Adolescent Parenting and Attachment During Infancy and Early ...

PARENTING: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE Copyright © 2005, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. January-March 2005 Volume 5 Number 1 Pages 91–118

Adolescent Parenting and Attachment During Infancy and Early Childhood Julie J. Lounds, John G. Borkowski, Thomas L. Whitman, Scott E. Maxwell, and Keri Weed SYNOPSIS Objective. Prenatal parenting attitudes and parenting behaviors during infancy and early childhood were used as predictors of attachment in children of adolescent mothers at ages 1 and 5. Design. Seventy-eight adolescent mother – child dyads participated. Data were collected at five time points from the third trimester of pregnancy through the children’s 5th year. Results. A high percentage of children exhibited disorganized and insecure attachment during both infancy and early childhood; only 30% were securely attached at 1 year and 41% at 5 years. Quality of maternal interactions and cognitive readiness to parent predicted attachment stability; however, only verbal encouragement–stimulation predicted the transition from insecure to secure attachment. Prenatal cognitive readiness to parent independently predicted attachment security at 1 year and accounted for the relation between early maternal interactions and 1-year attachment. Maternal interactions during infancy but not early childhood, predicted 5-year attachment security. Conclusions. Early parenting had a unique and persistent effect on attachment security. However, verbal stimulation during early childhood attenuated the effects of early maternal unresponsiveness on attachment security at age 5.

INTRODUCTION The study of attachment organization and its parenting precursors has traditionally focused on middle-class European American infants. Ainsworth’s original premise that maternal sensitivity during mother– child interactions is associated with infant attachment security has been confirmed in a number of studies (Egeland & Farber, 1984; Pederson et al., 1990). Although we are learning more about attachment in high-risk populations (Vondra & Barnett, 1999; Weinfield, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2000), there are still unanswered questions about how parenting in infancy or early childhood influences attachment security in early childhood and whether

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the same parenting variables that predict attachment outcomes also predict the stability of attachment from infancy to early childhood, especially in at-risk populations (Vondra, Hommerding, & Shaw, 1999). This study sheds light on these issues, focusing on the antecedents of attachment in children with adolescent mothers at 1 and 5 years of age. Typically, the attachment status of children has been evaluated through the Ainsworth Strange Situation paradigm (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) in which attachment ratings are based mainly on children’s responses to reunion episodes with the parent (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1971). Securely attached (B) children use the primary caregiver as a base from which to explore and learn from their environments. When distressed, these infants seek comfort from, and are calmed by, their attachment figure (Ainsworth et al., 1978). Children classified as insecure– avoidant (A) actively ignore or avoid the parent on reunion, whereas insecure ambivalent (C) children show anger and an inability to be soothed when reunited (Main & Weston, 1981). In contrast, infants who display disorganized (D) attachment appear to possess no coherent mechanisms for coping with the stress of separation and reunion. In the Strange Situation paradigm, D infants blend contradictory features of several strategies (such as strong proximity seeking followed by strong avoidance) or appear dazed and disoriented on reunion with their caregivers (Carlson, Cicchetti, Barnett, & Braunwald, 1989). Adolescent mothers generally have higher rates of insecure and disorganized children than low-risk mothers. Spieker and Bensley (1994), studying 197 adolescent mother–infant dyads, found significantly more insecurely attached infants (50%) in this population compared to normative low-risk, U.S. samples (25–30%). Relatedly, Ward and Carlson (1995), examining 94 adolescent primiparas, found that 51% of children of adolescent mothers were rated as insecurely attached with a relatively high percentage disorganized (18%). Similar results have been found in a number of other adolescent mother – child dyads (Frodi et al., 1984; Lamb, Hopps, & Elster, 1987). Particularly striking are the results of a study by Broussard (1995), in which the attachment style of 38 infants born to adolescent mothers was assessed; only 23.7% of the infants were classified as secure (as opposed to the 70% expected in a normative, low-risk sample); even more disturbing, 31.6% of the infants were classified as disorganized. A metaanalysis of the prevalence of disorganized attachment (van IJzendoorn, Schuengel, & Bakermans-Kranenberg, 1999) estimated that about 15% of children in middle-class, nonclinical groups were disorganized, as opposed to 23% of children born to adolescent mothers. Not only are adolescent mothers more likely to have children who are insecure or disorganized but also they may be more likely than low-risk,

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adult populations to have children who change attachment classifications throughout infancy and early childhood. Research with low-risk samples has found as many as 88% of children remain in the same attachment category from infancy to early childhood (Main & Cassidy, 1988; Wartner, Grossmann, Fremmer-Bombik, & Suess, 1994); other studies have found lower but still substantial percentages of children remaining in the same category in low-risk samples (Frodi, Grolnick, & Bridges, 1985; Main & Weston, 1981). A meta-analysis of attachment stability suggested that a model that assumed stability in attachment representations throughout childhood and into early adulthood was a better fit for low-risk samples than a model that assumed instability (Fraley, 2002). However, when there were particularly chaotic or dysfunctional home environments, which is often the case for children of adolescent mothers, children were able to exert less of an influence on their environment and attachment became less stable. Although few studies have specifically addressed attachment stability in children of adolescent mothers, researchers have found low rates of attachment stability (from 30 to 64%) when examining other high-risk samples such as maltreated or low-income children (Egeland & Sroufe, 1981; Schneider-Rosen, Braunwald, Carlson & Cicchetti, 1985; Spieker & Booth, 1988). The quality of the attachment relationship between parent and child is related to the history of care received from the parent (Ainsworth et al., 1978). Although various research studies have supported the role of child and maternal characteristics in determining attachment security (Carter, Garrity-Rokous, Chazan-Cohen, Little, & Briggs-Gowan, 2001; Seifer, Schiller, Sameroff, Resnick, & Riordan, 1996; Susman-Stillman, Kalkose, Egeland, & Waldman, 1996), the variable most consistently predictive of mother – child attachment is maternal sensitivity. This construct has been defined as alertness to infant signals, appropriate interpretation of response, promptness of response, flexibility of attention and behavior, appropriate level of control, and negotiation of conflicting goals (Ainsworth et al., 1978). Meta-analyses examining the effects of the sensitivity construct have found overall significant but moderate correlations between maternal sensitivity and attachment security; this relation was further attenuated in low SES and clinical samples (DeWolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997; Goldsmith & Alansky, 1987), suggesting that other characteristics of the caregiving relationship likely influence attachment. One such influence is child maltreatment, the extreme of problematic parenting, which poses a significant threat to the development of secure attachment. Not only does it increase the risk for insecure and disorganized attachment patterns during childhood (Cicchetti & Barnett, 1991; Crittenden, 1988) but it continues to influence attachment into late adoles-

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cence and early adulthood (Weinfield et al., 2000). Adolescent mothers are at particular risk for abusive behavior (Andreozzi, Flanagan, Seifer, Brunner, & Lester, 2002; Black, Heyman, & Slep, 2001), which may help to account for elevated instances of insecure attachment among their children. Another influence on attachment security is mothers’ cognitive readiness for the parenting role, which has been defined as three components: (1) an attitudinal predisposition to being a parent; (2) possessing knowledge of child development; and (3) understanding what constitutes appropriate parenting practices (Sommer et al., 1993). In a sample of adolescent mothers, cognitive readiness to parent measured during pregnancy predicted children’s attachment status at 12 months as well as the quality of mother – child interactions when children were 3 years of age (Whitman, Borkowski, Keogh, & Weed, 2001). Seifer and Schiller (1995) pointed out that there are numerous components of parenting, each of which taps a different aspect of parenting skills. Because children’s behaviors change dramatically throughout infancy and into early childhood, it is not surprising that the “appropriate” parental role also changes with children’s development (Waters, Kondo-Ikemura, Posada, & Richters, 1991). For example, Goldsmith and Alansky (1987) suggested that optimal parenting typically involves allowing more autonomy as children age, opening the possibility for different maternal variables to predict attachment security at different ages. We suspect that parenting variables operate differently in predicting secure attachment and adaptive functioning at different developmental periods and examined this issue in this research. An interesting question arises when considering the impact of parenting from a longitudinal perspective: Do specific aspects of parenting quality have different predictive roles depending on when they occur in children’s development? Attachment theory predicts that early responsiveness — a major component of sensitivity and overall quality of parenting — provides the foundation that allows children to feel secure and to develop a basic trust of their caregivers (Ainsworth et al., 1978) and, therefore, may be more predictive than later responsiveness. Although research addressing timing effects associated with specific parenting behaviors on attachment quality is sparse in general, and nonexistent in adolescent mother – child samples, research on responsiveness in the 1st year of life is consistently predictive of children’s later socialization (e.g., Lewis, 1993; Londerville & Main, 1981) even after controlling for later responsiveness. For instance, Landry, Smith, Swank, Assel, and Vellet (2001) found that responsiveness in the first 2 years of life predicted children’s social development. Similarly, Wakschlag and Hans (1999) reported that responsiveness during infancy influenced behavior problems during adoles-


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cence, regardless of the level of concurrent parental responsiveness. These studies support the unique role of responsiveness during infancy in children’s development. In contrast, Kochanska (1998) found a correlation between attachment and current measures of responsiveness and positivity but not with those measures taken an average of 5 months previous to the assessment of attachment. These contradictory findings suggest that more research is needed to determine whether early responsiveness has a unique influence on children’s later attachment quality in both low and high risk samples. Another aspect of parenting that has been linked to children’s development is the extent of a parent’s use of language in parent – child interactions. Although the specific timing effects of “verbalness” on attachment quality are unknown, the lack of verbal stimulation and encouragement has been associated with developmental delays in a number of domains, including deficits in language development, unskilled use of objects during infancy, internalizing problems, and poor communication skills in early childhood (Borkowski et al., 2002; Stewart, 1973). Furthermore, De Wolff and van IJzendoorn (1997) identified a cluster of maternal behaviors, labeled “stimulation,” which included encouragement and effective stimulation; the cluster was predictive of attachment security. Teen mothers often have deficits in language and in the use of verbal encouragement with their infants (Lamb & Elster, 1990; Luster & Mittelstaedt, 1993) which could account, in part, for the high incidence of insecure attachment in their children. This study addresses gaps in the extant literature concerning the developmental timing and effects of parenting — as defined by responsiveness, verbal encouragement and stimulation, and child abuse potential during infancy and childhood as well as prenatal cognitive readiness to parent — on the attachment of adolescent mother – child dyads. The participants in this study were part of the Notre Dame Adolescent Parenting Project, a longitudinal project examining adolescent mothers and their children from pregnancy through childhood (Whitman et al., 2001). When measured during the third trimester of their pregnancies, these mothers had deficits in IQ, high levels of internalizing and externalizing problems, and were not cognitively prepared for their parenting roles as evidenced by less knowledge about infant and child development, problematic parenting beliefs, and punitive parenting styles (Whitman et al., 2001). Furthermore, after the birth of their children, many teenage mothers exhibited less appropriate and sensitive interactions with their children as well as elevated child abuse potential as compared to adult mothers (Whitman et al., 2001). These characteristics, along with low socioeconomic status (SES) and teenage status at first birth, place adolescent mothers at high risk

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for inconsistent or even inappropriate parenting practices that can lead to insecure attachment. The overall aim of this research was to discern if aspects of parenting quality in infancy and early childhood predicted attachment differently depending on when they were measured. To address this question, the distribution of attachment categories in children of adolescent mothers was examined at the two time points and their stability determined. The stability of attachment was analyzed in terms of the quality of parenting at 1 and 5 years as well as the potential for child abuse during infancy and early childhood and prenatal cognitive readiness to parent. Finally, relations between responsiveness and verbal stimulation, as well as other indices of parenting during infancy and early childhood (i.e., the potential for child physical abuse and cognitive readiness to parent), and 1- and 5-year attachment were evaluated.

METHODS Participants The larger sample consisted of 152 adolescent mother – child dyads who were part of a longitudinal study designed to examine the development of adolescent mothers and their children (Whitman et al., 2001). Of these, 78 dyads had data available from the third trimester of pregnancy through the children’s fifth year and thus were selected for this study. Participants who were included did not differ from the remainder of the sample on any of the variables examined, such as age at childbirth, SES , educational level, or prenatal maternal intelligence. Participants lived in either a middlesized, Midwestern urban area or a rural Southern community. The location of the sample was unrelated to a number of demographic variables including age at childbirth, SES , and years of completed education. The majority was recruited through local School-Aged Mothers Alternative Education Programs; various social and medical service agencies were also used for recruitment. The mean age of the target sample at the time of the initial evaluation was 17.20 years (SD = 1.29, range = 14.00–19.60). Fifty-one percent of the children were male, and 49% were female. The racial makeup of this sample was 68% African American, 28% European American, and 4% Mexican American. Four percent of the pregnant adolescents were married at the time of the initial interview, and the majority of adolescents (84%) lived with their mothers and fathers during pregnancy and depended on their parents for financial support. SES was determined at the prenatal interview through the participants’ reports of the ed-


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ucation and employment status of the adults with whom they resided, as the teens generally were not self-supporting (Whitman et al., 2001). Possible scores on the Hollingshead Two-Factor Index of Social Position range from 11 to 77, with higher scores indicating lower status (Hollingshead & Redlich, 1958). The average score on the Hollingshead index (M = 56.03, SD = 14.29) suggested that the adolescents generally came from lower-SES homes. Utilizing the Hollingshead five-level classification system, approximately 75% of the households fell into the lower two levels of SES. During pregnancy the average IQ of the adolescents, as measured by the WAIS, was 86.13 (SD = 11.77), and 38% reported that they were currently attending school. Information obtained from hospital birth records indicated that, in general, the infants were healthy at birth with no serious medical complications. The average 6-month Bayley mental development score was within normal range (M = 98.30, SD = 16.35). When the children reached 5 years of age, the mothers’ average IQ was 86.25 (SD = 11.28), they had on average completed 11 years of education, and 52% were employed. At this point in time, 79% of the mothers were single, 14% were married, and 7% were either divorced or separated. Approximately one fourth (26%) of the mothers were living with their mothers and fathers, and another 4% were living with siblings; 70% were living either independently or with a partner. Seventy-nine percent had not been married at their first child’s fifth birthday, whereas 20% had been married once and 1% married twice. Twenty percent of the mothers had 3 or more children; 48% had 2 children, and 33% had no additional children after the target child.

Design Data collection was conducted at five time points: the third trimester of pregnancy and when each child reached 6 months, 12 months, 3 years, and 5 years of age. The outcome variable, attachment, was assessed at 1 and 5 years of age. The indexes of parenting were child abuse potential measured when the children were 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years old; the quality of observed maternal interactions which was measured at 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years of age; cognitive readiness to parent was measured during the third trimester of pregnancy. The measurement periods were grouped to reflect early and later developmental periods: “Early” scores consisted of those measurements taken prenatally and during infancy (previous to or simultaneous with 12-month attachment visits), whereas “later” scores were taken during early childhood (3 and 5 years of age).

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The quality of mother – child interactions was measured at 6 and 12 months, and again at 3 and 5 years of age. Early maternal interactional quality was indexed as an average of the 6-month and 1-year scores; later quality of mother – child interactions consisted of the 3-year and 5-year scores. Maternal child abuse potential was measured at three time points: The 12-month measurement formed the early child abuse potential variable, whereas the later abuse potential score consisted of an aggregate of the 3-year and 5-year measurements. Early cognitive readiness to parent was represented by the prenatal score.

Measure of Infant – Mother Attachment Quality of attachment was assessed in the standardized Strange Situation procedure (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969) at 12 months and scored by a blind, off-site rater. Classifications were made in terms of secure (B), insecure–avoidant (A), insecure–resistant (C) (Ainsworth et al., 1978), and insecure disorganized–disoriented (D) groups (Main & Solomon, 1986). The insecure–avoidant and insecure–resistant groups were assigned to a single category due to the small number of resistant children at 12 months (n = 3). Attachment status at 5 years was measured using the Strange Situation and was scored using the Preschool Attachment Assessment System (Cassidy & Marvin, 1992) by the same, off-site rater. There was a considerable time lag between the 1-year and 5-year attachment scoring (approximately 5 years), with data stored at Notre Dame and separated at all times from the coder. Hence, the rater was unlikely to remember the 1-year attachment scores when scoring 5-year attachment tapes, and it is reasonable to conclude that the 5-year ratings were unbiased. Each dyad was classified as secure (B), insecure–avoidant (A), insecure–resistant (C), insecure– other (I-O), or insecure–disorganized (D). The I-O category refers to an attachment pattern that does not fit avoidant or resistant categories but is not a pattern generally observed in disorganized attachment. The I-O category was only scored at age 5; to have comparable attachment categories at 1 and 5 years, the I-Os (n = 7) were grouped with the disorganized category because their attachment behaviors were most similar to this group. Furthermore, similar to 1-year attachment, the avoidant and resistant children were classified into a single group because of the small number of resistant children at 5 years (n = 1). For both the 1-year and 5-year scoring systems, the rater established interrater reliability of .87 with other trained raters. The organized insecure group is referred to as “insecure,” and the insecure-disorganized group is referred to as “disorganized.”


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Parenting Measures Mother – child interactions. To observe the quality of mother – child interactions, samples of maternal behavior were rated from videotapes of structured age appropriate, toy-play interactions between mothers and children conducted in the laboratory at 6 months, 12 months, 3 years, and 5 years of age.1 The tasks were intended to challenge the child to examine the extent and type of assistance offered by the mother (Whitman et al., 2001). These interactions were videotaped and rated using the Maternal Interaction Scale (MIS) which is a behavioral measure of observed parenting developed to assess 11 dimensions of maternal parenting style, each of which was rated on a 6 point Likert-type scale: interactional orientation, control, attention, flexibility, verbal exchanges, positiveness, affectional match, rate of stimulation, appropriate direction, appropriate motivation, and overall quality of mothering (Passino et al., 1993). A description of each dimension, including examples of high and low scores, is presented in the Appendix. Tapes were rated by graduate and undergraduate students who did not have prior contact with the participants or with the data. These raters established interrater reliability with the project coordinator, each other, and a coordinator from another site after an extensive practice and training period. Periodic reliability checks were also conducted throughout the rating process. Evaluations of interrater reliability indicated good agreement (rs = .81, .66, .73, and .90 at 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years, respectively). Evidence of discriminative validity was found in a comparison of adolescent and adult mother – infant interactions at 6 months. Using all the dimensions of observed parenting behaviors, adolescent mothers were correctly classified as adolescent 72% of the time, and the adult mothers were correctly classified 70% of the time (Whitman et al., 2001). Factor analysis was used to understand the interrelations among the 11 MIS items. A Promax (oblique) rotation was used, allowing factors to be correlated. Factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were utilized. Separate factor analyses at each age supported the creation of 2 subscales: Maternal Responsiveness and Verbal Stimulation–Encouragement (Borkowski et al., 2002). In the interest of parsimony, the Verbal Stimulation and Encouragement subscale will be referred to as Verbal Stimulation, consisting of verbalness, appropriate motivation, and positiveness dimensions. Coefficient alphas for the Verbal Stimulation subscale, based on the intercor1Further information regarding the structure of the toy-play interactions at each age can be obtained from the first author.

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relations of the three items, range from .75 to .83. The Maternal Responsiveness subscale consisted of the control, flexibility, rate of stimulation, and affectional match dimensions of maternal parenting style. Alpha reliabilities for Maternal Responsiveness were generally higher, ranging from .83 to .90. In this sample, the two subscales correlated .76 with each other at 6 months, .55 at 1 year, .78 at 3 years, and .66 at 5 years; on average their composite (consisting of 7 items) correlated .98 with the total score using all 11 items. For the purpose of this study, a composite of the two subscales will be used as the overall index of the quality of mother – child interactions (MIS). Correlations between MIS scores were moderate across time, ranging from .29 to .52; scores temporally closer together evidenced more stability than scores farther apart (e.g., r = .52 for 3 and 5 year scores, whereas r = .29 for 6-month and 5-year scores). Similar relations and correlational patterns were found when examining the relations between MIS subscales. Child abuse potential. Abuse potential was assessed using an abbreviated version of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI; Milner, 1986) when the children were 1, 3, and 5 years of age. The abbreviated version contained 25 items selected primarily from the rigidity and unhappiness subscales of the CAPI, which reflect psychological distress typical of abusive parents. These two dimensions have been found to distinguish abusive from non-abusive individuals, and each has accounted for a major amount of variance in the full CAPI scores. Respondents were asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement with statements relating to each subscale. For example, “Everything in a home should always be in its place.” or “I have several close friends in my neighborhood.” A total score was obtained by summing all of the items indicative of the potential for physical child abuse, with a higher score indicating a higher potential to abuse. Scores were correlated among 1, 3, and 5 years — correlation coefficients ranged from .64 to .72 — demonstrating some stability throughout early childhood. Cognitive readiness to parent. The Cognitive Readiness to Parent construct contained measures that looked at the mother’s beliefs about child development, her role as a parent, and her parenting style. Three questionnaires were used to measure this construct: Knowledge and Expectancies about Child Development, Child Centeredness-Role Reversal, and Parenting Style. Maternal knowledge and expectancies about child development were examined by a 39-item questionnaire. The pregnant adolescents were asked to identify developmentally normative behavior in children on 19


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multiple-choice items. An example of this type of time was “Most babies begin sitting up with some support by (1) 3 months, (2) 6 months, (3) 9 months, (4) 12 months.” These questions were developed from the material covered in an introductory psychology textbook and a child development textbook (Bourne & Ekstrand, 1973; Yussen & Santrock, 1984). The remaining 20 items were taken from expectations subscale of the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (Bavolek, 1985). The questions examined the adolescents’ expectations about normative development (e.g., “Children should be expected to verbally express themselves before the age of 1 year.”). These items were rated on a 4-point scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree). The rating scale items were converted to dichotomous variables so that they could be combined with the dichotomous multiple-choice items. Based on the entire 152 participant sample from the larger project, the internal consistency of this instrument was found to be .70; the test-retest reliability, over a 6-month interval, was .49 (Sommer et al., 1993). Child centeredness and role reversal scores were obtained from a 20item questionnaire examining parental attitudes toward children, and the roles of parents and children in caregiving relationships. More specifically, child centeredness addressed the mothers’ orientation toward becoming a mother and putting the child’s needs above her own (e.g., “I am really looking forward to being a mother.”). Conversely, the role reversal items reflected maternal expectations about the child’s responsibility to care for the mother (e.g., “Young children should hug their mom when she is sad.”). The role reversal items were also taken from the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (Bavlovek, 1985). The internal consistency of this instrument was .74, and test-retest reliability over a 6-month period was .63. The ratings were summed to produce the total score. The Parenting Style questionnaire consisted of items from the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (Bavlovek, 1985), and asked mothers to rate either 1 (how strongly they agreed) or 5 (how strongly they disagreed) with various statements regarding childrearing. The scale contained 32 items regarding parenting practices, discipline, and appropriateness of child interactions. Four subscales were reflected in this instrument; Responsiveness–empathy, punishment, abuse–neglect, and authoritarianism. All item ratings were summed to provide the Parenting Style score. The internal consistency of this scale was .89, and the test-retest reliability was .87. The overall Cognitive Readiness of Parenting score was obtained by summing the z scores for the Knowledge and Expectations questionnaire with the z scores for the Child Centeredness–Role Reversal and Parenting Style questionnaires. Lower total scores reflected poorer preparation for parenting. Test-retest reliability over a 6-month period was .72 for adoles-

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cent mothers (Sommer et al., 1993). Similar reliabilities for the total score and subscale scores were found in the subsample reported in this study.

RESULTS Attachment Classifications and Stability Between Infancy and Early Childhood Table 1 contains the distributions of attachment at 1 and 5 years as well as their cross-classification. At 1 year, the majority of children were classified as disorganized (45%) or insecure (24%); only 31% were securely attached. At 5 years, the incidence of secure attachment increased to 41% and insecure attachment to 41%; 18% of the sample was disorganized. Approximately 41% of the children exhibited stable attachment classifications between 1 and 5 years. The majority of those who were secure at 1 year remained secure at 5 (63%). However, 42% of the children who were insecure at 1 year became secure at 5 years. The majority of the children who were disorganized at 1 year became insecure at 5 years (51%), 23% remained disorganized, and 26% became securely attached. Thus, the major changes in attachment were from disorganized to insecure attachment and insecure to secure attachment, although some movement occurred from secure to insecure categories. Movement into the disorganized category from other categories was minimal (8%). TABLE 1 1-Year Attachment by 5-Year Attachment Contingency Table 5-Year Classification

1-Year Classification B A or C D 5-year total

Count Row % Column % Count Row % Column % Count Row % Column % N %

1-Year Total

B

A or C

D

N

%

15 62.5 46.9 8 42.1 25.0 9 25.7 28.1 32 41.0

5 20.8 15.6 9 47.4 28.1 18 51.4 56.3 32 41.0

4 16.7 28.6 2 10.5 14.3 8 22.9 57.1 14 17.9

24

30.8

19

24.4

35

44.9

78

Note. Boldface diagonal values indicate stable classifications. A = insecure/avoidant; B = secure; C = insecure/resistant; D = insecure/disorganized.


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Predicting Attachment Stability Before examining the parenting predictors of 1- and 5-year attachment, the predictors of attachment stability–instability were evaluated. Participants were classified into three groups: (1) stable optimal attachment (O-O; n = 15), which included children who were securely attached at both 1 and 5 years of age; (2) stable non-optimal attachment (N-N; n = 37), which consisted of children who were insecure at both time points, disorganized at both time points, or insecure at one and disorganized at the other; and (3) non-optimal to optimal attachment (N-O; n = 17), in which children were disorganized or insecure at 1 year of age but securely attached at 5 years. Children who were securely attached at 1 year and insecure or disorganized at 5 years were not included in the analysis of attachment stability due to small subgroup sample size (n = 9) and because their childhood experiences were particularly traumatic or disrupted relative to the remaining sample. For example, 4 children experienced or witnessed physical abuse during this time, 2 children did not live with their mothers for a substantial period between 1 and 5 years, and in almost all of these cases there were considerable shifts in household composition. Analysis of variance was used to determine which parenting variables — early and later maternal interactions, early and later child abuse potential, and cognitive readiness to parent — predicted stability and instability, which were treated as nominal categories. Means, standard deviations, and samples sizes for each type of stability subgroup as a function of parenting or maternal variables can be found in Table 2. The quality of both early and later maternal interactions was related to stability in attachment classification, Fs (2, 66) = 4.63 and 4.96, respectively, ps < .05. Furthermore, prenatal cognitive readiness was related to stability–instability in attachment, F (2, 66) = 5.43, p < .01. Pairwise comparisons were performed to determine which stability groups differed on MIS and cognitive readiness scores. Both early and later maternal interactional styles as well as cognitive readiness distinguished stable optimal and stable non-optimal categories, Fs (1, 66) = 7.95, 9.20, and 10.28 respectively, ps < .01: Children who were securely attached at both time points had a higher quality of maternal interactions, both early and late in their development, as well as mothers who were more cognitively prepared prior to childbirth when contrasted with children who were insecure or disorganized at both time points. In addition to examining the overall effects of the quality of maternal interactions, the two components of maternal interactions were examined to determine their differential effects on attachment stability. Of the early subscales, only responsiveness was associated with stability or change in attachment category, F (2, 66) = 5.21, p < .05. Pairwise comparisons re-

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LOUNDS ET AL. TABLE 2 Descriptive Statistics for Parenting Variables by Stable Attachment Categories Stable Attachment Classification O–Oa

Predictor Early Parenting Variables Cognitive Readiness* Child Abuse Potential Maternal Interactions* Early MIS subscales Responsiveness* Verbal Stimulation Later Parenting Variables Child Abuse Potential Maternal Interactions** Later MIS subscales Responsiveness** Verbal Stimulation*

N–Ob

N–Nc

M

SD

M

SD

M

SD

.35a 6.87 28.7a

.90 5.19 4.70

.02 8.88 27.09

.64 3.90 6.48

–.32a 9.54 23.89a

.61 4.04 5.60

17.43a 11.08

3.01 2.15

16.12 10.97

4.59 2.74

14.33a 9.65

3.46 2.56

7.67 30.63a

4.46 6.60

8.32 27.88

3.66 7.10

9.58 24.60a

3.19 6.17

18.51a 12.26a

3.74 2.52

16.24 11.70b

4.43 3.07

14.53a 10.06a,b

4.03 2.57

Note. O–O = stable optimal; N–O = becoming optimal from non-optimal; N–N = stable non-optimal. Means that share a common subscript in the same row are significantly different at the p < .05 level. an = 15. bn = 17. cn = 37. *p < .05. **p < .01.

vealed that early responsiveness was related to the two most extreme categories, F (1, 66) = 7.57, p < .01: Children who were securely attached at both time points had mothers who were more responsive in infancy than children who were insecure or disorganized at both time points. Both later responsiveness and verbal stimulation were also related to stability–change in attachment category from 1 to 5 years of age, Fs (2, 66) = 5.21 and 4.49, ps < .05. Pairwise comparisons revealed that, similar to early responsiveness, later maternal responsiveness differentiated children who were securely attached at both time points from children who were insecure or disorganized at both time points, F (1, 66) = 10.17, p < .01. Mothers’ verbal stimulation during early childhood not only differentiated between these two categories, F (1,66) = 7.17, p < .01 but also between the children who were insecure or disorganized at both time points and those who became securely attached at 5 years, F (1, 66) = 4.36, p < .05. Analysis of covariance was used to determine if either of the subscales predicted stable attachment categories above and beyond the other subscale; that is, whether either or both subscales were uniquely related to


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the outcome variable. Neither of the later subscales was associated with attachment stability when the mothers’ scores on the corresponding earlier subscale were held constant. Similar results were found for the earlier subscales when controlling for the later MIS subscales, indicating that neither early nor later parenting played a unique role when considering attachment stability. More responsive mothers, both in infancy and early childhood, had children who were securely attached at 1 year of age and remained so at 5; less responsive mothers had children who were insecure (organized or disorganized) at 1 and 5. Responsiveness differentiated between the children who were consistently secure or insecurely attached; however, it was not related to whether a child became securely attached at 5 years from an initial status of insecure. Children who were first observed as disorganized or insecure but became secure at 5 years had mothers who were more verbally stimulating and encouraging during early childhood than children who remained insecure or disorganized at 5. Predicting 1-Year and 5-Year Attachment One-year attachment. Table 3 presents the means and standard deviations for each parenting variable for each type of attachment at 1 year. Intercorrelations of attachment categories and measures of parenting can be found in Table 4. For correlational analyses, attachment was analyzed on a continuous scale, with a 1 indicating a child who was insecure-disorTABLE 3 Descriptive Statistics for Parenting Variables by 1-Year Attachment Categories Attachment Classification Ba Predictor Early parenting variables Cognitive Readiness Child Abuse Potential Maternal Interactions Early MIS subscales Responsiveness Verbal Stimulation

A or Cb

Dc

M

SD

M

SD

M

SD

.36 7.75 27.09

0.79 4.70 5.78

–.03 8.54 28.40

0.58 3.86 6.75

–.31 9.76 22.99

0.64 4.02 4.65

16.34 10.58

3.34 2.21

17.13 13.68

4.25 2.91

13.68 9.43

3.13 2.31

Note. A = insecure/avoidant; B = secure; C = insecure/resistant; D = disorganized. Higher scores indicate more cognitive readiness for parenting, higher potential to abuse, and more positive maternal interactions, responsiveness, and verbal stimulation. an = 24. bn = 19. cn = 35.

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LOUNDS ET AL. TABLE 4 Intercorrelations Between Attachment and Parenting Predictors 1-Year Attachment Category

Cognitive Readiness Early CAPI Early MIS Later CAPI Later MIS 5-year attachment MIS subscales Early VSE Early RE Later VSE Later RE

5-Year Attachment Category

.39** –.21 .33** –.22 .25* .26*

.24* –.23* .36** –.23* .27* —

.22 .33** .20 .30**

.30** .33** .26* .26*

Note. MIS = maternal interactions; CAPI = child abuse potential; VSE = verbal stimulation and encouragement; RE = responsiveness. *p < .05. **p < .01.

ganized, a score of 2 indicating a child who demonstrated organized insecurity (avoidant or resistant), and a score of 3 indicating secure attachment. Multinomial logistic regression (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001) was used to examine the relations between early parenting variables — namely, the aggregate of 6-month and 1-year quality of maternal interactions (MIS), child abuse potential (CAPI) at 1 year, and prenatal maternal cognitive readiness to parent — and children’s 1-year attachment security. Although multinomial logistic regression is similar to logistic regression, it is more general in that the dependent variable may have more than two categories; that is, the categories of the dependent variable can then be treated as nominal or ordinal. Through this technique it is possible to test the assumption of ordinality; a chi-square test is performed which, if non significant, suggests that values of the dependent variable differ from each other in an ordered fashion. Because we hypothesized that the relations between attachment categories and parenting variables were ordered (with disorganized children having the lowest scores, insecure children having intermediate scores, and secure children having the highest scores), we treated the attachment variable as ordinal. The ordering of attachment categories was supported by findings suggesting that mothers generally have the most problematic parenting practices as their children are disorganized, with parenting being less problematic when the children evidence organized patterns of insecurity; the most sensitive parenting occurs as children are securely attached (Barnett, Kidwell, & Leung, 1998; Moss, St-Laurent, & Parent, 1999; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2001).


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The chi-square, testing the proportional odds assumption, was non-significant, χ2(3, N = 78) = 6.04, thus supporting the assumption of ordinality. The overall model significantly predicted 1-year attachment, χ2(3, N = 78) = 13.18, p < .01; however, when testing the individual parameter estimates, only cognitive readiness to parent uniquely predicted attachment classification, χ2(1, N = 78) = 6.61, p < .05, with an odds ratio of .36 (95% confidence interval = .17 – .79). Although the quality of maternal interactions was related to attachment when entered as the sole independent variable, χ2(1, N = 78) = 7.23, p < .01, this relation was not significant when cognitive readiness was entered simultaneously. Five-year attachment. Means and standard deviations of early and later MIS, early and later CAPI, and early cognitive readiness for each 5-year attachment classification are presented in Table 5. Two multinomial logistic regression models were tested — the first predicting 5-year attachment from quality of early maternal interactions, early child abuse potential, and early cognitive readiness, and the second predicting 5-year attachment from later scores for maternal interactions and abuse potential. Chisquares for both the early and later parenting models were non-significant indicating that the parenting variables predicted 5-year attachment in an TABLE 5 Descriptive Statistics for Parenting Variables by 5-Year Attachment Categories Attachment Classification Ba Predictor Early parenting variables Cognitive Readiness Child Abuse Potential Maternal Interactions Early MIS subscales Responsiveness Verbal Stimulation Later parenting variables Child Abuse Potential Maternal Interactions Later MIS subscales Responsiveness Verbal Stimulation

A or Cb

Dc

M

SD

M

SD

M

SD

.18 7.93 27.87

.78 4.59 5.69

–.14 8.95 24.65

.74 3.93 5.93

–.30 10.67 22.39

.46 3.72 3.27

16.73 11.02

3.93 2.44

14.76 10.00

3.70 2.57

13.46 8.93

2.36 2.11

8.02 29.17

4.00 6.90

9.02 25.71

3.51 6.32

10.31 24.67

2.34 5.94

17.30 11.97

4.22 2.80

15.63 10.21

4.10 2.64

14.33 10.35

4.19 2.32

Note. A = insecure/avoidant; B = secure; C = insecure/resistant; D = disorganized. an = 32. bn = 14. cn = 14.

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ordered fashion, thereby offering evidence that models assuming an ordinal dependent variable were appropriate for these data. Both models containing the early parenting predictors and the later parenting variables predicted 5-year attachment category, χ2(3, N = 78) = 10.05 and χ2(2, N = 78) = 6.90, respectively, ps < .05. Of the early parenting variables, only early maternal interactions uniquely predicted attachment, χ2(1, N = 78) = 4.75, p < .05; the odds ratio was .90 (95% confidence interval = .83 – .99). Of the later parenting variables, later quality of maternal interactions predicted attachment when entered as the sole independent variable, χ2(1, N = 78) = 5.94, p < .05, with an odds ratio of .92 (95% confidence interval = .86 – .98). However, neither later abuse potential nor later maternal interactions predicted 5-year attachment when entered simultaneously. To determine whether either early or later maternal interactional style or both were uniquely related to 5-year attachment, multinomial logistic regression was used with these variables entered simultaneously. When the quality of later maternal interactions was held constant, quality of early maternal interactions still predicted attachment security, χ2(1, N = 78) = 5.97, p < .05, with an odds ratio of .90 (95% confidence interval = .83 – .98). In contrast, when early maternal interactions were controlled, later maternal interactions failed to predict 5-year attachment. In conjunction, these results suggest that the quality of parenting during the 1st year of life may have unique and persistent effects on attachment during childhood. Multinomial logistic regression was also used to determine if responsiveness and verbal stimulation components of maternal interaction style — early and later in development — were uniquely related to 5-year attachment security. Although an equation including later responsiveness and later verbal stimulation predicted 5-year attachment, χ2(2, N = 78) = 6.62, p < .05, neither variable uniquely predicted 5-year attachment, indicating that the relations between later responsiveness and verbal stimulation and 5-year attachment were accounted for by their shared variance. In contrast, early responsiveness predicted 5-year attachment when later responsiveness was held constant, χ2(1, N = 78) = 5.27, p < .05, with an odds ratio of .86 (95% confidence interval = .76 – .98); similarly when later verbal stimulation was controlled, early verbal stimulation predicted 5-year attachment, χ2(1, N = 78) = 3.72, p < .05, with an odds ratio of .91 (95% confidence interval = .83 – .99). In short, components of early maternal interaction quality in adolescents predicted 5-year attachment independent of the later components of the quality of maternal interactions. In contrast, the relations between later verbal stimulation and later responsiveness on attachment depended on similar variables during infancy.


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DISCUSSION In this study we examined the distribution of attachment at 1 and 5 years in children of adolescent mothers and attachment stability. We focused on predicting attachment and its stability from observed parenting, cognitive readiness for the parenting role, and child abuse potential, with the goal of determining when parenting during infancy and early childhood had the greatest impact on attachment security. At 1 year of age, strikingly high levels of disorganized attachment (45%) were observed, and the incidence of secure attachment was unusually low (31%). The rate of secure attachment during infancy was substantially lower than studies using middle-class, low-risk populations (Ainsworth et al., 1978; NICHD Early Child Care Network, 2001), and the high percentage of disorganized attachment was approximately 3 times the rate found in a meta-analysis of low-risk samples (van IJzendoorn et al., 1999). Although the distribution of attachment in our project was “atypical” when compared with studies of children with adult mothers, the high levels of insecure attachment, especially disorganized attachment, are consistent with other studies of adolescent mothers and their infants. Rates of insecure attachment in adolescent mother – child dyads are often reported to be over 50%, with a large percentage disorganized (Broussard, 1995; Spieker & Bensley, 1994; Ward & Carlson, 1995). At 5 years of age, rates of secure and disorganized attachment in our project more closely approximated results found in other studies of attachment with children of adolescent mothers: Secure attachment increased to 41%, whereas disorganized attachment decreased to 18%. We turn now to possible explanations for the high rates of insecure attachment in infants with teenage mothers. Adolescent mothers, as compared to adult mothers, are generally unprepared to assume their parenting roles because of a lack of knowledge about infant and child development, a tendency toward endorsing harsh or punitive parenting styles, and problematic parenting attitudes such as role reversal (Sommer et al., 1993). According to Whitman et al. (2001), a teen mother’s lack of cognitive and emotional preparedness for parenting places her child at risk for a variety of developmental problems, including organized insecure and disorganized attachment. The readiness of an adolescent mother to parent depends on her formal education and informal education gained from life experiences as well as her cognitive ability to assimilate and utilize both types of information within an organized parenting schema (Miller, Miceli, Whitman, & Borkowski, 1996). More precisely, adolescent mothers are not as aware of important developmental milestones as adult mothers nor as prepared to provide everyday care for

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their infants; both factors can lead to less responsive parenting during infancy (Sommer et al., 2000). Living with her own mother after giving birth can also affect a teen mother’s parenting skills, increasing the likelihood of continuing in her adolescent roles in terms of daily activities (e.g., completing school) as well as maintaining a conflicted relationship with her mother, thus increasing the probability of less skillful interactions with her infant (Spieker & Bensley, 1994). Cognitive unpreparedness for assuming the parenting role combined with poor parenting practices during infancy can result in major developmental problems, including insecure attachment (Spieker & Bensley, 1994; Ward & Carlson, 1995; Whitman et al., 2001). With respect to the stability of attachment, only 41% of the children in our sample remained in the same classification at 1 and 5 years of age. Similar shifts in attachment patterns have been associated with changes in family relationships, parental job loss, poverty, spousal separations, shifts in caregiving arrangements, and the birth of a sibling (Egeland & Farber, 1984; Teti, Gelfand, Messinger, & Isabella, 1995; Vaughn, Egeland, Sroufe, & Waters, 1979; Vondra et al., 1999). Changes in family dynamics are more common in disadvantaged or high-risk populations and are especially widespread among families headed by adolescent mothers (Barnett, Ganiban, & Cicchetti, 1999; Whitman et al., 2001), influencing the quality of their early parenting practices (Belsky, 1997; Cowan, 1997; DeWolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997), contributing to insecure attachment during infancy, and promoting shifts in attachment security across time (Spieker & Bensley, 1994; Spieker & Booth, 1988; Ward & Carlson, 1995). Amongst this sample, in which instability appeared to be the norm, a set of variables that define cognitive readiness for parenting (maternal knowledge about infant and child development, attitudes and values related to parenting, and beliefs about appropriate disciplinary practices) predicted both parenting behaviors and attachment security during infancy. Bivariate relations between cognitive readiness and maternal interactions, as well as cognitive readiness and 1-year attachment have been reported in the literature (Sommer et al., 1993; Whitman et al., 2001). By examining these two predictor variables simultaneously, results of this study revealed that cognitive readiness to parent had a direct effect on children’s attachment during infancy, not merely an indirect effect through observed parenting behaviors. Although observed quality of parenting during infancy was associated with concurrent attachment, this relation failed to reach significance with the addition of cognitive readiness to parent as an explanatory variable. The construct of cognitive readiness for parenting captures a broad range of knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about parenting and is perhaps a more


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valid representation of early parenting practices than are time-restrictive, laboratory based observational measures. Additionally, prenatal cognitive readiness accounted for nearly 20% of the variance of observed parenting behaviors during infancy. Thus, it appears that parenting behaviors during infancy are related to attachment security through their shared variance with cognitive readiness to parent. A different pattern emerged when examining the predictors of attachment at age 5, with cognitive readiness predicting 1-year attachment but failing to predict later attachment. Instead, observational measures of the quality of parenting during infancy related to attachment during early childhood, over and above concurrent measures of maternal responsiveness. Recent studies have found similar results, reporting that early responsiveness predicted social development at 30 months of age and into adolescence, regardless of the concurrent degree of responsiveness (Landry et al., 2001; Wakschlag & Hans, 1999). These findings, along with this study, corroborate Ainsworth and colleagues’ (1978) assertion that parenting during infancy provides the foundation that allows a child to feel secure and to develop a basic trust of their caregivers. Although some research with low-risk samples has suggested that concurrent parenting is a better predictor of attachment security than early parenting (Kochanska, 1998), this study lends support to the primacy of parenting during the 1st year of life in laying a foundation for later children’s attachment security, at least in adolescent mother – child dyads where less consistent and sensitive parenting may characterize early childhood development. When home environments are particularly chaotic and dysfunctional, which is often the case among families headed by adolescent mothers (Barnett et al., 1999; Whitman et al., 2001), the quality of parenting suffers (Belsky, 1997; Cowan, 1997; DeWolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997). Thus, a responsive and sensitive home environment during infancy may be particularly important for children who are likely to experience disruption and chaos throughout their childhood. The two components of maternal interactional quality — responsiveness and verbal encouragement – stimulation — were differentially related to attachment stability, depending on the stage of development. Maternal responsiveness was related to whether children were securely or insecurely attached; however, high levels of responsiveness failed to predict whether an initially insecure child became securely attached at age 5. It appeared that responsive parenting during infancy was associated with the formation of secure attachment bonds, whereas continued responsiveness during early childhood was related to the maintenance of those bonds. Landry et al. (2001) found similar results when analyzing the contribution of responsiveness to children’s development: Responsive parenting dur-

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ing both infancy and early childhood was associated with the maintenance of optimal cognitive and social development. Similarly, the NICHD Early Child Care study (2001) found that lower levels of sensitivity during childhood, at 24 to 36 months, were associated with changes from secure to insecure attachments, whereas high sensitivity was associated with changes toward secure attachment. Children in our project who were insecure at 1 year of age but became securely attached at 5, had mothers who were more verbally stimulating during early childhood than children who remained insecure. Research has documented the connection between verbal encouragement–stimulation and children’s joint attention, cognitive skills, language development, and attachment security (De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997; Flom & Pick, 2003; Keown, Woodward, & Field, 2001; Smith, Landry, & Swank, 2000). None, however, has examined the relations between verbal encouragement – stimulation and attachment stability. Although higher levels of responsiveness were associated with the maintenance of secure attachment, verbal stimulation was the component of parenting most important in predicting shifts from insecure to secure. Providing verbal stimulation and being more encouraging in early childhood seemed to be a corrective mechanism against some of the factors that produced insecure attachment during infancy. As children become more verbal in early childhood, it is reasonable to assume that their ability to sustain joint attention and the extent of their language development would influence their interactions with others, including primary caregivers. Our results suggest that during this period of rapid learning and change, motivating young children in an encouraging and appropriate way to learn and explore their environments becomes an important component, along with parental responsiveness, of positive mother – child interactions Adolescent mothers often live with their own parents after giving birth to their first children; thus, it was often difficult to determine the primary caregiver and, hence, the logical attachment figure. Although there was a large number or children who were disorganized at 1 year, some may have formed a secure attachment to another primary caregiver, such as their grandmothers. Future research needs to examine multiple attachment relationships, including those between adolescent mothers and their children as well as the relationships between children and other members in the household who may serve, often for relatively brief periods, as primary caregivers. A secure attachment to the grandmother or another household member might buffer the long-term developmental effects of disorganized maternal attachment.


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A limitation of this study is the relatively small number of mother – child dyads included. Because this is a particularly high-risk, mobile population, only half of the participants in the larger study had data available from the third trimester of pregnancy through the children’s 5th year. Although the smaller subsample did not differ from the remainder of the participants on major demographic variables, longitudinal research using larger adolescent samples is clearly needed. This study was restricted to a low SES sample of adolescent mothers who were at high risk for poor parenting and children at high risk for a variety of developmental delays (Whitman et al., 2001); thus, our results apply primarily to this population. Because of the unique and shifting environments of many adolescent mothers (i.e., living with their own parents during the initial 6 months of their child’s life but moving out shortly after), future research should determine whether similar relations hold for other high-risk samples of mothers who live independently or with partners or friends. Examples of adult populations that may have similar patterns of relations to those found in this study would be mothers living in poverty or who are cognitively unprepared for the parenting role. The observed differential effects of specific parenting behaviors, such as responsiveness and verbal encouragement, on both early and later attachment security may be unique to the life experiences of teenage mothers and their children or common to low-risk and other high-risk mothers. AFFILATIONS AND ADDRESSES Julie J. Lounds, University of Notre Dame; John G. Borkowski, University of Notre Dame; Thomas L. Whitman, University of Notre Dame; Scott E. Maxwell, University of Notre Dame; Keri Weed, University of South Carolina–Aiken. Julie Lounds is now at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1500 Highland Ave., Madison WI 53705. E-mail: [email protected]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was supported by NICHD grant HD 26456. The first author was a predoctoral trainee on NICHD training grant HD07184. Virginia Colin, who scored the attachment videotapes, was trained by Mary Ainsworth for the 1-year coding and Bob Marvin for the 5-year coding. We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this article.

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APPENDIX Parenting Dimensions in the Maternal Interaction Scale (MIS) 1. 2.

Interactional Orientation: The continuum ranges from mother and child not interacting with one another at all (1) to occasionally interacting, to frequently interacting (physically and verbally; 6). Control: refers to the directionality of interaction. On one extreme, the mother or child controls all interactions (1). On the other extreme, both parties participate in the interaction about equally (6). In the middle of the continuum both parties participate in the interaction, however, one party has greater control.

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Attention: The continuum ranges from the mother not paying attention to the child at all (1), to paying continuous attention (6). Attention involves looking at but not necessarily interacting with the child. If maternal interactions occur, attention is, by definition, being provided. Flexibility: Mother rigidly perseveres in one activity (one mode of presentation) and does not change or prompt appropriately (such as when the child has gained mastery or continuously fails; 1). At the other end of the continuum, the mother adjusts as necessary and does so appropriately (6). Verbal Exchanges: Refers to mother’s conversation with the child excluding instructional prompts. At one end, the mother does not talk with the child at all (1); on the other end the mother continuously talks to the child (6). This category refers to dialogue about objects or activities as well as general conversation. Positiveness: On one end of the continuum the mother frequently grimaces, criticizes, hits, teases, pokes, and makes demands of the child in an impatient fashion (1). On the other end of the continuum, the mother frequently smiles, hugs, and praises the child (6). Affectional Match: One end of the continuum is when emotional synchrony occurs between the mother and child; the mother is able to soothe and handle distress and the mother is happy when the child is happy (6). On the other end, the mother inappropriately matches the child’s affect (e.g., responds to child’s smile with a grimace) and does not react to or read the child’s distress (1). The manner in which the mother responds to her child is what is important. Rate of Stimulation: On one end of the continuum the mother under-stimulates the child or bombards the child with repeated and intense prompts (demands; 1); on the other end the mother’s rate of stimulation is appropriate to the child’s state (6). This scale addresses the question of whether or not the mother is sensitive to the child’s state and adjusts prompting accordingly. Appropriate Direction: On one end of the continuum, the mother provides a variety of prompts, in a flexible fashion, that are necessary to direct the child’s performance (6); on the other, she provides minimal, rigid, or inappropriate direction to the child (1). Appropriate Motivation: This continuum ranges from supportive, enthusiastic encouragement of the child’s performance (6) or, at the negative end, the mother provides minimal or inappropriate encouragement (1). Quality of Mothering: An estimated global rating of the overall quality of interactional skills.