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Abstract
Seventy 18-month-old infants, including 38 infants identified as at risk for future social and psychiatric difficulties, and 32 matched low-income controls, were observed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation, and a family history interview was conducted with each mother. Using scales developed by this investigator, family history interviews were coded for the following variables: warmth of mother's relationship with her own mother; quality of home environment in the mother's family of origin; degree of separation/disruption in the mother's family of origin; judge's rating of stress experienced by mother during childhood and adolescence; subject's rating of stress during childhood and adolescence; presence of an alternate adult confidante; and incidence of the loss of a parent by death. In analyses performed with the entire sample, these factors did not distinguish between mothers of secure and mothers of insecure infants; or among mothers of secure, disorganized-secure, avoidant and disorganized-avoidant infants. However, in analyses performed with a sub-sample of infants who had demonstrated stability of attachment between 12 and 18 months, the presence of an alternate adult confidante distinguished among the four groups of mothers and was associated with secure attachment status. Differences among the four groups of mothers approached significance on the measures of quality of home environment and the subject's rating of stress in childhood. Further analyses comparing infants who had been classified disorganized at 12 and/or 18 months and infants who had not been classified disorganized revealed some consistencies with findings reported by Main and Solomon. The loss of a parent by death approached significance in distinguishing between disorganized and non-disorganized infants. Other analyses comparing infants who had been classified secure at 12 and 18 months, at 12 or 18 months or not at all revealed a significant correlation between the presence of an alternate adult confidante and secure attachment status. Differences among the four groups of mothers in this sub-sample approached significance on the measure of the subject's rating of stress.
