Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences Research Group, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Clinical Psychology Research Group, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2019 Oct 29;14(10):e0224372. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224372. eCollection 2019.
Attachment theory states that children learn to trust in their parent's availability and support if they repeatedly experience that their parents respond sensitively to their needs during distress. Attachment is thus developed and shaped by day-to-day interactions, while at the same time, each interaction is a momentary expression of the attachment relation. How attachment-related behaviors of mother and child follow upon each other during interactions in middle childhood, and how these sequences differ in function of attachment quality, has hardly been studied up to now. To fill this gap, we analyzed the micro-coded interaction of 55 mother-child dyads (27 girls, 28 boys, mean age: 10.3) after a standardized stress-induction. Results reveal that all mother-child dyads show a loop between positive mother and child behaviors. This pattern is complemented with a loop of negative mother and child behaviors in low-trust and more avoidantly attached children: these children tend to handle negative mother behavior less well as they show more negative behavior and less positive behavior in response to negative maternal behavior. More anxiously attached children also show less positive behavior, but react positively on collaborative interactions. The micro-coded interactions thus reveal important insights that inform practitioners and advance attachment theory.
依恋理论指出，如果孩子在痛苦中反复体验到父母对他们的需求敏感回应，他们就会学会信任父母的可及性和支持。因此，依恋是通过日常互动发展和形成的，而每一次互动都是依恋关系的瞬间表达。迄今为止，人们几乎没有研究过母亲和孩子在儿童中期互动中相互依恋行为的方式，以及这些序列在依恋质量方面的功能差异。为了填补这一空白，我们分析了 55 对母婴对子（27 名女孩，28 名男孩，平均年龄：10.3 岁）在标准化应激诱导后的微观编码互动。结果表明，所有母婴对子都表现出积极的母亲和孩子行为之间的循环。这种模式补充了低信任和更回避依恋的儿童的负向母亲和孩子行为的循环：这些孩子往往不太善于处理负向母亲的行为，因为他们对负向母亲行为的反应是更多的负向行为和较少的正向行为。更焦虑的孩子也表现出较少的积极行为，但对协作互动做出积极反应。微观编码的互动因此揭示了重要的见解，为从业者提供信息并推进依恋理论。
