Attachment and amae in Japanese romantic relationships

Amae is a Japanese term that refers to an individual's inappropriate behaviour when he/she presumes indulgence from a significant other. The link between attachment style and amae has been debated, but few studies have examined this link empirically. This study examined the association of attachment style with amae behaviour in Japanese dating couples over a two‐week period. Results showed that for Japanese men, anxious attachment was positively associated with their amae behaviour, and in turn, with their increased relationship quality. Conversely, avoidant attachment was negatively associated with their amae behaviour, and in turn, with their decreased relationship quality.     

Attachment & Child Health (ATTACH) pilot trials: Effect of parental reflective function intervention for families affected by toxic stress

Toxic stressors (e.g., parental violence, depression, low income) place children at risk for insecure attachment. Parental reflective function—parents’ capacity to understand their own and their child's mental states and thus regulate their own feelings and behavior toward their child—may buffer the negative effects of toxic stress on attachment. Our objective was to test the effectiveness of the Attachment and Child Health (ATTACH) intervention, focusing on improving reflective function and children's attachment security, for at-risk mothers and children <36 months of age. Three pilot studies were conducted with women and children from an inner city agency serving vulnerable, low-income families and a family violence shelter. Randomized control trial (n = 20, n = 10 at enrollment) and quasi-experimental (n = 10 at enrollment) methods tested the effect of the ATTACH intervention on the primary outcome of reflective function scores, from transcribed Parent Development Interviews. Our secondary outcome was children's attachment patterns from Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure. Despite some attrition, mixed methods analysis of covariance and t tests revealed significant differences in maternal, child, and overall reflective function, with moderate effect sizes. While more children whose mothers received the ATTACH program were securely attached posttreatment, as compared with controls, significant differences were not observed, which may be due to missing observations (n = 5 cases). Understanding the effectiveness of programs like the ATTACH intervention contributes to improved programs and services to promote healthy development of children affected by toxic stress.     

Difficulties in amae: A clinical perspective

The Japanese word amae refers initially to the infant's feelings and attachment behavior toward the mother. Doi has vividly described how amae is carried through into adulthood characterizing Japanese social and family relationships and Japanese psychology. Exploring implications of the amae concept for infant research will be helped by including other aspects of amae manifest in clinical work: (1) Amae takes place in the complex vicissitudes of motherhood in Japan in which the mother fulfills her social as well as emotional needs through her infant; (2) as the child grows older he or she learns that amae can only be fulfilled if he or she is able to meet the parent's and the social demand for achievement; (3) there is a long tradition of inhibition of amae among women which is passed on from generation to generation affecting the quality of mothering; (4) the intuitive aspect of good enough amae in the parent-in-fant relationship is being lost due to rapid ongoing social changes. Therapeutic endeavors to retrieve the intuitive aspect of amae prove effective for the increasing numbers of relationship disturbances in infancy.     

Fathers' and mothers' attachment representations as predictors of preadolescents' attachment security: A ten‐year follow‐up of Finnish families

The question of how mothers' and fathers' representations of attachment correlate ten years later with children's perceptions of attachment relationships was examined in a longitudinal study on Finnish families (N = 42). The parents completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) during the child's first year of life. At 11 years, the children filled out three scales on how secure they perceive the relationship with each parent. Parents' AAI classifications and AAI dimensions based on continuous scales were used as predictors of the preadolescents' attachment security. Regression analyses demonstrated that fathers' but not mothers' State‐of‐Mind and Experience dimensions predicted preadolescents' security of attachment to father. The discussion focuses on the predictive validity of the classical categorical versus the recently proposed continuous approach and the different roles of parents in transmitting security from one generation to another.     

Amae as seen in diverse interpersonal interactions

The word amae is generally used in the Japanese language with a variety of emotions depending on different interpersonal interactions. (1) When an adult identifies with an infant or a child and directs appropriate emotional availability, the affect of dependence and attachment that the adult recognizes in the child is called amae (the prototype of the word). (2) When an adult has little empathy with the dependency or attachment shown by the child, the adult negatively perceives that the child is “amaeru-ing.” Experiencing such discommunications, the child begins to test adults to see if they have empathy with him or her. In other words, he or she begins to formulate certain psychological functions linked with amae such as reading other people's expressions—hitomishiri (stranger anxiety) or enryo (hesitation or reserve). (3) When the child is good at actively manipulating the emotions of adults and creates such a state of affect as to satisfy his or her dependence or attachment, he or she is said to be an amaeru-ing child. (4) When the child, although he or she is actually dependent on or loved by adults, denies the fact and behaves innocently or defiantly, the child is said to be in a state of amae. The usage of the word amae described above can be observed in exactly the same manner in interactions between adults.     

Interventions with video feedback and attachment discussions: Does type of maternal insecurity make a difference?

Parents' insecure representations of attachment are associated with lower parental sensitivity and insecure infant–parent attachment relationships, leading to less optimal conditions for the children's socio-emotional development. Therefore, two types of short-term intervention were implemented in a group of lower middle-class mothers with an insecure representation of attachment as assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview. In one group of mothers, the intervention efforts were directed at promoting maternal sensitivity by means of written information about sensitive parenting and personal video feedback. In the other group, additional discussions about the mothers' early attachment experiences took place, aiming at affecting the mothers' attachment representation. The interventions were implemented during four home visits between the 7th and the 10th month after the baby's birth. Preliminary results on 30 mothers pointed at an intervention effect: Mothers in both intervention groups were more sensitive at 13 months than mothers in a control group, t(28) = −2.3, effect size d = .87, p = .01. Mothers who were classified as insecure dismissing tended to profit most from video feedback, whereas mothers who were classified as insecure preoccupied tended to profit most from video feedback with additional discussions about their childhood attachment experiences, F(1,16) = 1.9, d = .65, p = .19. © 1998 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Mother and infant affective involvement states and maternal depression

This study shows two different dimensional types of maternal depression, one dull and slow, the other stressed and irritable. When the quality of the infant attachment to mother is assessed, it is noted that the dimensional aspect of the maternal depression can be of some importance in the quality of the attachment. In fact, children are more inclined to develop an insecure–ambivalent attachment to their stressed depressed mothers, while children of slow depressed mothers are more insecure–avoiding. Thus, the dimensions of maternal depression can be an indicator of the type of insecure attachment of the infant at one year of age. We have also found that insecure children of depressed mothers express very little joy in the course of face-to-face interactions. A parallel can be established between the characteristics of the different affective dimensions of the maternal depression, the affective involvement state level of the partners, their synchrony or non-synchrony, the affective expression of the baby, and the type of insecure attachment to the mother. Thus, affective interaction may be an indicator of the child's development, both to assess the interaction and to evaluate the type of attachment shown by the child, indicating that previous interactive patterns have been internalized. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Japanese Children's Reactions to Family Photographs: Associations with Mothers' Attachment Status

This study examined differences in children's responses to their family photographs within a sample of Japanese 6‐year‐olds (N = 44), exploring associations with their mothers' attachment status. The differences in children's photo reactions were captured by a 5‐point continuous scale to rate how engaged children were and how positively they responded to the photographs taken earlier with their mothers. Mothers' attachment security was assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview. The findings revealed that children of mothers with secure attachment status were significantly more engaged/positive in their photo reactions than were children of mothers with insecure attachment status. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Réflexions autour du processus de parentalité : quelles étapes et quelles spécificités dans l’adoption ?

Parenthood is a process lead by the desire of child and its project. The expectation of a child generates psychological reorganization but its reality will induce modification for the parental couple. We are questioning the process of parenthood amid the encounter of 18 couples divided according to crossed variables: nature of parenthood and its time. Childhood attachment patterns are questioned. The insecure attachment models with more perceived stress are frequent for new parents, the child being biological or adopted. This suggests the necessity to think the welcoming of the child and the couple's preparation to the welcoming together with an accompaniment for at least the first year of the child.     

Assessing the impact of a family nurse-led intervention on young mothers’ references to internal states

A mother's propensity to refer to internal states during mother–child interactions is important for her child's developing social understanding. However, adolescent mothers are less likely to reference internal states when interacting with their children. We investigated whether young mothers’ references to internal states are promoted by the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) intervention, an intensive home-visiting programme designed to support adolescent mothers in England. We also investigated family, maternal, and child factors associated with young mothers’ references to inner states during interactions with their children. Adolescent mothers (n = 483, aged ≤ 19 years when recruited in pregnancy) and their children participated in an observational substudy of a randomized controlled trial investigating the impact of FNP compared to usual care. Mother–child dyads were video-recorded during free play, and mothers’ speech was coded for use of internal state language (references to cognitions, desires, emotions, intentions, preferences, physiology, and perception). We found no differences in mothers’ use of internal state language between the FNP and usual care groups. A sample-wide investigation identified that other features of mothers’ language and relationship status with the child's father were associated with internal state language use. Findings are discussed with reference to targeted interventions and implications for future research.     

Patterns of Attachment in Frequently and Infrequently Reading Mother—Child Dyads

This study explored the relationship between the quality of the mother–child attachment and how often mothers read to their children. Eighteen children who were read to infrequently were matched to a group of children who were read to daily, for sex, age, and socioeconomic status. The children's mothers read them a booklet, mother and child were observed in a reunion episode, the children completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Dunn, 1965) and Frostig's (1966) test for spatial orientation, and the mothers were given the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984). The mothers in the frequently reading dyads did not need to discipline their child to focus on the reading task as often as the mothers in the infrequently reading dyads did. Mothers whose attachment to their child was less secure spent less time reading to their child and had more troublesome episodes during the reading session than mothers whose attachment to their child was more secure. The security of the mother-child attachment was related to the mothers' representation of their relationship with their parents, and mothers who had a secure relationship with their child read more frequently to their child than did mothers who had an insecure relationship with their child.     

Transmission of attachment across three generations

A low-risk Finnish sample (N _total = 135) of parents expecting their first child and maternal grandmothers was followed from pregnancy until the child was 3 years old. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was used to assess attachment in mothers during the last trimester of pregnancy, and maternal grandmothers. The Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) was used to assess attachment in infants at 12 months, and the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA) at 3 years. Mothers' AAI classifications (3-category) during pregnancy predicted infants' SSP classifications (3-category) in 76% of cases, and the 3-year-old children's PAA classifications (3-category) in 58% of cases. Grandmothers' AAI classifications predicted infants' SSP classifications in 48% of cases, but the 3-year-old children's PAA classifications in 72% of cases. Using log-linear analysis, it was shown that a simple model accounted for transmission of attachment across three generations when the children were 3 years. Even though the results indicated continuity across generations, the correspondences were slightly weaker than those obtained by Benoit and Parker in their 3-generational study. The results are discussed in terms of the prototype view, the rapid contextual changes seen across 3 generations in Finland, the size of the sample, and the comparability of the DMM to other assessment methods of attachment.     

Adult's amae as a tool for adjustment to a new environment

Past research has found that people of East Asian backgrounds avoid seeking help out of relational concerns. Research on amae, however, suggests that Japanese may use amae to simultaneously obtain the needed help and enhance relationships. Study 1 showed that among Japanese entrepreneurs and managers, the propensity toward amae correlated with perceiving fewer costs of help‐seeking, seeking more help at work, greater engagement in new relationships and higher general trust. These associations suggest that the Japanese may be using amae to get the help they need and to build new relationships. Study 2 further showed that first‐year undergraduates who reported engaging in amae soon after entering college showed a significant increase in sense of purpose and satisfaction with college life in their first year. These findings suggest that, unlike dependency or passive love, amae can be highly adaptive for the Japanese.     

Social learning in the digital age: Associations between technoference,mother-child attachment,and child social skills

Technoference refers to incidents in which technology use interferes with interpersonal exchanges (e.g., conversations, playing). Although research on technoference is in its infancy, there is preliminary evidence that mothers believe technoference has a detrimental impact on the social-emotional functioning of their child. The current study investigated the degree to which technoference was associated with attachment between mothers and their elementary-aged children. A second aim was to determine if the relationship between technoference and children's social-emotional functioning may be moderated by mother-child attachment. Surveys were completed by a sample of 80 mothers and their elementary-aged children. This study is unique in asking elementary-aged children to report their perceptions of parental technoference and the impact it has on their relationship with their mother and their own social-emotional functioning. More frequent technoference was associated with less secure mother-child attachment as rated by children, but not as rated by mothers. That is, frequent technoference may not significantly influence a mother's attachment to their child, but it is associated with a child's attachment to their mother. More frequent technoference was associated with decreased ratings by mothers regarding their child's social-emotional functioning. Furthermore, maternal attachment moderated the relationship between technoference and child externalizing behaviors, such that a more secure attachment served as a protective factor against the negative impact of technoference on child externalizing behaviors. However, attachment did not moderate the relationship between technoference and most social skills assessed in our study. Implications from this study are discussed, including ways to increase awareness of technoference among school personnel, parents, and youth.     

Relation‐based intervention with at‐risk mothers: Outcome in the second year of life

It has been shown that the UCLA home visiting/mother–infant group intervention made a significant positive impact during the child's first 2 years of life on two indices of the mother's support and on three areas of mother–child and child development: (1) The mother's responsiveness to the needs of her child and the related development of his or her security of attachment; (2) the mother's encouragement of her child's autonomy and the related development of his or her autonomy; and (3) the mother's encouragement of her child's task involvement and the related development of his or her task orientation. By child age 2 years, the mothers experiencing the intervention, in comparison with those that did not, also used verbally persuasive as opposed to coercive intrusive methods of control and their children responded more positively to these controls. Mothers who did not experience the help of the intervention had significantly more difficulty controlling their child if it was a boy as opposed to a girl. They used the least appropriate methods of control, and the boys responded more negatively to these controls. The nature of the development of the mother's use of appropriate controls and the child's response to that control was elucidated by determining on the total sample where 12‐month antecedents influenced the indices of control either independently of or in interaction with the intervention status. The child's endurance in the test situation was an independent predictor of mother‐appropriate control and the child's positive response to that control, while the absence of maternal intrusiveness further enhanced the impact of the intervention on that control. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Affect Attunement and Maternal Attachment: A Pilot Study

The notion that individual differences in mothers' representations of their own early childhood attachment relationships impede or facilitate the recognition of an infant's experiences and needs was investigated. Women were classified as secure, dismissing, of preoccupied in relation to attachment on the basis of the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985) and then videotaped in a laboratory setting with their 10- to 13-month-old babies. Maternal attunement behaviors and fantasies about the babies during the attunement moment were recorded and examined in light of individual differences in maternal attachment. The findings reveal that securely attached mothers are more attuned to their babies than are those mothers who are insecurely attached. Secure mothers attune to a range of infant affect, whereas insecure mothers attune to particular affects and not to others. Specifically, dismissing mothers tended not to attune to negative affect, whereas preoccupied mothers randomly attuned to both positive and negative affect states. Qualitative analyses suggest that insecure mothers misattune to infant affects that threaten their internalized attitudes toward attachment. The findings support the hypothesis that the nature of a mother's internal affective experience powerfully influences the affects she acknowledges and attunes to in her child.     

Affective interactions of depressed and nondepressed mothers and their children

The expressed affect of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers as measured by the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia: Lifetime Version (SADSL) and their children (1 1/2 to 3 1/2 years) was observed in seminatural situations. The objectives were to investigate how maternal depression enters into affective interactions between mother and child and how the affect patterns of mother and child are related. Fortynine unipolar and 24 bipolar depressed mothers and 45 nondepressed mothers were observed on 2 days, 2 weeks apart, for a total of 5 h. Each minute was coded for the predominant affect of mother and child. Affects relevant to depression (anxioussad, irritableangry, downcast, pleasant, tenderaffectionate) were coded. Depressed mothers expressed significantly more negative affect than did control mothers. Mothers' expressed affect and their selfreports of affect on days of observation were unrelated. Mother's and child's affects, measured on different days, were significantly correlated. Unipolar mothers and mothers severely depressed spent significantly more time in prolonged bouts of negative affect. There was significant synchrony between their bouts and the negative bouts of their daughters. Gender of child was related to mother's and child's affect, and to relations between mother's and child's affect.     

Mothers' attachment status as determined by the Adult Attachment Interview predicts their 6-year-olds' reunion responses: a study conducted in Japan

Following a 1986 study reporting a predominance of ambivalent attachment among insecure Sapporo infants, the generalizability of attachment theory and methodologies to Japanese samples has been questioned. In this 2nd study of Sapporo mother-child dyads (N=43), the authors examined attachment distributions for both (a) child, based on M. Main and J. Cassidy's (1988) 6th-year reunion, and (b) adult, via the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). In contrast to the previous Sapporo study, children's 3-way or "organized" distribution did not differ from the global distribution. However, when the disorganized-controlling (D) and cannot classify (CC) categories were applied to the analyses, a high proportion of D/CC children was found. Comparable analyses for Japanese mothers, including the unresolved/disorganized (U) and CC categories, were found to deviate slightly from the global norm. However, turning from global distributions to mothers' AAI classification as related to their child's reunion classification, all matches were surprisingly close to those established worldwide. When, as is customary, mothers' U and CC classifications were combined (U/CC) and compared with the child's D and CC classifications (also customarily combined as D/CC), mothers' U/CC status strongly predicted child D/CC status (r=.60, d=1.50). Additionally, mothers' AAI subclassifications predicted child subclassifications.     

Anxious cognitions in children: An exploration of associations and mediators

To investigate sources of influences connecting mothers' and their children's anxious cognitions, 65 children (aged 10 to 11 years) completed self‐report measures of anxiety. Children and mothers responded to an ambiguous scenario questionnaire and measures of parenting style and life events. Mothers also reported expectations about their child's reaction to ambiguous situations. Mothers' and children's threat cognitions were significantly correlated (r = .31), and partially mediated by mothers' expectations about their child. Mothers' anticipated distress was associated with expectations for their child's distress, which was associated with the child's own anticipated distress. Parenting and life events were significantly associated with children's interpretative bias, but did not mediate the intergenerational association in interpretative bias. The results suggest influences on children's ‘anxious cognitive style’ and potential targets for preventing and reducing maladaptive cognitions in children.