Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 13, 2025

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
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Published on: September 19, 2019

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Transition to motherhood: stability and change in attachment representations from pregnancy to 5 years

Miriam Steele1, Alejandra Perez2, Francesca Segal2

  • 1Psychology Department, New School for Social Research, New York, USA.

Attachment & Human Development
|April 14, 2025
PubMed

This paper reports on Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs) obtained from a low-risk sample of 51 pregnant women expecting their first child who were interviewed again when the child was five years of age. This is the first report of test-retest results that extends over five years that includes the transition to motherhood. Results suggest significant levels of continuity at the level of AAI classifications with three-way stability being 90% and two-way stability being 88%. When change was observed, it was more likely to be a move toward rather than away from security. At the level of dimensional scores, significant changes indicated a softening stance with higher coherence ratings, lower idealization scores, and less insistence on an inability to recall. This move toward a significantly more balanced state of mind regarding attachment was most evident among those mothers who maintained or became autonomous-secure.

Keywords:
Adult attachment interview AAIMary Mainmotherhoodstability and change in the AAI over the transition to motherhoodtransition to motherhood

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