The association between mother-child attachment, maternal discipline and child disruptive behaviour

  • Kallitsoglou, Angeliki (PI)

Project Details

Description

Examine the relationship between attachment representations, conduct problems and discipline practices in a sample of 70 Greek children (4-5 years old) attending day-care. Two different methods were used to measure child attachment representations: a narrative task (the Manchester Attachment Story Task, MCAST) and a drawing task (the Family Drawing Task, FDT). Attachment relationship was not significantly associated to parenting and to children's conduct problems once mother and child variables were statistically controlled. Project partly supported by internal funds and a Santander Research Mobility Award.

Key findings

In school samples the impact of poor maternal discipline on child behaviour is independent of the attachment relationship that the child has with their mother and therefore needs to be addressed by interventions supporting parents with discipline application.

It is suggested that the quality of the attachment relationship is not likely to buffer the negative impact on poor parenting but further research is required to ascertain the proposed association.

Research outputs:
Kallitsoglou, A., Repana, V., Shiakou, M. (2019). Attachment representations in the narratives and drawings of a sample of preschool Greek children and associations with conduct problems and harsh discipline. Poster presented at the 2019 International Attachment Conference, Vancouver, Canada, Society for Emotional and Attachment Studies

Submitted: Kallitsoglou, A. Repana, V., Shiakou, M. Attachment representations in children’s story stems and drawings: links with maternal discipline and conduct problems –Journal of Child and Family Studies
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/09/161/09/18