Alvarez-Monjarás Mauricio, McMahon Thomas J, Suchman Nancy E
Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center. New Haven, CT. United States of America.
Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. New Haven, CT. United States of America.
Psychoanal Psychol. 2019 Jan;36(1):82-92. doi: 10.1037/pap0000166. Epub 2017 Oct 26.
Although it is known that mothers with substance abuse disorders struggle to provide adequate parenting to their children, little is understood about the mechanisms behind this. This cross-sectional study uses an attachment perspective to examine whether reflective functioning mediates the relationship between mental representations of caregiving and maternal sensitivity, in an ethnically diverse sample of 142 substance-abusing mothers (M [SD] = 29.83 [5.79] years of age) and their toddlers (M [SD] = 24.04 [15.15] months of age). Data were baseline measures from two randomized controlled trials. The three variables of primary interest were positively correlated. As expected, there was a significant relationship between mental representations of caregiving and maternal sensitivity that was largely explained by reflective functioning. Confounding and alternate explanations were not supported by a secondary data analyses. The findings underscore the importance of reflective functioning in positive parenting within this high-risk population of mothers, and they provide support for the development of attachment-based interventions.
尽管已知患有物质使用障碍的母亲在为子女提供充分养育方面存在困难，但对此背后的机制却知之甚少。这项横断面研究从依恋的角度进行考察，在一个种族多样化的样本中，有142名患有物质使用障碍的母亲（平均年龄[标准差]=29.83[5.79]岁）及其学步儿童（平均年龄[标准差]=24.04[15.15]个月），探究反思功能是否在养育照顾的心理表征与母亲敏感性之间的关系中起中介作用。数据来自两项随机对照试验的基线测量。三个主要研究变量呈正相关。正如预期的那样，养育照顾的心理表征与母亲敏感性之间存在显著关系，这在很大程度上由反思功能所解释。二次数据分析不支持混杂因素和替代解释。研究结果强调了反思功能在这一高风险母亲群体积极养育中的重要性，并为基于依恋的干预措施的开展提供了支持。
