Transmission of attachment in a DMM perspective

Aim of this research is to investigate the relation between the pattern of mothers attachment and the one of their children at 12 months of age, using the Dynamic-Maturational Method (DMM) criteria for the first time in an Italian sample. It was hypothesized that mothers with secure (or balanced) pattern (B) - more sensitive and protective towards their offspring - should foster a B pattern in their children. On the contrary, insecure mothers - less sensitive, more anxious and more controlling - should promote the development of an insecure pattern in their children. A sample of 40 Italian mothers-child dyads was initially considered and 30 mothers (aged from 19 to 40 years) and their children met criteria for inclusion in the research. A final sample of 26 dyads completed the procedures. All mothers, at the 6th month of delivery, were subjected to the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and afterwards to the Strange Situation (SS) when their children were 12 months old. Both procedures were administered and codified in double blind by 2 reliable codifiers following DMM criteria. Results: 23.1% of mothers resulted balanced (B), 15.4% dismissing (A), 42.3% preoccupied (C), 11.5% dismissing/preoccupied (A/C) and 7.7% in course of reorganization (R). 34.6% of children resulted secure (B), 23.1% avoiding (A), 38.5% ambivalent (C) and 3.8% avoiding/ambivalent (A/C). This study confirmed the attachment transmission hypothesis revealing a modest correlation between mother’s and child’s secure attachment (B) (p < .05). However, a reversal pattern is evinced in a significant part of the insecure sample: children of insecure mother show an opposite pattern in respect to their mother (A versus C or C versus A). This “reversal trasmission of attachment” is in line with others studies (Hautamäki el al., 2010a, 2010b; Shah, Fonagy, Strathearn, 2010) and is coherent with DMM theory.