Caregivers' disrupted representations of the unborn child predict later infant–caregiver disorganized attachment and disrupted interactions

Abstract

Abstract Infant disorganized attachment is a significant predictor for later psychopathology. The Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI; C.H. Zeanah, D. Benoit, & M.L. Barton, 1986) elicits and classifies caregivers' perceptions and subjective experience of their child and relationship with the child, which are related to concurrent and future attachment to the caregiver. However, when the WMCI was first developed, the disorganized attachment classification had not been fully developed, so the original WMCI did not include a classification that is linked to disorganized attachment. We adapted the WMCI coding scheme to include items similar to those identified by K. Lyons‐Ruth, E. Bronfman, and E. Parsons (using the Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification, or AMBIANCE, 1999), which reflect disrupted caregiver behaviors associated with disorganized attachment. This resulted in a new WMCI‐Disrupted (WMCI‐D) scale and classification, disrupted. WMCI‐D was used to code 35 WMCIs administered prenatally. A prenatal disrupted classification was significantly associated with caregiver unresolved classification on the Adult Attachment Interview (M. Main, N. Kaplan, & J. Cassidy, 1985), infant disorganized Strange Situation classification (M.D.S. Ainsworth, M.C. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978), and disrupted caregiver behaviors toward the infant (using AMBIANCE; K. Lyons‐Ruth et al., 1999), at infant age 12 months. These data suggest WMCI‐D can capture disrupted caregiver internal representations, and identify dyads at risk for disorganized attachment and caregivers with unresolved mourning/trauma. These data also provide evidence for the convergent and predictive validity of the WMCI‐D Scale.

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