Mother–child attachment from infancy to the preschool years: Predicting security and stability

Meins, E.; Bureau, J.-F.; Fernyhough, C.

doi:10.1111/cdev.12778

Mother–child attachment from infancy to the preschool years: Predicting security and stability

Meins, E.; Bureau, J.-F.; Fernyhough, C.

Authors

E. Meins

J.-F. Bureau

Professor Charles Fernyhough c.p.fernyhough@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

Relations between maternal mind-mindedness (appropriate and nonattuned mind-related comments), children's age-2 perspective-taking abilities, and attachment security at 44 (n = 165) and 51 (n = 128) months were investigated. Nonattuned comments predicted insecure preschool attachment, via insecure 15-month attachment security (44-month attachment) and poorer age-2 perspective-taking abilities (51-month attachment). With regard to attachment stability, higher perspective-taking abilities distinguished the stable secure groups from (a) the stable insecure groups and (b) children who changed from secure to insecure (at trend level). These effects were independent of child gender, stressful life events, and socioeconomic status (SES). The contribution of these findings to our understanding of stability and change in attachment security from infancy to the preschool years is discussed.

Citation

Meins, E., Bureau, J., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). Mother–child attachment from infancy to the preschool years: Predicting security and stability. Child Development, 89(3), 1022-1038. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12778

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Oct 7, 2016
Online Publication Date	Mar 10, 2017
Publication Date	May 1, 2018
Deposit Date	Nov 18, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Mar 10, 2018
Journal	Child Development
Print ISSN	0009-3920
Electronic ISSN	1467-8624
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	89
Issue	3
Pages	1022-1038
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12778

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Meins, E., Bureau, J.-F. & Fernyhough, C. (2017). Mother–child attachment from infancy to the preschool years: Predicting security and stability. Child Development, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12778. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.