Bridging the attachment transmission gap: The role of maternal mind-mindedness

Abstract

The intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns is one of the most reliable yet least understood findings of attachment research. The aim of this report was to examine the capacity of maternal mind-mindedness to account for the relation between adult attachment state of mind and infant attachment security. Sixty-four foster children (aged 6–30 months) participated with their foster mothers. The mother’s tendency to use mental features in describing her child (mindmindedness) was negatively related to the security of both maternal state of mind and infant attachment. Further, mind-mindedness accounted for the totality of the predictive power of state of mind on infant attachment. The results suggest that age-appropriate representations of the child may help explain intergenerational transmission, through their interplay with parental interactive behaviours.