LE3 .A278 2013

2013

Symons, Doug

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Psychology

Psychology

The current study examined the relationships between maternal sensitivity, child-parent attachment security, and talk about thoughts and feelings. A high psychosocial-risk sample of 11 parent-child pairs were observed in their homes as well as during lab visits at Acadia University. During home visits maternal sensitivity and attachment security were observed and assessed using the short version Maternal Behavioural Q-Sort and Attachment Q-Sort, respectively. Parent-child pairs were brought to Acadia University for a lab visit and engaged in a video-recorded play interaction revolving around health-related issues, which was later coded for talk about thoughts and feelings and mutual regard. Parents and children also completed language measures. Results supported the first hypothesis of the current study, which was that there would be a positive relationship between maternal sensitivity and attachment security, even when controlling for language variables. It was also predicted that child attachment security and maternal sensitivity would be positively related to talk about thoughts and feelings by the child and parent respectively. No significant relationship was found.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:971