Children's attentional breadth around their mother: Comparing stimulus‐driven vs. cognitively controlled processes

Abstract

Attentional processes in children are tuned toward their mother. It is unclear whether this is a cognitively controlled or more automatic, stimulus-driven process. Therefore, 172 children (age 9-13) were assigned to either a cognitively controlled or a stimulus-driven task measuring the breadth of their attentional field around their mother.Results demonstrated a narrower field around the mother for children completing the more stimulus-driven task. Moreover, only for the stimulus-driven task, this effect was linked with the interaction between children's age and self-reported trust in maternal support.More trust was linked with a narrower attentional field around the mother in younger children, but with a less narrow field in older children. This resembles the expected age-related shift toward increased autonomy and points at stimulus-driven attentional processes.attachment, attentional bias, attentional breadth, middle childhood, mother-child relationship, trust | I NTR OD U CTI ONAccording to attachment theory, primary caregivers like mothers are crucial for children's development because young children need their mother to ensure survival (Bowlby, 1969). Bowlby (1969) proposed that care-related experiences with the mother are stored as an internal representation or internal working model. When infants repeatedly experience sensitive maternal responses to distress, they develop secure attachment representations, which means that they will trust that they can rely on the mother as a secure base from which to solicit support (Bowlby, 1969;Waters & Waters, 2006). Instead, in the context of absent or inconsistent maternal responses to distress, children develop insecure attachment representations and less trust. These internal working models determine how future information regarding caregivers will be cognitively processed (i.e., attention, memory, and interpretation), affecting perceived social Social Development. 2018;27:95-108.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sode

The effects of children’s proximity‐seeking to maternal attachment figures during mild stress exposure on mood and physiological responses: An experimental study

“…In addition, the current results seem to indicate that children with greater attachment security are able to successfully regulate negative emotions independently of whether they approach or avoid mother. This finding is in line with accumulating evidence that, throughout middle childhood, more securely attached children become increasingly autonomous and can cope with mild levels of stress independently (Borelli, Somers, West, Coffey, & Shmueli-Goetz, 2016;Bosmans et al, 2017;Dujardin et al, 2015). Throughout development, children gradually shift from dyadic, caregiver-supported regulation to relatively independent self-regulation (Maunder & Hunter, 2001).…”

“…Pictures of 10 different unfamiliar mothers were used to control for possible effects of attractiveness or resemblance to mother or others. All pictures were taken in front of a neutral background and all women were asked to display a neutral facial expression with closed lips, as has been done in prior research (e.g., Bosmans, De Raedt, & Braet, 2007;Bosmans, Rinck, et al, 2009;Bosmans et al, 2017), to reduce variability across photographs. To accommodate the zoom-function, seven sizes of each picture were created, with pixel sizes of 37 × 57, 58 × 88, 90 × 136, 140 × 210, 216 × 324, 333 × 499, and 513 × 768. Each picture was presented in size 140 × 210 pixels and decreased or increased in size in three steps.…”

Children’s Attention to Mother and Adolescent Stress Moderate the Attachment-Depressive Symptoms Link

“…This protective effect of a broad attentional field for less distressed securely attached children can be understood from the healthy effect of increased autonomy development at this age (Bosmans & Kerns, 2015). This is in line with other research showing that secure attachment gets increasingly linked to a wider attentional field around the mother as children grow older (Bosmans et al, 2017) and that securely attached children more easily attentionally disengage from mother in favor of attentional exploration (Dujardin et al, 2015). So, a broader attentional field around the mother might be highly adaptive in service of autonomy development, but only if children are not exposed to higher levels of distress later in their development.…”

“…To measure children's attentional field around their mother, a picture of the mother together with a target stimulus are presented at a presentation time that prevents eye saccades (32 ms). This way, the breadth of the attentional field around the mother refers to the pre-attentive stages of information processing, more automatically triggered by the motivational or emotional relevance of the mother as a stimulus (Bosmans et al, 2017;Derryberry & Tucker, 1994).…”

Attachment-related attention bias plays a causal role in trust in maternal support

“…Particularly in the context of middle childhood attachment, recent research would support this proposal. For example, Bosmans et al (2017) showed that children have an attentional preference for their mother, but whether this preference is adaptive or maladaptive depends on factors like children's stress and trust levels (e.g., . Children with more trust seem protected in stressful situations if they are more strongly focused on their mother, but the same attentional focus on mother becomes a liability if children lack trust (e.g, Bosmans et al, 2013).…”