Mother's Stress: Implications for Attachment Relationships

Abstract

This study included thirty‐three mothers of children who were attending a preschool program for high‐risk families. The children's age ranged from 36‐54 months. The Attachment Q‐Set and the Parenting Stress Index were used to measure the relationships between parental stress and the security of attachment relationships. Results showed a significant negative relationship between the Child Domain section of the PSI and Attachment Q‐Set scores. Within this sample the mean security scores were significantly higher for the group of mothers with the lowest stress scores.

Implications for the field include the importance of a comprehensive, multi‐agency‐coordinated, early intervention service delivery model which could operate on a variety of levels at once. Service providers need to be cognizant of the impact of the stress cycle on families and its developmental outcomes for young children. A paradigm shift may be necessary in order to move early intervention services from a crisis to a preventive‐based model.

Key words:

• Mother's stress
• attachment