A social-contextual understanding of concordance and discordance between maternal prenatal representations of the infant and infant-mother attachment

Abstract

This prospective study examined the relationship between maternal prenatal representations of the infant and later infant-mother attachment, including contextual factors related to concordance and discordance among dyads over time. Participants were 173 pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 40 who were interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy and 2 and 13 months after birth. Maternal representations were assessed by the Working Model of the Child Interview during pregnancy (WMCI; C.H. Zeanah, D. Benoit, L. Hirshberg, M.L. Barton, & C. Regan, 1994), and infant-mother attachment was assessed through the Strange Situation procedure (M.D.S. Ainsworth, M. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978) when infants were 13 months old. There was substantial discordance between maternal and infant classifications, although a significant concordance rate was found when classifications were collapsed into balanced/secure and nonbalanced/insecure groups based on prenatal representations and postnatal infant attachment groups (60%; χ2 = 6.90, p < .01; κ .20). As expected, discordance between maternal representations and infant-mother attachment was meaningfully related to contextual risk factors, maternal depression, and infant behaviors. © 2011 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.