[Transgenerational promotion of binding: correlation between mental binding models of mothers, binding patterns of their infants and perception and behavior of mothers in transition to parenthood].

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George et al. 1996) was conducted with 28 mothers in order to assess their mental representations of attachment 4 years after giving birth to their first child. The interviews were coded and classified according to the method of Main and Goldwyn (1994). Using longitudinal data from the "Heidelberg Study on Transition to Parenthood", a significant correspondence was found between mothers' attachment representations and their childrens' patterns of attachment in the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure after the first year of life. Additionally, further connections emerged between the mothers' attachment representation, their pre and post natal conceptions of their first child, their early bonding behavior, and their sensitive behavior with their 5-month-old infant in family interactions at home. These findings support the assumption of a transgenerational transmission of attachment quality and moreover indicate the usefulness of the Adult Attachment Interview in German-speaking countries, especially for studies on the transition to parenthood.