The proposed study will examine the relationship(s) between maternal attachment, measured prenatally using the Adult Attachment Interview (Main, Kaplan & Cassidy, 1985), and 1) maternal behavior with the infant at 4, 6, and 10 months, 2) patterns of maternal representation of the infant during pregnancy and at 10 months post-partum, 3) child attachment status at one year and 4) developing child representational processes. Eighty women and their babies will be studied from the third trimester of pregnancy through the 28th post-partum month. The study will examine 1) the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview for later mother-child and child outcome, and 2) the stability of maternal attachment patterns over time. It will also examine the extent to which social support, marital quality, maternal symptomatology, maternal temperament and infant difficultness influence intergenerational transmission of attachment. It is hoped that the results of this study will illuminate the processes by which maternal representations of their own relationship histories are translated into behavior and affect in relationship to their child, as well as the influence these processes have on subsequent child socioemotional development and adaptation. Greater understanding of these processes will presumably pave the way to future research investigating the most effective means of prevention and intervention with at risk dyads.
