In order to enhance understanding of the development of mother-child relationships and particularly of mother's own experience of the relationship, as series of three clinical interviews will be appended to a larger, core-study of the nature, determinants and developmental consequences of family interaction patterns during the so-called """"""""terrible twos""""""""--the child's second and third years of life. In addition to observing the mother-child interaction during the course of two, 2-hour, naturalistic home observations when children are 15-16, 21-22, 27-28 and 33-34 months of age and assessing infant-mother attachment security when children are 18 months of age, mothers will be queried using clinical- interview protocols when children are 12, 15 and 34 months of age. The first interview will assess mother's representation of her relationship with her own parents in her family of origin as a child and the latter two mother's representation of her relationship with her child. A total of 150 working- and middle-class families will be studied, resulting in 450 maternal interviews across the five year investigatory period. Four general question will be addressed, one dealing with the relationship between representation of one's parent and one's child; a second concerning the relation between such representations and patterns of mother-child interaction observed in the home; a third with the relation between such representations and security of infant-mother attachment; and finally, stability and change in maternal representations of her child from 15 to 34 months.
| Slade, A; Belsky, J; Aber, J L et al. (1999) Mothers' representations of their relationships with their toddlers: links to adult attachment and observed mothering. Dev Psychol 35:611-9 |
| Aber, J L; Belsky, J; Slade, A et al. (1999) Stability and change in mothers' representations of their relationship with their toddlers. Dev Psychol 35:1038-47 |
| Phelps, J L; Belsky, J; Crnic, K (1998) Earned security, daily stress, and parenting: a comparison of five alternative models. Dev Psychopathol 10:21-38 |
