LE3 .A278 2009

2009

Symons, Doug

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Psychology

Psychology

The present study examined the extent to which adults with a secure attachment style make more references to mental states and hold elaborative health-related conversations with their child during a joint reading task. A children‟s book about hospitalization was used to elicit discussion. Participants were 20 mothers, two fathers, and their 22 eight- to twelve-year-old children. All utterances by either member of the dyad during the reading activity which were not found in the text of the book were transcribed and coded for mental state language during the book and for parental health-related elaborative discourse about personally-relevant events after the book had ended. Adult romantic attachment was measured using the self-report ECR-R and the narrative word measure. Results revealed no significant correlation between attachment measures and the use of mental state language by either partner. However, parents high in anxiety in romantic relationships used less elaborative discourse. This pattern was not due to overall verbosity, child age, or socio-economic status. Discussion focuses on the relationship between attachment style and the opportunity to discuss potentially painful events with children.

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