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Mother-infant interaction and quality of child's attachment: a nonlinear dynamical systems approach.
Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci. 2012 Jul; 16(3):243-67.ND

Abstract

The traditional classification of infant attachment described three distinct types (Ainsworth et al. 1978): Secure (B), Insecure-avoidant (A), and Insecure-resistant (C). Research shows that the quality of infant attachment reflects the child's history of interaction with their primary caregiver and, therefore, maternal sensitivity and appropriateness of maternal responses during the first year of life has been found to predict infant attachment. In this study Nonlinear Dynamic Systems (NDS) approach was applied to broaden the study of maternal sensitivity into the overall temporal organization of mother-infant relationship exchanges. The study focuses on understanding the differences between secure and insecure attached children by applying NDS in two temporal scales: real time and a developmental scale, with the notions of 'flexibility' and 'self-organization', respectively. Infants, classified as securely or insecurely attached at 15 months, had free-play situations with their mothers, at 6 and 12 months of age, videotaped and coded in real time. Results showed that at 6 months dyads from the B group, compared to the non-B group, showed higher flexibility through several NDS indices derived from the State-Space Grid method (SSG). The dyads at 12 months did not show differences in those indices. Moreover, B group showed self-organization by decreasing the number of attractors, from 6 to 12 months of infant's age, in contrast with A and C groups that either showed less self-organization, by increasing the number of attractors, or stayed basically as they were at 6 months. Furthermore, the B group showed an increase in the proportion of attractors with higher values from time 1 to time 2, in contrast to the non-B groups. Findings provide some grounds for using a SSG approach to deepen the construct of maternal sensitivity in dyadic terms.

Authors+Show Affiliations

Cerezo MA
University of Valencia, Spain. angeles.cerezo@uv.es
Trenado RM
No affiliation info available
Pons-Salvador G
No affiliation info available

MeSH

FemaleHumansInfantInfant BehaviorMaleMother-Child RelationsMothersNonlinear DynamicsObject Attachment

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22695148

Citation

Cerezo, M Angeles, et al. "Mother-infant Interaction and Quality of Child's Attachment: a Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Approach." Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, vol. 16, no. 3, 2012, pp. 243-67.
Cerezo MA, Trenado RM, Pons-Salvador G. Mother-infant interaction and quality of child's attachment: a nonlinear dynamical systems approach. Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci. 2012;16(3):243-67.
Cerezo, M. A., Trenado, R. M., & Pons-Salvador, G. (2012). Mother-infant interaction and quality of child's attachment: a nonlinear dynamical systems approach. Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, 16(3), 243-67.
Cerezo MA, Trenado RM, Pons-Salvador G. Mother-infant Interaction and Quality of Child's Attachment: a Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Approach. Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci. 2012;16(3):243-67. PubMed PMID: 22695148.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Mother-infant interaction and quality of child's attachment: a nonlinear dynamical systems approach. AU - Cerezo,M Angeles, AU - Trenado,Rosa M, AU - Pons-Salvador,Gemma, PY - 2012/6/15/entrez PY - 2012/6/15/pubmed PY - 2012/9/26/medline SP - 243 EP - 67 JF - Nonlinear dynamics, psychology, and life sciences JO - Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci VL - 16 IS - 3 N2 - The traditional classification of infant attachment described three distinct types (Ainsworth et al. 1978): Secure (B), Insecure-avoidant (A), and Insecure-resistant (C). Research shows that the quality of infant attachment reflects the child's history of interaction with their primary caregiver and, therefore, maternal sensitivity and appropriateness of maternal responses during the first year of life has been found to predict infant attachment. In this study Nonlinear Dynamic Systems (NDS) approach was applied to broaden the study of maternal sensitivity into the overall temporal organization of mother-infant relationship exchanges. The study focuses on understanding the differences between secure and insecure attached children by applying NDS in two temporal scales: real time and a developmental scale, with the notions of 'flexibility' and 'self-organization', respectively. Infants, classified as securely or insecurely attached at 15 months, had free-play situations with their mothers, at 6 and 12 months of age, videotaped and coded in real time. Results showed that at 6 months dyads from the B group, compared to the non-B group, showed higher flexibility through several NDS indices derived from the State-Space Grid method (SSG). The dyads at 12 months did not show differences in those indices. Moreover, B group showed self-organization by decreasing the number of attractors, from 6 to 12 months of infant's age, in contrast with A and C groups that either showed less self-organization, by increasing the number of attractors, or stayed basically as they were at 6 months. Furthermore, the B group showed an increase in the proportion of attractors with higher values from time 1 to time 2, in contrast to the non-B groups. Findings provide some grounds for using a SSG approach to deepen the construct of maternal sensitivity in dyadic terms. SN - 1090-0578 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/22695148/Mother_infant_interaction_and_quality_of_child's_attachment:_a_nonlinear_dynamical_systems_approach_ L2 - https://medlineplus.gov/infantandnewborndevelopment.html DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -