When good enough mothering is not good enough: A study of mothers' secure base scripts, atypical and disrupted caregiving and the transmission of infant attachment quality

The existing attachment literature highlights the important influence of maternal attachment representations on infant attachment quality. A novel type of attachment representation---attachment scripts---that represent mothers' secure base support and their associations to a range of mothers' atypical caregiving behaviors are examined. Mothers' secure base scripts assessed through the Attachment Script Assessment were hypothesized to be inversely correlated with mothers atypical and disrupted caregiving behaviors based on the AMBIANCE measure. Each measure was hypothesized to predict infant attachment quality. Mothers' behavior was also hypothesized to mediate the impact of mothers' secure base scripts on attachment quality. A secondary data analysis was performed using data from 52 mothers and their 12-18 month-olds. As expected maternal secure base support measured by the Attachment Script Assessment significantly predicted infant attachment quality across the 4 infant attachment groups. The AMBIANCE measure predicted infant attachment quality. Mothers' overall level of disrupted communication, affective communication errors, intrusive/negative behavior and role boundary confusion were all associated with infant ambivalent attachment. Mother's intrusive/negative behavior was associated with infant avoidant attachment. Contrary to what was expected, mothers' of disorganized infants exhibited less intrusive/negative behavior and role boundary confusion than mothers of secure, avoidant or ambivalent infants. No correlation was found between mother's secure base scripts and their disrupted caregiving behavior therefore the mediation model was not tested. Areas for further research and implications for social work practice and policy are discussed.