Maternal attachment representations and quality of dyadic exchanges in a group of children at risk for maltreatment

The intergenerational transmission of abuse describes how maltreatment experienced during one's infancy stands as a significant risk factor for the eventual development of abusive parenting. Within this "cycle of maltreatment" (Zeanah, Zeanah, 1980; Dixon et al., 2005) attachment plays a major role, as patterns of interactive dyadic exchanges can be negatively impacted via mother's sensitivity with significant risk for future onset of psychoapthology in the child. We examined maternal attachment representational status and the quality of dyadic interaction in a sample of 74 child-mother dyads. 37 dyads, with children in a 9 to 60 months age range, were living in residential communities while waiting for court decisions on alleged abusive home environments (experimental group). The other 37 dyads were matched for child sex and age range (control group). Mothers were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (George et al., 1984; Hesse, 2008) for the assessment of their attachment representational status. Dyads were observed in a 20-minutes videotaped free play session, with their dyadic interaction being scored through the Assessment Scale of Mother-Child Interaction System (Speranza et al., 2003). Our results show that attachment representational status in mothers whose child was at risk for maltreatment was significantly more problematic with respect to control mothers, and that dyadic interaction in at risk dyads scored significantly worse than in control dyads.