Maternal Attachment, Maternal Caregiving Behavior, and Family Income: A Pilot Study

This pilot study was conducted to examine the prevalence of differing degrees of maternal emotional attachment, the mother's emotional tie to her infant, and maternal caregiving behavior, the mother's sensitivity and responsiveness to her infant. Specifically, this study examined if maternal attachment and maternal responsiveness are always indicative of each other. Family income was also taken into consideration in order to determine if mothers of different incomes score differently on attachment or behavior. Using a non-experimental design, 21 mothers with infants under one year of age, enrolled in private early learning centers and Early Head Start completed self-report questionnaires to assess maternal attachment and maternal responsiveness. The prevalence of differing degrees of maternal emotional attachment and maternal caregiving behavior was explored by running descriptive statistics and looking at the distribution of scores on each instrument across all subjects. Results from this study suggest that there is differentiation between maternal attachment and maternal responsiveness. Future research should replicate this study on a larger sample comparing overt maternal responsiveness behaviors to attachment scores.

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Rauh, Britney R.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• DeFlorio, Lydia L.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Burnham, Melissa
• Freeman, Brenda

• attachment
• infant
• maternal
• parenting

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright(All Rights Reserved)

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11714/2998

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/2998