Suchergebnisse

Des enfants d'âge pré-scolaire furent filmés au magnétoscope dans des situations naturelles tendant à provoquer un "comportement de gêne" (coy behavior) envers des adultes non familiers. Dans une première étude, huit éléments d'"expressions de gêne" furent identifiés à partir des bandes magnétoscopiques. Dans une seconde étude quarante-six enfants âgés de deux à cinq ans furent lûmes dans une nouvelle situation où chaque enfant, en présence de sa mère, était approché par un inconnu bienveillant. L'analyse de l'effet des différences d'âge sur la complexité des "expressions de gêne" indique que : a) les expressions affichées par les enfants de deux et trois ans présentent un très bas niveau de complexité et b) il existe un accroissement significatif de la complexité des "expressions de gêne" entre trois et quatre ans. Les résultats obtenus sont analysés en fonction de la méthode utilisée pour le codage du comportement non verbal, du développement de la communication non verbale, de la forme et de la fonction supposées du "comportement de gêne" et de l'affaiblissement du comportement d'attachement entre la mère et l'enfant.

Representational models of mother‐child relationships were assessed through interview for 112 mothers of children ages 14 to 52 months. Fifty‐eight (51.8%) children had a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, 19 (17%) were diagnosed with epilepsy, while the remaining 35 (31.3%) had no diagnosis. Relations were examined between dimensions of representations (compliance, achievement, secure base, enmeshment, worry, pain) and maternal age, education and stress; diagnostic group and child developmental status; and mother's behavior with the child in a problem‐solving task. Mothers for whom boundary violations were represented were also less focused with child achievement and experienced more worry and pain in the relationship. More severe disability status was associated with less compliance and more pain in representations. Longer time since diagnosis was positively correlated with painful representations. Representations were unrelated to child gender, child age, maternal education or age, or parenting stress. With educational level controlled, mothers' support for the child and positive affect in a problem‐solving task were negatively related to representations of worry about the child's future. Boundary concerns were predictive of mothers' pressuring behavior in the problem‐solving task. Findings suggest representations are related to caregiving behavior apart from other maternal characteristics, and that mothers' representations reflect variability in their children.

AbstractWe set out to explore the meaning of the attachment categories in the Cassidy/Marvin strange situation procedure, as employed in the home, using data from a longitudinal study of children adopted into UK families up to the age of 42 months from Romanian institutions, and of adopted children without the experience of institutional care––both groups being assessed at 4 and 6 years of age. Inter‐rater reliability was found to be good. Security (meaning the use of the parent as a secure base and no negative behavior on reunion) was the modal categorical rating in both the institution‐reared and comparison groups, but the category of anomalous non‐normative behavior (meaning a lack of any ordered attachment behavior as covered by the standard ratings), previously labeled 'insecure‐other', was more common in the institution‐reared children. Because this was unassociated with the usual manifestations of insecurity (such as avoidance or resistance) and because it was largely evident in interactions with the stranger, it is concluded that the adjective 'insecure' was not appropriate. Although this 'insecure‐other' category was associated with disinhibited attachment as reported by parents (meaning a lack of differentiation among adults, a willingness to go off with strangers and a lack of checking back with parents in anxiety‐provoking situations), it did not prove to be a good index of disinhibited attachment because changes over time in the 'insecure‐other' category were not associated with changes in the rate of disinhibited attachment. Also, whereas the rate of 'insecure‐other' fell markedly in the institution‐reared group between 4 and 6 years of age, it rose in the comparison group, raising queries over its meaning.