Associations among maternal depressive symptomatology, state of mind and parent and child behaviors: implications for attachment-based interventions.

Associations among maternal depressive symptomatology, maternal state of mind with regard to attachment, and mother and child behaviors were examined in the treatment groups of an attachment-oriented intervention for primiparous women at high risk for parenting difficulties. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was completed by 48 intervention and 62 control subjects when their children were 19 months old and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Inventory (CES-D) and parent-child laboratory tasks were completed by the same subjects when their children were 24 months old. In the control group, preoccupied tendencies were repeatedly associated with poor outcome; in the intervention group coherence of mind was associated with positive outcome. Maternal depression tended to be associated with hostility in the intervention group. Results suggest that maternal state of mind may exert powerful effects on parenting behavior and that an attachment-oriented intervention may influence these associations, particularly among preoccupied subjects. Results also demonstrated potential benefits of using AAI scales in addition to the traditional categories.