Working models about mother-child relationships in abandoned children

The main purpose of the research was to find the differences between normal and abandoned children's conceptions about mother-child relationships in positive affect attribution, sense of fairness, and locus of responsibility in punishment.

Two groups of abandoned (N = 60) and one group of non-abandoned (N = 36) school-aged children were told six (kind/unkind, mother to child/child to mother) short stories, and were required to answer some questions about the reasons, reactions, and attributions of both protagonists. Children's answers were classified into categories for each question, and proportions of responses were analyzed.

Significant differences between abandoned and non-abandoned children's response categories were found as predicted. Data indicate that abandoned children's working models could be described as showing less positive affect attribution to the mother, more compliant behavior in the child, more justification of the mother when her behavior was unfair, and less successful resources in the child to be on good terms again in the relationship.

The results of this study indicate that abandoned children's conceptions about child-mother relationships present certain peculiarities that may contribute to their present and future difficulties in adapting successfully to their social environment and in developing a healthy sense of self respect.