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9 - Intergenerational Transmission of Dysregulated Maternal Caregiving: Mothers Describe Their Upbringing and Childrearing

from Part Three - Clinical Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

By
Judith Solomon  and
Carol George
Edited by
Ofra Mayseless
Judith Solomon
Affiliation:
Early Childhood Mental Health Program, Children's Hospital of Oakland, Oakland, CA
Carol George
Affiliation:
Mills College, Oakland, CA
Ofra Mayseless
Affiliation:
University of Haifa, Israel
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Summary

Abstract

We present quantitative findings and detailed case histories that reveal the links between mothers' representations of their own attachment relationships (assessed in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)) and their representations of themselves as caregivers (Caregiving Interview). The sample comprised 57 middle-class mother–kindergarten-age child dyads. The children's attachment classification with mother was assessed in a laboratory reunion. Mothers' description of one or more elements of a “rage pattern,” defined as physical or verbal abuse, unpredictable rage, and/or substance abuse on the part of their own parents, was coded from the AAI in addition to their state of mind. Results showed that 87% of mothers of disorganized-controlling children reported elements of the “rage pattern” in their upbringing while only 20% of such mothers were classified as Unresolved with respect to mourning or trauma. Three case summaries show clear parallels between the mothers' descriptions of their upbringing, their own childrearing representations, and the type of controlling (role-reversed) behavior shown by their child during reunion. The findings suggest that mothers' representations of threat and helplessness, past and present, provide a powerful and parsimonious approach to understanding intergenerational transmission of disorganized caregiving and attachment patterns.

In this chapter, we explore the links between dysregulation of the caregiving system across two generations and the development of disorganized and controlling attachments in early childhood. The findings bear directly on a growing literature in the field of attachment regarding the second-generation effects of a mother's own childrearing and attachment history.

Type
Chapter
Information
Parenting Representations
Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications
 , pp. 265 - 295
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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