Maternal attachment, maternal responsiveness and infant attachment

Abstract Van IJzendoorn’s (1995) model of the intergenerational transmission of attachment was tested with data from 96 mother-infant dyads assessed prenatally, and at 6 and 12 months. In spite of efforts to explain or reduce the transmission gap by measuring all three components in the same study, improving or altering definitions of sensitivity, and considering infant dyadic contributions, the results remain surprisingly consistent with the original meta-analysis: only a limited portion of the link between maternal and infant attachment is transmitted via maternal sensitivity/responsiveness. In support of the notion that the link between unresolved maternal attachment and infant disorganization is mediated by processes other than maternal responsiveness, omission of unresolved and disorganized cases enhanced links between responsiveness and infant attachment and slightly reduced the transmission gap. Accumulating data indicate that 1) maternal attachment contributes to infant attachment through routes other than maternal responsiveness and 2) maternal sensitivity/responsiveness contributes to infant attachment independent of maternal attachment. New models of the transmission process that take account of this information are needed.

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