Early maternal guidance of mother-child emotion dialogues predicts adolescents’ attachment representations: a longitudinal study

Revital Tamari, Ora Aviezer, David Oppenheim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study examined the contribution of early vs. concurrent maternal guidance of emotion dialogues with their children to the security and coherence of the children’s attachment representations as adolescents. Maternal Sensitive Guidance was assessed from mother-child emotion dialogues when participants were preschoolers (approximate age 4 years) and young adolescents (approximate age 12.5 years), along with an assessment of adolescents’ attachment representations using the Friends and Family Interview (FFI). Mothers’ Sensitive Guidance in preschool predicted adolescents’ coherence in the FFI, secure maternal (but not paternal) representations, and a positive representation of sibling relationships. In contrast, mothers’ concurrent Sensitive Guidance was related only to adolescents’ sibling relationships. These results highlight the significance of mothers’ sensitive guidance of emotion dialogues during the early years for their children’s later attachment representations, and point to the need for further examination of mothers’ role when they guide emotion dialogues with their adolescents.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)446-463
Number of pages18
JournalAttachment and Human Development
Volume26
Issue number5
Early online date23 Aug 2024
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2024

Keywords

  • Attachment representations
  • early adolescence
  • emotional dialogues
  • longitudinal study
  • mother-child conversations

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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