So-called attachment parenting: A single case study
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | So-called attachment parenting has become a growing trend among parents in Europe and USA in the last years. The leading principles of attachment parenting are co-sleeping, infant carrying on the parent’s body and an extended breastfeeding on demand. It is presented as a natural parenting approach that provides the optimal environment for infant’s growth, well-being and secure attachment development. However, the real-life impact on child’s attachment quality and development has not been sufficiently proved by research and little is also known about the characteristics of parents who raise their child following the attachment parenting principles. The poster presents a single case study of a mother-infant dyad from a project focusing on the links between infant attachment, parenting practices, maternal characteristics and maternal sensitivity in mother-infant interaction during home visits. Since extended breastfeeding on demand is one of the core principles of the attachment parenting, the mother who repeatedly breastfed her infant during home visit observation and during the SSP and who likewise describes herself as a mother who raises her child in compliance with the attachment parenting was chosen for the detailed description. Infant attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters & Wall, 1978). Maternal characteristics were assessed by self-report questionnaires (e.g. Emotional Labor by Liu & Zhang, 2014; The Ambivalence Over Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire by King & Emmons, 1999; The Rigidity of Maternal Beliefs Scale by Thomason, Flynn, Himle & Volling, 2015) and the mother-infant interaction and maternal sensitivity were assessed based on video recording of home visit structured and unstructured sessions. The causes of the differences between so called attachment parenting, the infant attachment type and the discrepancies and congruences between the self-reports and observation are discussed. |
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