Maternal Mental-State Talk and Attachment-Peer Linkages

描述(由申请者提供)：建立和维持亲密友谊的能力是整个生命过程中身心健康的核心。早期儿童-母亲依恋关系的质量是预测学龄前和上学期间友谊能力的一个因素。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。这项研究旨在评估母亲的心理谈话作为依恋-朋友联系的潜在中介。通过谈论心理状态，母亲可能会培养孩子对行为的心理理解，这反过来又意味着有效地管理人际互动。值得注意的是，孩子-母亲的依恋安全感和孩子-朋友的互动都与精神状态谈话有关，但没有一项研究将这两个研究路线结合在一起。因此，本研究的具体目的是考察：(A)24个月时的母亲心理谈话作为15个月时婴儿-母亲依恋的函数；(B)24个月时的母亲心理谈话作为36个月、54个月、幼儿园和一年级儿童友谊能力的预测因子；以及(C)母亲心理谈话作为纵向依恋-朋友关系的中介变量。在实现这些目标时，将利用NICHD早期儿童保育研究(SECC)的数据。鉴于样本相对较大，以及对母子关系和儿童-朋友关系的多种不同评估，NICHD SECC提供了一个独特的机会来测试拟议的调解模式。24个月大的母婴游戏过程将被转录和编码，用于母亲的精神状态对话。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缓和拟议的关联。此外，还将测试几款竞争车型。通过阐明儿童早期依恋关系与他们后来与朋友的关系的人际关系过程，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性干预措施。

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.