Gastroesophageal reflux disease: attachment style and parental bonding

The attachment styles and parental bonding of 72 patients (M age= 45.3 yr., SD=13.5) suffering from Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease were compared with those of 105 healthy subjects (M age =44.9 yr., SD = 5.8). A clinical interview and two questionnaires, the Attachment Style Questionnaire and the Parental Bonding Instrument, showed that the scores on the ASQ Confidence subscale were significantly lower in the clinical group. Similar results were obtained for the Discomfort with Closeness subscale in the subsample with Pure Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. The results indicate Insecure Attachment in the clinical sample. The results obtained from the Parental Bonding Instrument indicate that scores on the Protection Mother scale were significantly higher in the clinical subjects, suggesting a Low Care-High Protection combination (Affectiveless Control), at least for patients with pure Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. These characteristics can be considered important factors in the tendency to somatization. The symptoms may have a paradoxically normalising function while the patient shows an emotional detachment towards intimate relationships. The illness appears to act as a bond through which the relationship with the caregivers is maintained.     

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): attachment styles and parental bonding

The attachment styles and parental bonding by 64 patients (M age = 43.2 yr., SD = 13.3) with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) were compared with those of 64 patients (M age = 42.2 yr., SD = 13.5) with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and 126 Healthy participants (M age = 42.2 yr., SD = 12.1). Analysis of scores on the Attachment Style Questionnaire indicated insecure attachment in both the patient and control groups. The Parental Bonding scores indicated perceptions of Affectionless Control by parents in both patient groups. In particular, the mean Father-Protection subscale scores were significantly higher for in the GERD group than in the Healthy and IBD groups.     

Gender Stereotypes in the Family Context: Mothers, Fathers, and Siblings

Gender stereotypes of children and their parents were examined. Participants included 355 three-year-old children, their one-year-old siblings, and their mothers and fathers. Families were selected from the Western region of the Netherlands. Implicit gender stereotypes were assessed with computerized versions of the Action Inference Paradigm (AIP; both child and parents) and the Implicit Association Test (parent only). Parental explicit gender stereotypes were measured with the Child Rearing Sex-Role Attitude Scale. Findings revealed that mothers had stronger implicit gender stereotypes than fathers, whereas fathers had stronger explicit stereotypes than mothers. Fathers with same-gender children had stronger implicit gender stereotypes about adults than parents with mixed-gender children. For the children, girls’ implicit gender stereotypes were significantly predicted by their mother’s implicit gender stereotypes about children. This association could only be observed when the AIP was used to assess the stereotypes of both parent and child. A family systems model is applicable to the study of gender stereotypes.     

Maternal Weight Control Behaviors for Preschoolers Related to Children’s Gender

The purpose of this study was to identify significant factors associated with Korean mothers’ behaviors in controlling their preschool children’s weight and to examine gender differences among the significant associated factors. This study involved a convenience sample of 223 pairs of mothers and their preschool children (114 boys and 109 girls) in South Korea. Maternal desire for their children to lose weight, concern about children being overweight or obese, and interaction between gender and concern about children being overweight or obese were significant factors associated with maternal behaviors to control children’s weight. Regarding the interaction between gender and concern about children being overweight or obese, mothers who were concerned about their daughter being overweight or obese were more likely to control their child’s weight than those who were concerned about their son being overweight or obese. Additionally, mothers with concerns about their daughter being overweight or obese were more likely to conduct weight control behaviors for their child than mothers of girls without such concern. However, among mothers of boys, there was no difference in maternal behaviors to control their child’s weight between those with concern and without concern. Therefore, health care providers should understand gender specific maternal concerns regarding their child’s weight and provide tailored weight control interventions for mother and child pairs considering the child’s gender.     

Attachment Relationships as Predictors of Cognitive Interpretation and Response Bias in Late Adolescence

We investigated behavioural and cognitive representations of attachment style. Specifically, we sought to test continuity in attachment style and whether participants' perceptions of their attachments to parents, peers, and romantic partners would predict cognitive interpretation and responses to 12 ambiguous situation scenarios. Participants were 161 undergraduate students (17–20 years) who completed the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Attachment Style Questionnaire and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (peer subscale). Participants then indicated whether they interpreted ambiguous situations as threatening versus non-threatening and how they would respond (proactively, aggressively, or avoidantly). Regression analyses revealed that insecure parental attachments were the main predictor of participants' interpretations and their planned responses, followed by romantic attachments. Peer attachments played little role in the predictions. These results suggest that interpretation of situations and subsequent plans of action may be influenced by attachment related experiences. We discuss our findings in terms of their relevance to attachment theory and their application to our understanding of the concepts of attachment in development of interpersonal relationships.     

The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire in Mothers and Fathers of School-Aged Children

Research on parental reflective functioning (PRF)—defined as parents’ capacity to comprehend the developing mind of their child, reflect upon it, and hold in mind the inner life of the child—has mostly involved mothers of infants and young children, and rarely fathers and parents of school-aged children. The present study sought to extend research on PRF by examining aspects of the construct that are still scarcely explored, such as the role of gender and attachment; to investigate whether there were differences between mothers’ and fathers’ PRF and whether there were differences in PRF related to the gender and age of the child; and, finally, to assess the association between PRF and each parent’s attachment style. The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ) and the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) were administered to a community sample of mothers and fathers of 385 children aged 3–10 years. A multi-group factor analysis supported the hypothesized three-factor model among both fathers and mothers. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance showed that mothers had higher levels of interest and curiosity in their children’s mental states than fathers. Parents of daughters showed higher pre-mentalizing modes than parents of sons. Parents of preschool children showed less nonmentalizing modes than parents of children aged 8–10. Correlations between PRFQ and ASQ showed that both mothers’ and fathers’ interest in thinking about their child’s internal experience and in taking the child’s perspective were correlated with higher levels of secure attachment style. Research implications are discussed.     

Children's Adjustment in a Climate of Political Violence: Comparing Mother and Child Reports

There is a dearth of research on parent and child reports regarding a parent’s parenting and its contribution to a child’s adjustment. Therefore, the current study examined: (a) the differences between mother and child reports of aspects of maternal parenting (i.e., care and control), among both boys and girls; (b) which parenting report (i.e., mother’s or child’s) makes a stronger contribution to mother and child reports of the child’s adjustment in the context of political violence. One hundred and twenty-one mother-child dyads (children aged seven to 12 years old (M?=?10.02, SD?=?1.03)), who were exposed to prolonged political violence, participated in this study. Maternal care and control were assessed by mother and child reports on the Parental Bonding Instrument. Child’s adjustment was assessed both by mother’s report of child’s total difficulties and child’s self-report of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Results revealed that both the mothers of girls and the girls themselves reported higher care, in comparison to mothers of boys and the boys themselves, while mothers of boys and the boys themselves reported higher control. Higher maternal control, as reported by the child, was associated with the child’s self-reported PTSS. Higher maternal control, as reported by the mother, was associated with the child’s total difficulties, as reported by the mother. However, maternal care, whether reported by mother or child, was not found to be associated with the child’s adjustment. School-aged children and their mothers were in agreement regarding maternal dimensions and their contribution to children’s adjustment.     

Correlates of Maternal Attitudes Toward Preterm Infants

Although neglect of preterm children can cause physical and psychological complications, special treatment can obviate many of these problems. We sought to discover factors that might allow us to predict which mothers would have more negative attitudes toward preterm infants, Using the concept of hedonic relevance, we hypothesized that any negative variable associated with having a preterm child would lead to more negative attitudes toward that child. We administered a modified form of the Schaefer and Bell Parental Attitude Research Instrument, and also a questionnaire on various background variables to 52 women who had recently borne a premature child. Correlational analysis supported our hypothesis. Some of the most significant correlates of negative maternal attitudes were: the mother being young (r = .40), non-white (r = .34), and less religious (r = .34), having had a brief marriage so far (r = .27), and feeling responsible for the child being premature (r = -.37), with probability levels ranging from .05 to .01. These data constitute the beginnings of a profile which health professionals can use to spot potentially negative mothers who might need special preventive attention.     

CHILD-REARING ATTITUDES OF CHINESE,CHINESE-AMERICAN,AND ANGLO-AMERICAN MOTHERS

Three groups of mothers with different cultural backgrounds, 397 Chinese living in Taiwan, 95 Chinese-Americans immigrated from Taiwan, and 213 Anglo-Americans, were administered the Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PARI). Significant differences were found on all three attitudinal factors and on all 23 attitudinal scales. The results showed that (1) the Chinese mothers were most restrictive, the Anglo-American mothers were least restrictive, and the Chinese-American mothers were intermediate on the continuum of authoritarian-control; (2) the Chinese-American mothers were more likely to approve the expression of hostility or rejection than the Chinese or Anglo-American mothers; (3) the Chinese-American mothers were more democratic than the Chinese mothers, and the Chinese mothers, more democratic than the Anglo-American mothers.     

Gastroesophageal reflux disease: alexithymia and attachment style

Alexithymia and its relation with attachment style were evaluated in a group of 69 patients (men, M age = 46.4 yr., SD = 12.6; women, M age = 44.2 yr., SD = 14.4) affected by Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Two self-evaluation questionnaires were used for psychological evaluation, the 20 item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ). The TAS-20 analysis showed that the clinical sample taken as a whole did not score in the alexithymic range. The inverse correlations between the Confidence ASQ subscale and the Difficulty Communicating Feelings TAS-20 subscale showed that communication of emotions could develop more easily within the framework of a relational context characterized by safety and confidence. In this group of patients this was represented by the referent caregiver.     

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.     

A comparison of depression in children with and without mothers

The present research investigated depression in children with and without mothers. Differences in depression scores were tested by gender, socio-economic level, the cause of not having a mother, and the age of separation. The sample included 300 fourth and fifth grade elementary school children. Among them, there were 150 children (68 boys and 82 girls) who were living with their mothers and 150 (68 boys and 82 girls) who did not live with their mothers. Each group had an equal number of students (n=50) representing three different socio-economic levels (i.e., low, middle, high). Students in the sample came from 39 different public elementary schools. Children's ages varied between 10 and 12 years (M = 10.8, SD = .6). Teachers, administrators, and school counselors were asked to identify children without mothers. The children who were living with their mothers were randomly chosen. Results showed significant differences in depression between the two groups of children. Furthermore, there was a significant difference by socio-economic level. Depression of children without mothers is significantly associated with the cause of not having a mother and the age when the child was separated from the mother.     

Coping strategies of mother carers of children living with chronic illness and disease in a rural South African community

The present study explored the coping strategies used by mother carers of children living with chronic illness and disease (CID) in a rural South African community. Ten mothers (age range = 30 to 56 years) were selected through snowball sampling to participate in the present study. They provided care to their children, a majority (50%) of whom had epilepsy, followed by asthma (20%) and other conditions. Data on the coping strategies used by mothers of children living with CID were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. The results showed that mother carers tended to use three types of coping strategies, namely: appraisal-focused, problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies. Appraisal-focused was commonly used by mother carers whose children had epilepsy, whilst mother carers of children with asthma tended to use problem-focused coping strategies. All mother carers were found to use emotion-focused strategies to varying degrees in coping with the chronic diseases of their children.     

PREGNANT WOMEN'S RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY MATERNAL BONDING: ASSOCIATIONS WITH MATERNAL–FETAL ATTACHMENT AND BIRTH CHOICES

Recollections of own maternal care measured by parental bonding were found to be important in the pregnant woman's construction of herself as a mother. Although these recollections were studied with regard to various variables, there is a dearth of studies associated with pregnancy and childbirth. In this cross‐sectional study, 341 pregnant women were recruited. Measures included a Sociodemographics–Obstetric History Questionnaire; the Childbirth Choices Questionnaire (H. Preis, M. Gozlan, U. Dan, & Y. Benyamini, 2018); the Parental Bonding Instrument (G. Parker, H. Tupling, & L.B. Brown, 1979); a question regarding the planned presence of the woman's mother at delivery; and the Maternal‐Fetal Attachment Scale (M.S. Cranley, 1981). Parental recollections of Care were associated with fewer natural birth choices (hence, a more “medicalized” delivery), lower maternal–fetal attachment, and a wish for the mother's mother to be present at the birth. Parental recollections of Encouragement of Behavioral Freedom in childhood were associated with more natural choices regarding childbirth. In addition, women with higher scores on the parental bonding Denial of Autonomy factor reported stronger maternal–fetal attachment. Thus, early recollections of experiences with caregivers as manifested in parental bonding may be a possible influence on the transition to motherhood, and working through possible difficulties associated with these recollections may improve adjustment to motherhood.     

Temperament, character, and attachment patterns in borderline personality disorder.

The aim of this study was to assess the specificity of the association between temperamental vulnerability, character deficits, and Borderline personality disorder (BPD), controlling for the effects of attachment patterns. A total of 44 BPD patients were compared with 98 non-BPD patients with other cluster B Personality Disorder (PD) diagnoses, 39 patients with any cluster A or cluster C PD diagnoses, 70 patients with no PD diagnosis, and 206 nonclinical patients. All patients were administered the Temperament and Character Inventory, the Parental Bonding Instrument, and the Attachment Style Questionnaire. Multivariate and univariate tests showed that BPD patients differed significantly from all control groups on Novelty Seeking and Cooperativeness. These differences remained significant when controlling for the effect of attachment.     

Factor Analysis of a French-Canadian Form of the Parental Attitude Research Instrument

We analyzed the factorial structure of a French version of the Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PARI), a questionnaire designed to measure parental attitudes toward child rearing and family life. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation of data of a sample of 98 French-Canadian mothers revealed three factors: Authoritarian-Control, Hostility-Rejection, and Democratic Attitudes. Results were compared with the findings of Schaefer and Bell (1958), and of Zuckerman, Barrett-Ribback, Monashkin, and Norton (1958). We determined that a French translation of this questionnaire had the same factorial structure as the English original.     

Frequency of dream recall by children and their mothers

The present study investigated frequency of dream recall in children and their mothers. Overall, 88 mothers (M age: 38.7 yr., SD=5.0) and their children (45 girls, 43 boys; M age: 9.9 yr., SD= 1.3) participated. A small but significant positive Pearson correlation of .19 between the frequency of dreams reported by mothers and by their children is consistent with Cohen's 1973 hypothesis of a socialization effect on the frequency of dream recall.     

母亲评价与幼儿数学认知发展的关系

母亲对幼儿数学能力的评价是母亲教育观念的重要组成部分。研究运用问卷法与个别测查法,考察母亲对子女数学能力的评价与幼儿数学认知能力,并通过二者的一致程度揭示母亲评价其子女数学能力的准确性。研究发现,母亲对子女数学能力的评价存在明显的高估倾向;与母亲受教育水平及子女性别等因素不同,子女前期的数学成绩对母亲评价其数学能力的准确性存在显著影响;母亲对子女数学能力评价的准确性与子女数学认知发展水平存在显著的正相关,适当的高估对子女未来数学认知的发展最为有利     

The Role of Emotion in Parent-Child Relationships: Children’s Emotionality,Maternal Meta-Emotion,and Children’s Attachment Security

This study was intended to examine the relationship among children’s emotionality, parental meta-emotion, and parent–child attachment. The sample consisted of 546 5th and 6th grade children and their mothers. The test instruments used in this study were the Emotionality subscale of the EAS Temperament Survey (mothers’ ratings only), the Parental Meta-Emotion Survey (mothers’ ratings only) and the Attachment Security Scale (children’s ratings only). Our results showed that maternal meta-emotion (emotion coaching plus emotion dismissing) was associated with children’s attachment security vis-à-vis their mothers. Mothers who tended to adopt an emotion-coaching philosophy were more likely to achieve secure parent–child attachments, as reported by their children. Children whose mothers tended to adopt an emotion-dismissing philosophy reported lower levels of attachment security. There were no direct or indirect effects of children’s emotionality on their attachment security. Parental meta-emotion, but not children’s emotionality, was significantly associated with children’s attachment security. The results indicate the importance of parenting factors in determining the parent–child relationship. Parental education programs that focus on parental attitudes and practices related to emotion should be advocated.