Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Child Development Research

Volume 2013, Article ID 680428, 9 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/680428

Research Article
Maternal Attachment Status, Mother-Child Emotion Talk,
Emotion Understanding, and Child Conduct Problems

Brad M. Farrant,1,2 Murray T. Maybery,1 and Janet Fletcher1

1
School of Psychology, The University of Western Australia, M304, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
2
Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, The University of Western Australia,
P.O. Box 855, West Perth, WA 6872, Australia

Correspondence should be addressed to Brad M. Farrant; bfarrant@ichr.uwa.edu.au

Received 19 March 2013; Revised 15 July 2013; Accepted 19 July 2013

Academic Editor: Nobuo Masataka

Copyright © 2013 Brad M. Farrant et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Conduct problems that emerge in childhood often persist into adolescence and are associated with a range of negative outcomes. It
is therefore important to identify the factors that predict conduct problems in early childhood. The present study investigated the
relations among maternal attachment status, mother-child emotion talk, child emotion understanding, and conduct problems in a
sample of 92 (46 males) typically developing children (M age = 61.3 months, SD = 8.3 months). The results support a model in which
maternal attachment status predicts the level of appropriate/responsive mother-child emotion talk, which predicts child emotion
understanding, which in turn negatively predicts child conduct problems. These findings further underline the developmental role
of mother-child emotion talk as well as the importance of involving parents in programs designed to increase children’s emotion
understanding and/or decrease the incidence of conduct problems.

1. Introduction interaction/socialisation which facilitate children’s sociocog-

nitive and behavioral development [18, 19].
Conduct problems involve atypical levels of oppositional Crittenden [20] argued that attachment patterns are self-
behavior, aggression, stealing, and physical destructiveness protective strategies that are initially learned in interactions
[1]. These problems can begin in childhood [2] or adolescence with attachment figures in early childhood and continue
[3] and may continue through the lifecycle [4]. Children who to develop across the lifespan. Securely attached adults are
display conduct problems in the preschool years are at high comfortable depending on others, find it relatively easy to get
risk of having problems that persist into adolescence (see [5] close to other people, and are not worried or anxious about
for a brief review). Indeed, this pattern, described as early being abandoned [21]. They find it easier to identify and
starter [6], early onset [7], or life-course-persistent [8], is appropriately respond to the emotional signals and needs of
associated with the most negative prognosis including diag- others. Children with more insightful or emotionally attuned
noses of conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, anti- mothers are more likely to develop a secure attachment
social personality disorder, juvenile delinquency, school pattern [22].
dropout, drug abuse, and criminality [1, 4, 9–11]. Drawing on social-constructivist perspectives and attach-
There is fairly broad theoretical agreement that conduct ment theory, it has been hypothesized that (a) adult attach-
problems develop and are maintained through dynamic ment status influences the extent to which parents talk to
interactions among child, parental, peer, and environmental their child about the child’s emotions [20, 23] with secure
factors [1, 3, 12–14]. These factors include attachment pat- attachment associated with more appropriate/responsive talk
terns [15], emotion socialization [16], parenting [14], emo- about emotions [24, 25], (b) that parent-child emotion talk
tion understanding, and regulation skills [17] among others. is an important aspect of socialization that facilitates chil-
These findings fit well with social-constructivist perspectives dren’s emotion understanding [19], and (c) that emotion
in which individual characteristics influence the parent-child understanding reduces the incidence of conduct problems
2 Child Development Research

by enabling more advanced emotion and behavior regulation (depend, close, and anxiety), each containing six items. The
skills and a better understanding of what motivates the behav- depend subscale assesses the degree to which individuals are
ior of self and others [26]. comfortable depending on others. The close subscale mea-
We are unaware of any research that has directly exam- sures how comfortable the individual is being emotionally
ined hypothesis (a). However, there are findings indicating close to others, and the anxiety subscale assesses the degree
that mothers of securely attached preschool children are more to which the individual is worried or anxious about being
likely to validate their child’s negative emotions and that abandoned. Participants rate how well each item describes
securely attached children are more likely to discuss negative them on a scale ranging from (1) not at all characteristic to (5)
emotions with their mothers [27]. Similarly, Farrar et al. [24] very characteristic, with a maximum possible score of 30 for
found that mothers of securely attached preschool girls were each subscale. Previous research has found that the depend,
less likely to ignore their child’s negative emotion talk and close, and anxiety subscales have good construct validity and
more likely to elaborate on it. Consistent with hypothesis acceptable internal and test-retest reliability [38]. With the
(b), the findings of a number of studies provide support for present sample of mothers, the depend (𝛼 = .82) and close
a developmental relationship between parent-child emotion (𝛼 = .77) subscales had acceptable reliability. The reliability
talk and children’s emotion understanding [28–33]. These of the anxiety subscale (𝛼 = .58) was lower than that found in
findings are also consistent with the argument that children’s previous research (𝛼 = .72; [38]). However, inspection of the
emotion understanding is facilitated by engaging in conver- data did not reveal any systematic reason for this.
sations in which they learn how to talk about emotions [30].
Consistent with hypothesis (c), there is evidence indicating 2.2.2. Mother-Child Emotion Talk. Mother-child emotion
that deficits in emotion understanding are associated with talk was measured using Dunsmore and Karn’s [31] emotion
increased aggression [26, 28], poor school adjustment [34], language scale. This scale contains six items that assess how
behavior problems [35], and conduct problems more broadly much time parents spend talking appropriately/responsively
[36]. to their children about their emotions (e.g., I spend a lot of
Thus, the existing literature provides some support for time talking to my children about why they feel the way they
developmental relations among attachment status, parent- do). Mothers rated how well each item described them on
child emotion talk, emotion understanding, and child con- a scale ranging from (1) not like me at all to (5) very much
duct problems. However, there is a dearth of research inves- like me, with a maximum possible score of 30. The emotion
tigating all these relations in the same study. The purpose of language scale has been found to have good construct validity
the present study was to use a social-constructivist approach [31]. The reliability of the scale (𝛼 = .62) with the present
to further our understanding of these relations in early sample of mothers was similar to that found in previous
childhood development. Drawing on previous work in this research (𝛼 = .68; [31]).
area, it was predicted that (1) mothers with secure attach-
ment status would be likely to engage in more appropriate/ 2.2.3. Child Emotion Understanding. Children’s emotion
responsive mother-child emotion talk, (2) higher levels of understanding was measured with a combination of emotion
mother-child emotion talk would be associated with better matching, receptive emotion identification, expressive emo-
child emotion understanding, and (3) children with better tion identification, and emotional perspective taking tasks.
emotion understanding would have fewer conduct problems. These kinds of tasks are widely used and accepted in the
The hypothesized model is displayed in Figure 1. As both literature as valid measures of emotion understanding [26, 27,
child age and gender have been found to be related to parent- 39–41]. There were two sets of tasks. The emotion matching,
child emotion talk [37], they were also included in the model. receptive emotion identification, and expressive emotion
identification tasks measured the child’s ability to identify
2. Method the facial emotion expressions of scared, happy, sad, angry,
surprised, and disgusted. Two versions of each task were
2.1. Participants. The data reported here represent part of a created, each containing pictures of the same person showing
larger research project. All of the Australian children who each of the six emotions. One version of each task included
participated in the present study spoke English as their first pictures of a male and the other a female. The first task set
language. The participants were an unselected sample of contained the male version of the emotion matching task, the
children receiving regular education who were recruited via female version of the receptive emotion identification task,
three primary schools spread across working class to upper and the male version of the expressive emotion identification
middle class areas. Complete sets of the relevant data were task. Gender was the opposite for each task in the second task
available for 92 (46 males) children (81 Caucasians, 11 Asians) set. All pictures were taken from Ekman and Friesen [42].
aged between 46 and 76 months (M = 61.3 months, SD = 8.3 In the emotion matching task, the child was presented
months). with a picture of a single face displaying the target emotion
along with an array of the six pictures all of a different man or
2.2. Measures woman (one displaying the target emotion and five displaying
the other emotions as distracters) in a random order. The
2.2.1. Maternal Attachment. Collins and Read’s [38] adult child is then asked: “Can you point to the face that feels
attachment scale was used to measure maternal attachment the same way as the man/woman?” The process was then
status. The adult attachment scale comprised three subscales repeated for each of the remaining emotions. In the receptive
Child Development Research 3

Child
emotion
understanding

Maternal Mother-child Child

attachment emotion conduct
security talk problems

Child Child
gender age

Figure 1: The hypothesized model including the control variables child age and child gender.

emotion identification task, the child was presented with an children attending the three mainstream schools. Question-
array of the six pictures and asked: “Can you point to the naires were mailed to the primary caregivers (all mothers)
face?” The process was repeated for each of the six emotions who chose to participate, and completed questionnaires were
(scared, happy, sad, angry, surprised, and disgusted). The mailed directly back to the researcher. The SDQ was com-
position of each picture in the array was counterbalanced pleted by mothers and the children’s kindergarten/primary
across trials. In the expressive emotion identification task, the school teachers. Children were individually tested in a quiet
child was presented with a single face and asked: “How does room at the child’s school. The emotion understanding tasks
the man/woman feel—happy, sad, angry, scared, disgusted, were completed in a single session which lasted approxi-
or surprised?” The process was repeated for each of the six mately 15 minutes. Approximately half of the children were
emotions. randomly assigned to complete one version of the emotion
Harwood and Farrar’s [39] emotional perspective taking understanding task set and the other half completed the other
tasks were also used (see the appendix for detailed pro- version.
cedure). The child’s ability to receptively and expressively
identify two emotions (happy and sad) is initially assessed via 2.4. Data Analytic Strategy. The hypothesized model was
an emotion labeling task. Then, after identifying his/her best tested according to the conventional method for testing
friend, the child is told short stories involving him/herself and such a model within a structural equation model (SEM)
the identified friend in situations that would lead to the child framework [47, 48]. SEM was selected over traditional partial
and the friend experiencing different emotions (one happy, correlation or multiple regression analyses because SEM
the other sad), and the child is asked to identify how s/he allows multiple pathways to be tested in the same analysis and
would feel and how the friend would feel. it also provides goodness-of-fit statistics. Because of the rel-
atively small sample size, a two-index strategy [49] involving
2.2.4. Child Conduct Problems. The conduct problems scale the Incremental Fit Index (IFI; an incremental close-fit index)
of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ; [43]) was and the Standardized Root Mean-Square Residual (SRMR;
completed by mothers and teachers. The conduct problems an absolute close-fit index) was used to evaluate model
scale contains five items that assess the degree to which chil- fit [48]. In conjunction with 95% of normalized residuals
dren display oppositional behavior, aggression, stealing, and being less than |2.0|, IFI values of ≥.95 and SRMR values of
antisocial behavior. Informants rate how well each item ≤.08 were considered indicative of a well-fitting model [48].
describes the child on a scale ranging from (0) not true, Maximum likelihood estimation was used as the basis for all
through (1) somewhat true, to (2) certainly true, with a SEM analyses. Child age and gender were included in the
maximum possible score of 10 for the scale. The SDQ is widely model as control variables, with possible paths indicated in
used [44], and the conduct problems scale has been found to Figure 1.
have acceptable internal reliability, interrater agreement, and
test-retest reliability [45]. For the present sample of teachers, 3. Results
the Cronbach’s alpha for the scale (0.73) was acceptable. The
reliability of the scale for the present sample of mothers Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. Child gender
(𝛼 = .41) was lower than that found in previous international was coded as zero for male and one for female. In order to pro-
(𝛼 = .63) [45] and Australian (𝛼 = .67) [46] research but duce an index of maternal attachment security, median splits
inspection of the data did not reveal any systematic reason were used to create high and low groups on each of the adult
for this. attachment subscales (depend, close, and anxiety). Consistent
with the secure attachment construct [21], mothers with high
2.3. Procedure. Consent forms and information sheets were scores on the depend and close subscales and a low score
sent to parents/guardians of all kindergarten and preprimary on the anxiety subscale were given a score of three (secure
4 Child Development Research

Table 1: Mean and standard deviations of scores. child gender and conduct problems were not significant;
all other unstandardized point estimates were significant
Variable M SD
(𝑃 < .05). Examination of the standardized residual covari-
Maternal attachment security (max. score 3) 1.97 0.75 ances revealed one value over the |2.0| mark between mater-
Mother-child emotion talk (max. score 30) 22.08 3.23 nal attachment security and child conduct problems. This
Child emotion understanding (max. score 22) 13.95 3.23 suggested that maternal attachment security had both direct
Mother-rated child conduct problems (max. score 10) 1.59 1.36 and indirect effects on child conduct problems. To investigate
this possibility, a regression path was added between maternal
Teacher-rated child conduct problems (max. score 10) 0.70 1.34
attachment security and child conduct problems.
𝑁 = 92.
The revised model converged after five iterations with
𝜒2 (5, 𝑁 = 92) = 5.083, 𝑃 = .406, IFI = .999, and SRMR = .041.
The unstandardized point estimates of the regression paths
attachment pattern), those with low scores on the depend and between child age and both mother-child emotion talk and
close subscales and a high score on the anxiety subscale were conduct problems and between gender and conduct problems
given a score of one (least secure attachment pattern), and were not significant; all other unstandardized point estimates
those with the remaining patterns of scores on the subscales were significant (𝑃 < .05). All of the factor loadings were in
were given a score of two (moderately secure attachment the expected direction. No standardized residual covariances
pattern). The same pattern of results was found when an were over the |2.0| mark. Standardized parameter estimates
average of the three subscales (anxiety reverse scored) was for the revised model are depicted in Figure 2. Therefore,
used. because all indices were in the acceptable range, the revised
Children’s responses to each emotion understanding model was considered to have acceptable model fit. As pre-
question were scored as 1 (passed) or 0 (failed) giving a max- dicted, this model had significant regression paths between
imum possible score of 22. Emotion understanding scores maternal attachment security and mother-child emotion
were not significantly different between the two task sets talk, between mother-child emotion talk and child emotion
(𝑡(90) = 0.36, 𝑃 = .72). Therefore, the results were collapsed understanding, and between child emotion understanding
across the two sets. Mothers’ and teachers’ ratings of children’s and child conduct problems (see Figure 2).
conduct problems were significantly correlated. A measure
of children’s conduct problems across different contexts was 4. Discussion
created by averaging the 𝑧 scores for mothers’ and teachers’ The present study sought to further investigate the relations
ratings (similar overall patterns of results were obtained when among maternal attachment status, mother-child emotion
just the mothers’ or teachers’ ratings of children’s conduct talk, emotion understanding, and conduct problems in early
problems were used). Multi-informant approaches such as childhood. It was predicted that (1) mothers with secure
this are preferable as they avoid single-source bias [50] and attachment status would be more likely to engage in appro-
because different informants provide important information priate/responsive mother-child emotion talk, (2) higher levels
about children’s behavior as it varies across different settings of mother-child emotion talk would be associated with better
[51, 52]. child emotion understanding, and (3) children with better
Inspection of the correlations between the measures emotion understanding would have fewer conduct problems.
revealed that the main study variables were associated The findings relevant to these hypotheses are discussed in the
with each other in the expected directions and that the following sections.
degree of multicollinearity between the predictor variables
was acceptable (see Table 2). Prior to analysis, the data for
4.1. Maternal Attachment Security and Mother-Child Emo-
the study variables were checked for multivariate outliers
tion Talk. Maternal attachment security was associated with
using Mahalanobis distance with 𝑃 < .001 (critical value =
more mother-child emotion talk. This is consistent with the
22.46) but none was found. As hypothesized, significant posi-
hypothesis that parents with secure attachment status are
tive correlations were observed between maternal attachment
more comfortable with and therefore more likely to engage
security and mother-child emotion talk and between mother-
in appropriate/responsive parent-child emotion talk. The cur-
child emotion talk and child emotion understanding, and a
rent study is the first to directly test this hypothesis.
significant negative correlation was observed between child
Although the present results do not address the relation-
emotion understanding and child conduct problems (see
ship between maternal attachment status and child attach-
Table 2). Consistent with previous research, child gender was
ment status, they do complement the findings of previous
significantly correlated with mother-child emotion talk and
research which found that mothers of securely attached
child emotion understanding.
preschool girls were less likely to ignore their child’s negative
emotion talk and more likely to elaborate on it [24], that
3.1. Evaluating Model Fit. The hypothesized model converged mothers of securely attached preschool children were more
after five iterations with 𝜒2 (6, 𝑁 = 92) = 8.711, 𝑃 = .191, IFI = likely to validate their children’s negative emotions [27], and
.956, and SRMR = .069. The unstandardized point estimates that securely attached children were more likely to discuss
of the regression paths between child age and both mother- negative emotions with their mothers [27]. Thus, the available
child emotion talk and conduct problems and between evidence is consistent with the argument that the attachment
Child Development Research 5

Table 2: Correlations between variables.

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6
(1) Maternal attachment security —
(2) Mother-child emotion talk .39† —
(3) Child emotion understanding .22∗ .28∗ —
(4) Child conduct problems −.25∗ −.24∗ −.25∗ —
(5) Child Age in months .02 −.04 .37† −.02 —
(6) Child gender −.07 .23∗ .33† −.04 .04 —
∗
𝑃 < .05, † 𝑃 < .005, and 𝑁 = 92.

Child
Maternal emotion
attachment understanding
security
.40 −.20 .23
−.24

Mother-child Child
emotion conduct
talk .26 .36 problems

.26

Child Child
gender age

Figure 2: Standardized parameter estimates for the revised model. All reported estimates are the maximum likelihood standardized point-
estimates. Only significant paths are shown. The unstandardized point estimates of the regression paths between child age and both mother-
child emotion talk and conduct problems and between child gender and conduct problems were not significant; all other unstandardized
point estimates were significant (𝑃 < .05).

status of both parent and child influence parent-child com- interaction/conversation provide important information that
munication about emotions [23, 24]. Indeed, there is also evi- facilitates children’s emotion understanding.
dence from research using the Adult Attachment Interview Furthermore, as hypothesized, in the present study a
for the intergenerational transmission of secure attachment relationship was observed between emotion understanding
[53]. Children with more insightful or emotionally attuned and conduct problems such that children with better emotion
mothers are more likely to develop a secure attachment understanding had fewer conduct problems. This finding is
pattern [22], and parent-child emotion talk may be one of the consistent with the argument that that emotion understand-
ways in which parents influence the ongoing development of ing reduces the incidence of conduct problems by enabling
children’s attachment status [24, 25]. more advanced emotion and behavior regulation skills and a
better understanding of what motivates the behavior of self
4.2. Mother-Child Emotion Talk, Emotion Understanding, and and others [26]. Such a relationship between emotion under-
Conduct Problems. As hypothesized, higher levels of mother- standing and conduct problems is also supported by previous
child emotion talk were associated with better child emotion research which found that deficits in emotion understanding
understanding. This finding is consistent with the results of are associated with increased aggression [26, 28], poor school
previous research which found a developmental relationship adjustment [34], behavior problems [35], and conduct prob-
between parent-child emotion talk and children’s emotion lems more broadly [36].
understanding [28–33]. Thus, the available evidence suggests Therefore, the available evidence suggests that parents
that parent-child emotion talk is an important aspect of with secure attachment are more likely to engage in appropri-
socialization that facilitates children’s emotion understand- ate/responsive parent-child emotion talk, that higher levels
ing [19]. In other words, children’s emotion understanding of parent-child emotion talk are associated with better child
is facilitated by engaging in conversations in which they learn emotion understanding, and that children with better emo-
how to talk about emotions [30]. Nevertheless, it is impor- tion understanding have fewer conduct problems. However,
tant to recognize that the current findings are also consis- it is important to note that this research is correlational in
tent with the possibility that other aspects of parent-child nature and correlation is not causation. Thus, even though
6 Child Development Research

we would hope that parents have more control over their possible limitations. However, the significant positive cor-
emotions and behavior than their children do [2], some may relations observed between scores on these measures and
argue for causation in the opposite direction from child to children’s scores on the emotion understanding tasks provide
parent. On face value, it does seem plausible that child emo- some support for the validity of these maternal measures.
tion understanding may influence the amount of parent-child Nevertheless, future research using broader measures of child
emotion talk. However, this becomes less plausible in light of conduct problems and multi-informant and/or observational
the current finding that child age was significantly associated data should further investigate the relationships observed
with child emotion understanding but not with the amount in the current study. Future research should also investigate
of mother-child emotion talk. It also seems unlikely that the relationship between parent and child attachment status
mother-child emotion talk and children’s conduct problems using self-report measures of adult attachment and other
determine maternal attachment security especially as the measures such as the Adult Attachment Interview as well as
latter was a measure of general tendencies across different the relations among attachment status, emotion regulation
relationships in the present study. Nevertheless, the findings [60], social interaction patterns [61], and personality traits
of future training and/or intervention studies would help [62]. Our understanding of the relationships among mater-
further clarify the causal nature of the relationships among nal attachment status, parent-child emotion talk, emotion
maternal attachment status, parent-child emotion talk, emo- understanding, and conduct problems would also benefit
tion understanding, and conduct problems. from longitudinal research that measures these constructs at
regular intervals from a point early in childhood.
4.3. Child Gender. Female child gender was significantly pos-
itively associated with mother-child emotion talk and child 5. Conclusions
emotion understanding in the current study. This is consis-
tent with the findings of previous research and the meta- The findings of the current study converge with the results of
analysis by Leaper et al. [54] which found that mothers talk prior research in indicating that mothers with secure attach-
more in general to daughters than to sons. The current results ment are more likely to engage in appropriate/responsive
also suggest that there is a gender effect on child emotion parent-child emotion talk, that higher levels of mother-
understanding over and above the effect of gender on mother- child emotion talk are associated with better child emotion
child emotion talk. However, there was no significant effect of understanding, and that children with better emotion under-
child gender on conduct problems in the present study. Thus, standing have fewer conduct problems. The present results
it may be that there are gender differences in the relations also suggest that the relations among mother-child emotion
among parent-child emotion talk, emotion understanding, talk, emotion understanding, and conduct problems may be
and conduct problems. Unfortunately, sample size meant that augmented differently in boys and girls. Perhaps most impor-
it was not possible to conduct separate analyses for boys and tantly, the current findings add to the empirical evidence
girls in the current study. This represents a fruitful avenue for which suggests that interventions that increase the amount
future research. of parent-child emotion talk may provide an effective way to
promote children’s emotion understanding and prevent the
4.4. Implications, Strengths, and Limitations. Combining development of conduct problems.
the results of previous research with the findings of the
present study suggests the possibility of increasing children’s Appendix
emotion understanding and decreasing conduct problems
by encouraging parent-child emotion talk. Indeed, a number Detailed Procedure for Emotional Perspective
of interventions for behavioral problems, from a range of Taking Tasks
theoretical perspectives, involve a focus on parent-child
emotion talk [55, 56] sometimes in conjunction with a Initial Emotion Labeling Task. The child is shown a piece of
focus on teacher-child emotion talk [57]. There is also paper with pictures of two faces: one happy, one sad (gender
evidence supporting the efficacy of intervention programs matched to that of the child). The experimenter points to
that focus on younger children [58, 59]. Thus, a promising one of the faces and asks: “How does s/he feel?” Then the
avenue for future research would be to investigate whether experimenter points to other face and asks: “How does s/he
an intervention/training program aimed solely at increasing feel?” (If the child is incorrect, the correct answer is provided
parent-child emotion talk in early childhood (particularly and the task is repeated until the child agrees that the faces
the preschool years) would be protective in preventing the show the correct emotion.) Next, the child is shown another
development of conduct problems by promoting children’s piece of paper on which the location of the faces has been
emotion understanding or whether successful intervention switched; the experimenter asks the child: “Show me the
requires attention to other aspects of parent-child interaction happy face?” followed by “Show me the sad face?” (If the
as well. child is incorrect, the correct answer is provided and the task
The limitations of the present study include the low is repeated until the child points to the correct face for both
reliability of the anxiety subscale of the adult attachment emotions.)
scale. While the use of a multi-informant design is one of
the strengths of the current study, the use of maternal reports Emotional Perspective Taking Task. The child is asked: “Who
of maternal attachment and mother-child emotion talk are is your best friend?” (If the child does not respond, the child
Child Development Research 7

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The authors wish to thank all of the children, families, and Evidence-Based Psychotherapies for Children and Adolescents, J.
R. Weisz and A. E. Kazdin, Eds., pp. 194–210, Guilford Press,
teachers for their generous support and participation in this
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