Maternal mind-mindedness and its association with attachment: the case of Arab infants and mothers in Israel

ABSTRACT

We examined the association between maternal Mind-Mindedness (MM) and secure attachment in an Arab sample in Israel. Seventy-six infant–mother dyads were observed during free play to assess maternal MM and in the Strange Situation Procedure to assess attachment. Mothers of secure infants were hypothesized to use more appropriate and fewer non-attuned mind-related comments than mothers of insecure infants. The results showed that mothers of secure infants used more appropriate mind-related comments than mothers of disorganized infants, with no significant differences compared to mothers of ambivalent infants. Also, mothers of secure infants used less non-attuned mind-related comments than both mothers of disorganized infants and mothers of ambivalent infants. In addition, the findings showed that: (1) mothers of secure infants were most likely to show the combination of high appropriate and low non-attuned mind-related comments; (2) mothers of disorganized infants were most likely to show the combination of high non-attuned and low appropriate mind-related comments; and (3) a nonsignificant trend indicated that mothers of ambivalent infants were most likely to show a combination of high appropriate and high non-attuned mind-related comments.The findings support the relevance of MM in an Arab sample.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• mind-mindedness
• culture
• sensitivity
• parenting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Harry and Sadie Lasky Foundation Fellowship.