Les comportements d’attachement indiscriminé chez les enfants de mères adolescentes: Étiologie et facteurs de risque

• Published in: Canadian journal of behavioural science 2014-04, Vol.46 (2), p.73-83
• Main Authors: Lalande, Célyne, Cyr, Chantal, Dubois-Comtois, Karine, Losier, Valerie, Paquette, Daniel, Emery, Jacinthe
• Format: Article
• Language: fre
• Subjects: Adolescent Mothers; Attachment Behavior; Attachment Disorders; Female; Human; Infant Development; Mother Child Relations; Psychosocial Development; Risk Factors
• ISSN: 0008-400X; 1879-2669
• DOI: 10.1037/a0027426

This study examines socially indiscriminate attachment (SIA) behaviour among infants of adolescent mothers. A review of the research conducted on adolescent mothers reveals that this population is characterised by several risk factors usually associated with SIA. However, to date, no study has yet examined SIA among infants of adolescent mothers, as most studies were conducted on institutionalized children. The sample in this study was composed of 117 15-months old infants and their adolescent mother recruited through specialized schools and Group-Homes for at-risk mothers. SIA were assessed during the well-known Strange Situation procedure (Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S., 1978, Patterns of attachment, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum) and rated according to the Rating of Infant-Stranger Engagement Scale developed by Riley et al. (Riley, C., Atlas-Corbett, A., & Lyons-Ruth, K, 2005, Rating of Infant-Stranger Engagement (RISE) coding system, unpublished manuscript, Departement of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA). Results of this study show that 21% of infants do not show a clear preference for their mother during the Strange Situation. A linear regression has been executed to identify risk factors predicting SIA. Results show, after controlling for the significant effect of the insecure-organized “traditional attachment” category, that the need for maternal social support and maternal disengaged and neglect behaviour are risk factors significantly associated with infants SIA. Results demonstrate that infants of adolescent mothers are at risk to develop a reactive attachment disorder of the disinhibited type and that mother-child interactive quality plays an important role in predicting SIA among children living with their nuclear family. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)