Parental Representations and Attachment Security in Young Israeli Mothers' Bird's Nest Drawings

Abstract

The Bird's Nest Drawing (BND; Kaiser, 1996) is an art-based technique developed to assess attachment security. In an attempt to expand the BND's validity, the authors explored the possible associations between parental representations and the BND's dimensions and attachment classifications in a sample of 80 young Israeli mothers. Positive associations were found between mothers' satisfaction, communication, and limit setting and levels of vitality and optimism, as measured by the BND drawings. Demandingness of the child correlated positively with bizarreness in the mothers' drawings. Mothers who drew bird's nests that were rated as avoidant/dismissing exhibited lower levels of setting limits and tended to perceive higher levels of demandingness than mothers whose drawings were rated as secure/autonomous.