Maternal Mental-State Talk and Attachment-Peer Linkages

描述（由申请人提供）：建立和保持亲密友谊的能力是整个生命过程中身心健康的核心。幼儿早期的母子依恋关系质量是幼儿期和学龄期友谊能力的预测因子之一。然而，人们对儿童依恋和朋友关系之间的人际关系机制知之甚少。本研究旨在评估母亲的心理状态谈话作为一个潜在的中介依恋-朋友的联系。通过谈论心理状态，母亲可以培养孩子对行为的心理理解，这反过来又对有效管理人际交往有影响。值得注意的是，孩子与母亲的依恋安全感和孩子与朋友的互动都与心理状态的谈话有关，但没有一项研究将这两条研究线结合起来。因此，拟议研究的具体目标是审查：（a）母亲在24个月时的心理状态谈话作为15个月时的婴儿-母亲依恋的函数，（B）母亲在24个月时的心理状态谈话作为儿童在36个月、54个月、幼儿园和一年级时的友谊能力的预测因子，（c）母亲的心理状态谈话作为纵向依恋-朋友关系的中介。在实现这些目标时，将利用NICHD幼儿保育研究（SECC）的数据。鉴于相对较大的样本，以及母亲与孩子和孩子的朋友关系的多种多样的评估，NICHD SECC提供了一个独特的机会，以测试拟议的中介模型。母亲在24个月大时的母子游戏录像将被转录和编码，用于母亲的心理状态谈话。将进行结构方程建模，以评估中介模型的有效性。多组分析将评估儿童性别是否会调节拟议的关联。此外，还将测试几种竞争车型。通过阐明儿童早期依恋关系与其随后与朋友的关系相关的人际关系过程，研究人员和临床医生将更好地为有关系障碍风险的儿童设计和实施预防干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to establish and maintain close friendships is central to physical and mental health throughout the life course. The quality of the early child-mother attachment relationship is one factor that may forecast friendship competence during the preschool and school years. Little is known, however, about the interpersonal mechanisms through which children's attachment and friend relationships are related. This study aims to assess maternal mental-state talk as a potential mediator of attachment-friend linkages. Through talk about mental states, mothers may foster children's psychological understanding of behavior, which, in turn, has implications for effectively managing interpersonal interactions. Notably, child-mother attachment security and child-friend interactions have each been associated with mental-state talk, yet no single study has brought together these two lines of research. Thus, the specific aims of the proposed study are to examine: (a) maternal mental-state talk at 24 months as a function of infant-mother attachment at 15 months, (b) maternal mental-state talk at 24 months as a predictor of children's friendship competence at 36 months, 54 months, kindergarten, and first grade, and (c) maternal mental-state talk as a mediator of longitudinal attachmentfriend associations. In addressing these aims, data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (SECC) will be utilized. Given the relatively large sample, as well as the multiple and varied assessments of mother-child and child-friend relationships, the NICHD SECC provides a unique opportunity in which to test the proposed mediational model. Videotaped mother-child play sessions at 24 months will be transcribed and coded for maternal mental-state talk. Structural equation modeling will be conducted to assess the validity of the mediational model. Multigroup analyses will assess whether child gender moderates the proposed associations. In addition, several competing models will be tested. By illuminating the interpersonal processes through which children's early attachment relationships are related to their subsequent relationships with friends, researchers and clinicians will be better equipped to design and implement preventive interventions for children at risk for relationship disturbances.