstract

Continuity and intergenerational transmission of representations of attachment were examined in a longitudinal sample of 88 Mexican immigrant mothers and their children who participated in the local intervention group of the Early Head Start Evaluation Study. The authors interviewed mothers with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and Parent Attachment Interview (PAI). Mothers and children were observed when the children were 14 months old with the Attachment Q-Set (AQS), and children were interviewed at 54 months with the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. Early maternal AAI and PAI scores were associated with toddler-age children's AQS scores and preschool Story Stem scores. Mothers who were more secure in their attachment representations in the AAI had children who were also more secure, as measured by the AQS and in their Story Stem narratives. Mothers' high comfort and low enmeshment PAI scores predicted children's Story Stem security. Mothers' AAI security scores predicted children's Story Stem narrative coherence.