Patterns of Infant-Mother Attachment and Related Variables

영아-어머니간의 애착유형과 그 관련변인

The objectives of this study were to investigate (1) the relations between infant-mother attachment and maternal sensitivity, maltreatment, stress, and childhood experience, and (2) relations between infant-mother attachment and infant temperament. The subjects of the study were 55 14 to 20 month-old infants (27 boys and 28 girls) and their mothers in Seoul. In order to assess the patterns of infant-mother attachment, each infant-mother dyad was videotaped in the modified Ainsworth's Strange Situation. Each dyad was filmed for 3 minutes in the Questionnaire Situation of Smith and Pederson(Smith, & Pederson, 1988) to assess maternal sensitivity responding to infant's cues. Each mother also was interviewed by using a semi-structured questionnaire made by author to measure maternal maltreatment. Each mother was asked to complete three Likert-type questionnaires, containing Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (Abidin, 1990) to measure the maternal stress, Mother-Father Peer Scale (MFPS) (Epstein, 1983) to measure childhood experience, and Emotionality, Activity, Sociality (EAS) (Buss, & Plomin, 1984) to measure infant's temperament. The statistical procedures used for data analyses were correlation, one-way ANOVA, multiple regression, and Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient. The results showed that (1) mothers of insecure-avoidant infants maltreated their infants more than mothers of secure infants, and (2) in the multiple regression analysis, maternal maltreatment was predicted by maternal education, maternal stress (parent domain), and maternal childhood experience in relation to her own mother (acceptance vs. rejection).