As noted previously it has been shown that attachment styles are not only stable over time but that patterns of attachment styles are transmitted across generations (Bretherton, 1992) – that is to say that a woman’s own attachment experiences while growing up will influence the way she interacts with others in later life, including the way she will relate to her own infant. The implication is that the way a mother parents her child will largely be a reflection of her own early childhood experience of being parented. Based on the concept of the internal working model proposed in Bowlby’s attachment theory, it can be argued that
a woman, even prior to parenthood, knows the maternal role from experiences with her own mother, and … she will play out that role, replicating the pattern of the parent-child relationship with her own children.
(Crowell and Feldman, 1991, p. 597).
To assess whether attachment patterns are replicated across generations, researchers have utilized measures such as the Adult Attachment Interview, devised by Mary Main and her colleagues, to classify a person’s attachment style, based on coherence of responses to a number of questions related to their childhood relationships. The person’s attachment classification is then correlated to observations of their current behaviour and/or their
infant’s attachment style, the latter often measured through use of Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation experiment.
Slade et al. (1999) assessed and examined links between mothers’ representations of attachment and their parental representations of their relationship with their children as well as observing their mothering in the home. The results indicated that those mothers who were classified as being “secure” on the Adult Attachment Interview, were more likely to describe experiencing joy and pleasure in their relationship with their infant than those mothers classified as being “dismissing” or “preoccupied”. Furthermore those parents who described joy and pleasure in their relationship displayed more positive mothering toward their infant when observed in the home. However mental representations of attachment styles did not predict positive parenting in this research and the links between the representation of attachment styles for insecure mothers and parental representations of the child were not as clearly indicated. Slade et al. suggested that the lack of significant relationships between all three variables could be due in part to the use of naturalistic observations conducted in the home and that representations of early attachment experiences did not function alone in shaping a mother’s representations of the relationship with her child.
Using a laboratory-based separation-reunion procedure Crowell and Feldman (1991) considered the relationships between a mother’s representations of attachment (measured by the Adult Attachment Interview) and maternal and child behaviours. Their
results indicated associations between the mothers’ attachment classifications (secure, dismissing or preoccupied), their behaviour and that of their children.
Studies also exist showing direct links between a mother’s maternal representations of attachment relationships and her infant’s attachment style. Main et al. (1985) noted that parents’ recollections of attachment relationships in their own childhood measured via the Adult Attachment Interview were associated with their infants’ attachment patterns. In a similar study Fonagy et al. (1991) assessed mothers’ childhood attachment experiences during pregnancy and then measured infant-attachment when the infants were around a year old; results indicated a 75% predictive rate between maternal representation of early attachment relationships and subsequent infant attachment.
There have been no specific studies that have addressed the relationship between an adolescent mother’s representations of attachment relationships and her infant’s attachment style. However there have been some studies that have considered the impact of childhood experiences in general on the maternal-infant bond in adolescent mothers.
1.4.2.1 Adolescent Mothers and Recollections of Childhood Experiences
While not directly assessing attachment styles, some studies have indicated the influence of childhood experiences on adolescent mothers and their ability to create a positive relationship with their own children. Quinlivan et al. (2004) found that adverse
compared to older mothers, adolescent mothers reported more instances of negative or absent relationships with either their mother or father, as well as less positive relationships between their parents. Among the adolescent mother sample there were also more reports of childhood exposure to a violent parental relationship, or childhood (under 5 years) experiences of parental separation or divorce.
Considering the evidence for the transmission of attachment styles from parents to children previously described, the relatively high incidence of such negative early life events for adolescent mothers has raised queries about how such experiences may influence the way that an adolescent mother may relate to her own child. Milan, Lewis et al. (2004) reported that a pregnant adolescent’s experience of physical maltreatment as a child influenced the relationship she subsequently developed with her own infant after birth. Adolescent mothers who had experienced greater physical violence were more likely to also experience less enjoyment when interacting with their child, feelings of parental role incompetency and greater disappointment in infant responsiveness. The relationship between a history of physical maltreatment and mother-infant relationship difficulty was mediated by the pregnant adolescent’s representation of a caregiver; the latter measured by assessing an adolescent’s evaluations of the relationship with their primary caretaker and general feelings she associated with motherhood during her pregnancy. McCollough and Scherman (1998) specifically examined the potential of adolescent mothers to abuse their child and found that those adolescents who perceived low levels of family cohesion, generally also scored higher on the potential to abuse their own offspring. In contrast when
an adolescent had felt accepted and supported by her own parents, she was better able to build her own “positive identity of a mother to her child.” (p. 380).
So far maternal foetal bonding and maternal representations of own childhood experiences have been considered as potential variables influencing maternal infant bonding. However, mental representations of bonding (both past and present) are not the only factors that have been suggested to affect maternal bonding. The next sections explore the literature available in regard to the influence of psychological wellbeing (including depression and anxiety) on postnatal bonding.