Similarities and differences in mothers’ and observers’ ratings of infant security on the Attachment Q-Sort
Section snippets
Mothers and observers
Since the inception of the AQS, the vast majority of studies have relied on mothers to provide infant and child security ratings. Researchers have justified the use of mothers as informants for different reasons. First, in their original report, Waters and Deane indicated mother–observer correlations ranging from .59 to .93 in different samples, with the average correlation being .80 (Waters & Deane, 1985), suggesting that mothers did not differ substantially from observers in the manner in
Maternal sensitivity
Maternal sensitivity has been shown to be an important determinant of infant attachment security and a way by which more general, ecological characteristics are able to influence infant socioemotional development in general (Belsky, 1984; De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997; Pederson, Gleason, Moran, & Bento, 1998). Sensitive caregiving implies that mothers are attentive to the behaviours, emotions and other signals of their infants, and that they respond appropriately and contingently, fostering
Participants
One hundred and fourty-four mother–infant dyads participated in this study. Complete data were available for 127 dyads, currently described. Participants were recruited from two distinct subgroups: (1) low risk, adult mothers older than 20 years at the birth of the infant (n = 44); and (2) high-risk adolescent mothers, aged 20 years or less at the birth of the infant (n = 83). Mothers were recruited with the help of maternity ward nurses of two major birthing hospitals of a small (population 125
Results
Results are presented in four sections: first, bivariate correlations are presented as an indicator of the convergence between maternal and observer AQS ratings. Correlations are also presented between each measure and each of the ecological variables currently considered. Second, a common factor analysis was conducted to isolate common variance between maternal and observer AQS ratings. Bivariate correlations were then carried out between the factor score that resulted and each of the
Discussion
The current study aimed to replicate and extend research findings regarding the association between maternal and observer assessments of attachment security using the AQS. By using a longitudinal design, involving a high and a low risk group of mother–infant dyads and assessments of different aspects of the developmental ecology, it was possible to examine whether common and divergent maternal and observer AQS variance was systematically associated with the environment that provides the context
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the mothers and infants who generously donated of their time, and the following persons who provided invaluable assistance during data collection: Sophie Allaire, Caroline Bouchard, Isabelle Cabot, Julie Deslandes, Manon Fournier, Marie-France Gagnon, Isabelle Hémond, Marie Larose, Annie Lehoux, Johanne Maranda, Véronique Noreau and Julie Robitaille. This study was made possible by funding from the Fonds pour les chercheurs et l’avancement de la recherche, the
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