Secure Maternal Attachment & Emotion Reg

Running Head: SECURE MATERNAL ATTACHMENT AND EMOTION REGULATION

Secure Maternal Attachment and Emotion Regulation

Jessica M. Yoakum

Park University

Abstract

Every child regulates their emotion differently. Biological as well as environmental factors play a role in how a child develops their self –regulatory capacities. The type of attachment a child develops at a young age with their mother sets the foundation for how the developments of regulatory systems form. Maternal support and child temperament aid in emotion regulation. An observational study examined the pick-up and drop off of children in a childcare facility. These children were also observed participating in daily activities with peers. Infants, preschoolers, and school-age children were all observed. The child’s emotional expression, anger, fear, sadness, and joy, was also measured. More intensive future observations should also be done to provide a more wide variety of demographics such as race, mother’s education level, and socioeconomic class.

Secure Maternal Attachment and Emotion Regulation

Children are often taught that it’s not ok for boys to cry but it’s acceptable for girls to express their emotions such as fear, sadness, anger, and joy. Research has revealed that mother-infant interactions that result in a successful, secure attachment are those where both mother and infant can sense the other’s feelings and emotions (Segal & Jaffe, 2012) Individualistic cultures such as the United States place less emphasis on mother-child attachment than do Collectivist cultures such as Mexico. In the United States, a mother is legally only allowed to take a 12-week maternal leave before she has to make the decision on whether she will go back to work and the effects of leaving her infant with a non-maternal caregiver. Mexican families bond together and depend on each other for resources which include taking care of family members and this allows attachment to begin at a young age and continue throughout life.

The development of the human brainstem provides the foundation of emotion regulation during the prenatal period. During infancy maternal touch secretes a biochemical from the brainstem and mother-infant attachment is formed. Maternal-infant attachment provides the basis of emotional regulatory processes. Maternal leave varies among countries and many people have different views on what is an adequate amount of time a mother should take off to bond with their infant. The regulatory process continues to form throughout life and is sensitive during the preschool years when a child’s self-concept is formed. Many studies have been done to determine what type of attachment is required to raise children who can become adults who can regulate their emotions and therefore look for a solution in times of distress. Therefore I believe that developing a secure maternal attachment aids in emotion regulation.

Prenatal and Infancy Emotion Regulation Development

In the article, A neurobiological model for the effects of early brainstem functioning on the development of behavior and emotion regulation in infants: an implication for prenatal and perinatal risk (Geva & Feldman, 2008), brainstem development was studied. The brainstem, limbic and cortical systems are the foundation of the emotion regulatory process. The prenatal period and Newborns were studied. Their development from prenatal through the first 3 months of life and that data was put into a neurobiological model. It was found that during the prenatal period myelination and synaptic functions in the brainstem might affect the development of self-regulation before birth which could affect the development of emotion regulation after birth. It was also found that mother-infant interaction after birth aids in stress-management systems which are mediated by the brainstem. This shows how early secure mother-infant interaction is very important to provide a secure base for the formation of the infant’s emotion regulation.

In the article, Length of Maternity Leave and Quality of Mother-Infant Interactions (Clark, Hyde, Essex, & Klein, 1997), the length of maternity leave and the quality of mother-infant interactions were studied to determine whether shorter or longer maternity leave produced positive or negative interactions. A secure maternal attachment base is formed at a young age. 198 employed mothers were interviewed between 12-21 weeks pregnant then again then their newborn was 4 months old. The mother and infant were videotaped in 5 min segments while breastfeeding, during a structured task and during free play. The mother-child interaction was measured by the PCERA scale and the length of maternity leave was included in the results. They found the shorter the maternity leave the more negative interactions between the mother and infant. Depression was also correlated to the shorter length of maternity leave. The shorter the maternity leave the greater the chances are of the mother becoming depressed. This could cause the child’s temperament to change not allowing the infant to develop positive emotion regulatory skills.

The article, Parental Leave Policies in 21 Countries (Ray, Gornick & Schmitt, 2008), ranked the top 21 high-income economies by the length of legal parental leave given to new families. The United States ranked 20 on the list with public policy, the Family Medical Leave Act, setting a minimum standard of 12 working weeks set aside for parental leave. Due to the exclusion of small businesses and short-tenured workers only about 60% of workers are eligible. 14 weeks are given in Switzerland and 300 weeks which is about 6 years is given to parents in France and Spain. This short length of maternal leave could make the mother more apprehensive about going back to work. This type of stress could lead to depression and could harm the type of attachment formed between the mother and infant.

These articles evaluate that mother-infant attachment is developed at or before the child is born the length of maternal leave closely affects the mother-infant relationship. If mothers were given more time off to be able to develop a secure attachment base for their young infants then this could possibly help in the development of positive emotional regulatory strategies. A mother being less stressed while her infant also disrupts the development of these processes.

The Preschool Years and Maternal Attachment

The preschools years are the time when a child develops their self-concept which allows them to see themselves as an individual. Along with self-concept children’s language skills begin to form with them being able to express themselves unlike in infancy when the mother or primary caregiver waits for the infant’s cues. The parent’s own attachment theories and attachment-based ‘strategies’, unconscious goals, plans, and guide thinking and behavior (Berlin & Cassidy, 2003).

In the article, Mothers’ Self-Reported Control of Their Preschool Children’s Emotional Expressiveness: A Longitudinal Study of Associations with Infant-Mother Attachment and Children’s Emotion Regulation (Berlin & Cassidy, 2003), researchers predicted avoidant children were to have better control over their emotion expressiveness than securely attached children and ambivalent children would have the least amount of control. Emotional attachment was assessed in infancy than during the pre-school years. 76 white preschool children were tested with 92% of those children living with both married parents. At 15-18 months the Strange Situation was used to classify the children. At 42-48 months of age a game, Beat the Bell, was used to produce a frustrating situation. Parents were also asked to imagine a mother-child situation and a response to that situation. Children were then classified as secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent, and insecure-disorganized, disoriented. The results of this longitudinal study showed that mothers of children who were classified as avoidant showed greater emotion regulation than mothers of children who were classified as ambivalent. The secure attachment group wasn’t tested but its scores were calculated and the secure groups' mean score was between the avoidant and ambivalent groups showing that mothers of avoidant children have better control of their child’s emotional expressiveness.

In the article, Preschoolers Emotion Regulation Strategy Understanding: Relations with Emotion Socialization and Child Self-Regulation (Cole, Dennis, Smith-Simon, & Cohen, 2009), the study experimented with how preschoolers regulate their emotion in correlation to maternal referencing and socialization with supportiveness and structuring during the child’s distress. The maternal reaction to the child’s distress effects how the child will handle the situation. 3 and 4-year-old boys and girls with a family mean income of $60,000 were tested along with and their mothers. The first experiment used puppets to act out certain emotions such as happy, angry, and sad using two puppets of the same sex as the child and one puppet who was a mom. During the script, mom would appear and tell the puppets to STOP acting out a certain emotion. The other puppets would turn to the child and ask them how to STOP feeling happy, angry or sad. If the child couldn’t verbally tell the puppet what they were thinking they would be shown pictures of certain actions to help them STOP feeling happy, angry, or sad which would aid in their decision. Another test which measured emotion regulation while waiting included the mothers’ presence gave the mother a questionnaire to fill out as well as a gift to the child which could not be opened until the mother finished. A frustrating situation was also given to the children to where they were given a box with a toy inside and a wrong set of keys to unlock the box. The test concluded that anger and sadness were correlated as well as maternal support and structuring. It was also easier for 3 and 4-year-olds to recognize than verbally produce a strategy. The more emotional support the mother communicated to her frustrated child, the more anger strategies the child recognized but the fewer anger strategies the child generated. In contrast, children who experience less support generate more strategies for anger, perhaps because mothers give them more opportunity to generate their own ideas (Cole, Dennis, Smith-Simon & Cohen, 2008).

The topic studied in, Anger Regulation in Disadvantage Preschool Boys: Strategies, Antecedents, and the Development of Self-Control (Gilliom, Shaw, Beck, Schonberg & Lukon, 2002) were the patterns and correlations between anger regulation and low-income families. Boys, ages 6-7 months of age, and their mothers were recruited from a local WIC office to participate in a longitudinal study. The boys were studied at the ages of 6-7 months, 1 ½, 3 ½ and 6 years of age. 62% were married, 28% had always been single and 8% were divorced. Mother-infant behavior was evaluated at 6-7 months. 1 ½ year the Strange Situation was performed. 3 ½ years the child was evaluated through a cookie task, the mother filled out a demographics questionnaire and the child had to wait until she was done to receive a cookie. At 6 years of age, the child’s teacher filled out a Teacher’s Report Form which assessed problem behavior, social skills, and academic competence. They found out that if the child was being distracted and passive while waiting low frequencies of anger were shown from the child. Securely attached children are more likely to disengage from frustration behaviors and look for outside information on how to overcome a frustrating obstacle.

The mother-child relationship is formed during the first year of life and during this time children are taught how to regulate their emotions. Having a low-income level puts the child at a disadvantage to resources, therefore, the child is taught through social referencing how to deal with certain disadvantages. The child is then at a higher level to experience negative and frustrating situations.

Middle Childhood and Room for Growth

The theory of attachment implies that a child’s relationship with their caregivers has an important influence on their social and emotional development. Children who form more secure attachments to their mother’s form higher-quality relationships with peers and manifest higher self-esteem than do less securely attached children (Kerns, Abraham, Schlegelmilch & Morgan, 2007) The base of the relationship that was developed between the mother and child influences all other relationships throughout life.

In the article, Mother-child attachment in later middle childhood: Assessment approaches and associations with mood and emotion regulation ( Kerns, Abraham, Schlegelmilch, & Morgan, 2007), assessed how attachment in children during middle childhood is related to emotional development. Secure parental attachment helps the child how to manage negative emotions. This helps with situations the child is faced with throughout life and helps to promote positive attitudes towards negative situations. Middle-aged children between the ages of 9-11 years old were tested to see how attachment is related to the child’s mood and emotion. This extension of research assessed attachment in older children because attachment is related to emotional development. Securely attached children may learn, through interactions with caregivers, adaptive techniques for managing negative emotions and challenges, which they can then apply to new situations, even in the absence of their caregiver (Kerns, Abraham, Schlegelmilch & Morgan, 2007). 63% of the children lived with both parents and the remaining 27% in single-parent homes. The majority of the children tested, 85%, were Caucasian. At the beginning of the test, mothers were asked to fill out a demographics questionnaire. While filling out the form children were taken into another room where they filled out a questionnaire to measure their attachment with their mother due to accessibility, communication, and responsiveness of their mother. Stories were then told which included mother and child of the same age. These stories tried to elicit negative conflict within the mother-child relationship (e.g. child spills juice during a meal). Secure children described their caregivers as support that helped them generate a constructive solution. Avoidant children never described asking for help from their caregivers with little expression of emotion. Ambivalent children described their caregiver as being erratic and inconsistent with responding to the child with intense negative emotional swings of emotion. Disorganized children described their caregiver as being unavailable and not resolving the problem with odd unrealistic problem solving e.g. inconsistent timelines and unrealistic events. If the child had difficulty resolving the problem their attachment to their mother would be considered as insecure. Mother-child attachment is related to the child’s mood and emotion toward conflicting situations.

These articles indicate that secure maternal attachment is a critical component in emotion regulation. Although brainstem dysfunctions which are the foundation of emotion regulation can arise in prenatal mother-infant attachment can change and alter these functions after birth. The public policy only allows for mothers to stay at home from work for 12 weeks in the United States which is a critical period for infants and their mothers to form a secure attachment base. During the preschool years, the strategies that have been formed since birth are acted out in a social setting when the child gains their self-concept and language skills. A mother who is an emotional ‘coach’, for example, communicates empathetic tolerance of the child’s distress but also uses the experience as a learning opportunity (Cole, Dennis, Smith-Simon & Cohen, 2008). These learning experiences teach the child how to regulate emotion which they can then use later in life to become emotionally secure adults.

Infants and children who acquire a secure maternal relationship with their mother are more likely to possess the strategies to regulate their emotions in times of distress. These children can disengage from frustrating situations and look for information on how to overcome frustration. This information leads me to believe that if a child develops a secure maternal attachment to their mother then they will be able to generate positive emotion regulation skills.

References

Berlin, L. J., & Cassidy, J. (2003). Mothers' Self-Reported Control of Their Preschool Children's Emotional Expressiveness: A Longitudinal Study of Associations with Infant-Mother Attachment and Children's Emotion Regulation. Social Development, 12(4), 477-495. doi:10.1111/1467-9507.00244
Clark, R., Hyde, J., Essex, M. J., & Klein, M. H. (1997). Length of maternity leave and quality of mother–infant interactions. Child Development, 68(2), 364-383.
Cole, P. M., Dennis, T. A., Smith-Simon, K. E., & Cohen, L. H. (2009). Preschoolers' emotion regulation strategy understanding: Relations with emotion socialization and child self-regulation. Social Development, 18(2), 324-352. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00503.x
Geva R., & Feldman, R. (2008). A neurobiological model for the effects of early brainstem functioning on the development of behavior and emotion regulation in infants: Implications for prenatal and perinatal risk. Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry, 49(10), 1031-1041. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01918.x
Gilliom, M., Shaw, D. S., Beck, J. E., Schonberg, M. A., & Lukon, J. L. (2002). Anger regulation in disadvantaged preschool boys: Strategies, antecedents, and the development of self-control. Developmental Psychology, 38(2), 222-235. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.38.2.222
Kerns, K. A., Abraham, M. M., Schlegelmilch, A., & Morgan, T. A. (2007). Mother-child attachment in later middle childhood: Assessment approaches and associations with mood and emotion regulation. Attachment & Human Development, 9(1), 33-53. doi:10.1080/14616730601151441
Ray, R., Gornick, J. C., & Schmitt, J. (2008). Parental leave policies in 21 countries. Washington , D.C.: Center for Economic and Policy Research. Retrieved from http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/parental_2008_09.pdf
Segal, J., & Jaffe, J. (2012, January). Attachment and adult relationships. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/eqa_attachment_bond.htm