2012 Volume 23 Issue 1 Pages 36-43
Mothers access various kinds of information sources when they decide what to do with their infants. In this study, we investigated whether their access of information sources differs according to their internal working models of attachment. Participants were 29 mothers of 9-month old infants. We presented 10 video clips of 3- and 9- month olds with various emotions, and interviewed them about the reasons for what they did toward the infants in each video clip. Their answers were categorized and subjected to regression analysis with internal working models of attachment ("anxiety" and "avoidance"). The results showed that (1) for 3-month old infants, participants who were high in "anxiety" and low in "avoidance" referred more to infants' behavior, (2) for 9-months old infants, participants who were high in "anxiety" referred more to infants' emotions, while those who were high in "avoidance" referred more to their own subjectivity. These results indicated that mothers who are high in "anxiety" tend to access information sources of infants while those who are high in "avoidance" tend not to pay attention to information sources of infants.
