Mothers' mental representations of their relationships with their toddlers: A link to working models of their parents

• Main Author: Markham, Laura Jean
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1998
• Subjects: Clinical psychology; Developmental psychology; Families & family life; Individual & family studies; Personal relationships; Psychotherapy; Sociology
• ISBN: 059192756X; 9780591927566

The purpose of this study was to examine the connection between mothers' mental representations of their childhood relationships with their own parents and their mental representations of their relationships with their toddlers. The primary questions asked in this study were: (1) Is a mother's description of the acceptance and encouragement of independence she received from her mother in childhood predictive of her mental representation of her relationship with her own toddler? and (2) Does the support she felt from her father in childhood play a role in her mental representations while parenting her own children? An additional research question compared the factor structure of this sample's responses on the Parent Development Interview (PDI), a structured interview evaluating parents' mental representations of their relationships with their toddlers, to that of a previously published sample, in an effort to contribute to reliability for use with the mothers of girls as well as boys. To answer these questions, 185 mothers were given the PDI and asked a series of questions evaluating how much they felt their parents had accepted them and supported their independence in childhood. Results revealed that women who remembered more encouragement of independence than acceptance from their mothers during childhood derived less joy from their relationships with their children, were less able to perceive their children as unique individuals, exhibited less coherence during the interview process, and described their children as less happy. In addition, women who experienced their mothers as emphasizing independence to a greater degree than acceptance experienced more anger at their children, unless they also described their father as supportive. Results showed that supportive fathers played a protective, moderating role. Mothers of boys and of older toddlers expressed more anger in their representations of their children. Finally, the factor structure of this sample of mothers of both boys and girls closely replicated that of a previously reported study involving only mothers of boys.