Projects

TRAM - Transmission of attachment across three generations - A prospective study of a normative smaple

Airi Hautamäki, Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki.
Laura Hautamäki, Department of Special Education, University of Helsinki.
Leena Neuvonen, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki.
Sinikka Maliniemi-Piispanen, private practitioner, Helsinki.

Abstract: A low-risk Finnish sample (N total=135) of parents expecting their first child and maternal grandmothers was followed from pregnancy until the child was 3 years old. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was used to assess attachment in mothers during the last trimester of pregnancy, and maternal grandmothers. The Strange Situation Procedure (SSP)
was used to assess attachment in infants at 12 months, and the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA) at 3 years. Mothers’ AAI classifications (3-category) during pregnancy predicted infants’ SSP classifications (3-category) in 76% of cases, and the 3-year-old children’s PAA classifications (3-category) in 58% of cases. Grandmothers’ AAI
classifications predicted infants’ SSP classifications in 48% of cases, but the 3-year-old children’s PAA classifications in 72% of cases. Using log-linear analysis, it was shown that a simple model accounted for transmission of attachment across three
generations when the children were 3 years. Even though the results indicated continuity across generations, the correspondences were slightly weaker than those obtained by
Benoit and Parker (1994) in their 3-generational study. The results can be discussed in terms of the prototype view (Fraley, 2002), the rapid contextual changes seen across 3 generations in Finland, the size of the sample, and the comparability of the DMM (Crittenden, 2006) to other assessment methods of attachment.

Keywords: transmission; attachment; three generations; Strange Situation Procedure;
Preschool Assessment of Attachment; Adult Attachment Interview

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