Maternal Sensitivity and Child Secure Base Use in Early Childhood: Studies in Different Cultural Contexts

Abstract

This study tested whether maternal sensitivity and child security are related during early childhood and whether such an association is found in different cultural and social contexts. Mother-child dyads (N = 237) from four different countries (Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and the United States) were observed in naturalistic settings when children were between 36 and 72 months of age. Maternal and child behavior during interactions at home and in the playground were described using Q methodology. Findings reveal that across cultures, concurrent maternal sensitivity and more specific behavioral domains of maternal care (e.g., contributions to harmonious interactions and secure base support) are important for children's attachment security during early childhood. Implications for the study of attachment relationships beyond infancy and in diverse contexts are highlighted.

V. Maternal Sensitivity and Co‐construction Skills: Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations With Preschoolers’ Secure Base Behavior

“…Our last question was concerned with whether maternal co-construction skills add unique information to the prediction of children's security at both times above and beyond the contributions of maternal sensitivity. Consistent with previous studies using preschool samples (e.g., Posada et al, 2016), and as reported in Study 1, Chapter III (this monograph), children's secure base use was significantly associated with sensitive caregiving at Time 1 (r[79] ¼ 0.36, p < .001) and Time 2 (r[67] ¼ 0.34, p ¼ .003), after controlling for children's gender-the associations were virtually the same without controlling for gender, r(80) ¼ 0.38, p < .001 at Time 1; r(68) ¼ 0.36, p ¼ .002 at Time 2.…”

Evaluating Caregiver Sensitivity to Infants: Measures Matter

“…It is also fair to say that "caregiver sensitivity" remains poorly defined. Still overwhelmingly referred to as maternal sensitivity, caregiver sensitivity is habitually used interchangeably with maternal responsiveness, caregiver-infant interaction quality, or mother-infant congruence and lacks grounding in universally accepted, clearly delineated, and specific behaviors (Bigelow et al, 2010;Meins, Fernyhough, Fradley, & Tuckey, 2001;Posada et al, 2016;Shin, Park, Ryu, & Seomun, 2008). Scholars largely agree that sensitivity should be considered a statement about the interaction between caregiver and infant, a highly complex phenomenon, and important aspect of parenting (van den Boom, 1997), but its operationalization is far from standardized.…”

Does Parental Mind‐Mindedness Account for Cross‐Cultural Differences in Preschoolers’ Theory of Mind?

“…First, evidence from several separate studies (e.g., Meins, Fernyhough, Fradley, & Tuckey, 2001;Meins, Fernyhough, Arnott, Leekam, & DeRosnay, 2013;Meins et al, 2002) indicates that the concept of parental mind-mindedness is related to (but distinct from) that of parental sensitivity, which is typically defined as parents' ability to "tune in" and respond to the needs of their children. In turn, numerous studies (e.g., Bornstein et al, 1992;Bornstein, Putnick, Cote, Haynes, & Suwalsky, 2015;Posada et al, 2016) have shown that sensitive parental behavior and parent-infant contingent talk are culturally universal but vary in overall amount and quality across different cultural settings. A second reason for expecting cross-cultural contrasts in parental mind-mindedness is that, as noted earlier, cultures differ in the degree to which mental states are viewed as objects worthy of conjecture (Lillard, 1998).…”