The Study Of The Consistency Of Mother's Adult Attachment And Infant Attachment: The Role Of Maternal Sensitivity

Adult attachment can predict attachment security of the baby and there is a high degree of type consistency between the mother and the baby. Maternal sensitivity plays an important role in this relationship. However, the degree of domestic researches are relatively low and the consistency of the attachment relationship of two generations needs futher study. In addition, previous studies using the variable-oriented method have some limitations that it can only reveal the relationship between the variables on the population level and it is difficult to get the differences between individuals or combination between variables. In order to investigate the mode of parent-child attachment of two generations under the Chinese cultural context and the role of maternal sensitivity, we survey68families (32boys,47girls, mean age:14.23+0.94months) using Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure、Adult-to-parental Attachment Experience Survey、and Maternal Behavior Q-sort. We use both the traditional variable-oriented methods and emerging person-oriented methods—latent class analysis to analyze the research data and we found that:1. There is a certain degree of consistency between adult attachment styles of mothers and infant attachment styles of children:the trichotomy consistent proportion is36.2%and the dichotomy consistent proportion is44.9%.2. The results of variable-oriented approach shows that:adult attachentment and maternal sensitivity both play an essential role in the formation of the infant secure attachment. When the mother is secure and child-centered (high sensitivity), their children’s opportunity to form a secure attachment is larger. When the mother is insecure, the protective effect of maternal sensitivity is not obvious.3. The results of person-oriented approach shows the link between the secure mother and secure infant, insecure mother and insecure infant. Maternal sensitivity plays an important role in this link. The probability of two latent class sample confirm the theoretical predictions on the adult attachment, maternal sensitivity and infant attachment.