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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
07:56

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure

Published on: September 19, 2019

Associations between maternal mind-mindedness and infant attachment security: investigating the mediating role of

Jessica Laranjo1, Annie Bernier, Elizabeth Meins

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada. jessica.laranjo@umontreal.ca

Infant Behavior & Development
|June 24, 2008
PubMed

In the last 20 years, three meta-analyses suggested that the relation between maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security was lesser in magnitude than originally believed. This led to a search for other parental behaviors likely to contribute to the development of attachment security. Based on previous theoretical propositions and empirical findings suggesting that maternal mind-mindedness may contribute to infant attachment security by favoring maternal sensitivity, the aim of this study was to examine whether sensitivity mediates the relation between maternal mind-mindedness and infant attachment security. Fifty mother-infant dyads took part in two home visits (12 months and 15 months), allowing for assessment of maternal sensitivity (T1), mind-mindedness (T1), and infant attachment (T2). The results confirmed that maternal sensitivity mediates the relation between mind-mindedness and infant attachment. The findings are discussed in light of the assessments used in this and previous studies.

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