Security Of Attachment And Mother-toddler Disciplinary Interaction.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between security of attachment and disciplinary interaction between mothers and their one-year-old sons. A model was proposed linking secure attachment to more positive feelings by the child towards his mother and predicting greater compliance and less angry responses to discipline by secure toddlers. It was also hypothesized that mothers of securely attached children would possess greater sensitivity to the emotional impact on the child of their disciplinary interventions and thus use less power assertive discipline techniques. In a short-term longitudinal study, 24 mother-child dyads were assessed twice over a six-month time span. Children began the study at 12 months of age or, if later, when they first walked. At each age children were classified as secure or insecure using Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure (Ainsworth et. al., 1978), and disciplinary interaction was assessed in a laboratory session and a maternal interview (Hoffman, 1957). Child compliance or non-compliance and affective responses to maternal discipline were coded. Maternal behavior was coded for discipline techniques using categories adapted from Hoffman's research (1960, 1981). Results with regard to the hypothesized relationship between attachment and child responses to maternal discipline were inconsistent with expectations. Security was related to maternal reports of child behavior, but not to laboratory measures. Secure subjects were more likely to accept physical discipline and less likely to ignore their mothers' verbal interventions at the second age of assessment. Possible explanations were offered for these findings, and for the absence of expected differences between secure and insecure subjects in compliance to verbal discipline. Differences in maternal discipline techniques related to security were found, in line with predictions. The strongest finding was that mothers of securely attached children employed more qualified power assertion at both ages of assessment. In summary, security of attachment was found to relate to maternal discipline and to maternal reports of the child's responses to discipline. Methodological and theoretical implications of these findings were discussed.