Emotion Communication in Mother-Child Interaction During Early Childhood and Attachment Representation : A Test of the Inter-Generational Transmmision Hypothesis.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	09610095
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	教育・社会系心理学
Research Institution	Hokkaido University
Principal Investigator	CHEN Shing-Jen Research and Clinical Center for Child Development, Faculty of Education, Hokkaido University, 教育学部・附属乳幼児発達臨床センター, 教授 (20171960)
Project Period (FY)	1997 – 1998
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1998)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000) Fiscal Year 1998: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000) Fiscal Year 1997: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Keywords	emotion communication / emotion regulation / temperament / attention span / inter-generation transmission hypothesis / infant / attachment representation / 気質的特徴 / 実験室観察 / 母子相互交渉 / 方略 / 養育経験 / 愛着関係 / 世代間伝達 / 育児ストレス / 相互交渉 / 乳児
Research Abstract	This research is an attempt to test the inter-generational transimmision hypothesis concerning relationship between the styles and characteristics in emotion communication of both the mother and her young child during interaction and the mother's own attachment representation of her own experience with her parents. About forty five dyads of mother and infant were investigated in a short-term longitudinal project. Mothers were interviewed by using Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), emotion communication between mother and her infant while interacting with each other was observed and recorded in the lab. Q sort and Infant Behavioral Questionnaire were employed to measure the characteristics of the mother and her infant. The following results were obtained. (1) Mother's own experience in childhood was found to be related to the current attachment relationship between her and her child. In particular, mother's experience with her own mother appeared to have primary effect, as compared with … More the secondary function of experience with her father. (2) Maternal strategy in emotion regulation with her child was found to be related with infant's temperamental characteristics (attention span, in particular) ; and mother's 'indulgent soothing' was related to both the mother's soothing utterances and the child's lower capability in regulating his/her own emotion later. (3) Infant's attenion span earlier was found to be related with 'smile and laughter', as well as later expression of anger. In general, some evidence was obtained in support of the hypothesis. However, the relationship between and among factors such as infant temperamental characteristics, attention span in earlier period in particular, maternal strategy in regulating her child's emotion, and emotion expressions of both the mother and the child are not simple nor straight forward. While the hypothesis has received some support, further research will be necessary to reveal the mechanism involved and its development across generation. Less