Mental Representations of Attachment and the Perception of Parental Pratices by Young Adults

The aim of this study was to investigate whether mental representations of attachment affect the perception that young adults have while observing interactions of children and their mothers in a laboratory situation. Parental practices were defined as socio-cognitions (goals, plans, expectations and attributions) present during child rearing context. Those socio-cognitions were access through the observations of video-clips of mother-child interactions. Attachment was analyzed through the Attachment Script Assessment. The results showed that only two categories distinguished the two groups: Independence Development and Causal Attribution to Child Behavior, confirming partially the initial expectation of the study.