Department of Psychology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2021 Sep;209:105168. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105168. Epub 2021 Apr 30.
There is considerable controversy regarding the accuracy and suggestibility of children's autobiographical memory for emotionally salient life events. Attachment perspectives of autobiographical memory development identify the attachment security of parent-child dyads and parents' emotional support and coherence during reminiscing with their children as critical mechanisms underlying children's memory accuracy and suggestibility. In the current investigation, 72 preschool-aged children (M = 4.01 years, SD = 0.85; 44 female) reminisced with their parents about times they felt happy, sad, scared, and angry. Children were then independently interviewed about these experiences by an unfamiliar researcher using free recall, specific questions (i.e., questions about factual details), and misleading questions (i.e., questions suggesting false details). Parents completed an assessment of their children's attachment security within the parent-child relationship. Results revealed significant indirect effects of parent-child attachment security on children's memory accuracy through parental sensitive guidance during reminiscing when cognitive (i.e., intelligence) and behavioral (i.e., temperament, behavior problems) covariates were statistically controlled. Parent-child attachment security was positively associated with parental sensitive guidance during reminiscing, which, in turn, was positively associated with the accuracy of children's independent reports. The findings support attachment perspectives of autobiographical memory by identifying emotionally sensitive and coherent reminiscing as a parenting behavior that explains in part associations between parent-child attachment security and children's independent memory accuracy for emotional life events.
关于儿童对情绪强烈的生活事件的自传体记忆的准确性和暗示性存在相当大的争议。自传体记忆发展的依恋观点将亲子关系中的依恋安全性以及父母在与孩子回忆时的情感支持和连贯性确定为儿童记忆准确性和暗示性的关键机制。在当前的研究中，72 名学龄前儿童（M=4.01 岁，SD=0.85；44 名女性）与父母一起回忆他们感到快乐、悲伤、害怕和生气的时刻。然后，一名陌生的研究人员使用自由回忆、具体问题（即关于事实细节的问题）和误导性问题（即暗示错误细节的问题）对这些经历对孩子进行独立采访。父母完成了对孩子在亲子关系中依恋安全性的评估。结果表明，在控制认知（即智力）和行为（即气质、行为问题）协变量后，亲子依恋安全性通过父母在回忆时的敏感指导对儿童记忆准确性存在显著的间接影响。亲子依恋安全性与父母在回忆时的敏感指导呈正相关，而后者又与儿童独立报告的准确性呈正相关。这些发现通过确定情感敏感和连贯的回忆作为一种育儿行为，部分解释了亲子依恋安全性与儿童对情绪生活事件的独立记忆准确性之间的关联，从而支持了自传体记忆的依恋观点。
