Análise do fenómeno de base segura em contexto familiar: as relações criança/mãe e criança/pai¹

Lígia Monteiro²

Manuela Veríssimo³

Brian E. Vaughn⁴

António J. Santos⁵

Marília Fernandes⁶

 

 

Resumo:

O estudo analisa, no contexto da teoria de Bowlby e Ainsworth, o modo como a criança utiliza as figuras parentais como base segura, explorando a especificidade da organização destes comportamentos nas duas relações. Analisa, ainda, a existência de semelhanças ou diferenças nas classificações da criança em relação à mãe e ao pai. Os participantes são 56 díades mãe/criança e pai/criança, tendo as crianças idades compreendidas entre os 29 e os 38 meses. Observadores independentes realizaram visitas domiciliárias com a criança/mãe e com a criança/pai, utilizando o AQS (Waters, 1995). Não foram encontradas diferenças significativas entre os valores de segurança para a mãe e para o pai. Com base nas escalas do AQS, obtiveram-se diferenças significativas na Proximidade e no Contacto Físico. Assim, a criança utiliza ambos os pais como base segura, embora os estilos de interacção possam apresentar características específicas. Verificou-se, ainda, a existência de uma correlação significativa entre os valores de segurança da criança em relação à mãe e ao pai, o que vai ao encontro dos resultados obtidos por Veríssimo et al. (2006). Esta correlação poderá ser explicada pela semelhança nos cuidados parentais.

Palavras-chave: fenómeno de base segura, figuras parentais, semelhanças vs. diferenças nas relações.

 

 

The study of the secure base phenomenon in the family context: child/mother and child/father relationships

Abstract:

This paper high lights the importance of a family system approach to the study of attachment, in a naturalistic environment, by analysing the way the child uses both mother and father as a secure base, as well as, the concurrence or independence of this attachment relationships. 56 mother/child and father/child díades participated in the study. Children’s ages range between 29 and 38 months. Independent observers, made home observations of the child with the mother and the child with the father, using the AQS (Waters, 1995). No differences were found between mean averages for security scores for mothers and fathers, showing that the child is able to use both parents as secure-bases. Significant differences were found in the Proximity and Physical Contact scales between both parents, suggesting that mothers and fathers probably have different communicative styles. A significant correlation was found between security scores for mother and father, a result comparable to the one obtained by Veríssimo et al. (2006). This could be explained by the similarity on parental caregiving behaviour.

Keywords: secure base phenomenon, parental figures, similarities vs. difference.

 

 

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text only available in PDF format.

 

 

Referências

Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1967). In Infancy in Uganda – chapter 20. Retrieved (2002) from http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/ainsworth/ains-worth_index.         [ Links ]

Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American psychologist, 44, 709-716.

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum.

Belsky, J., Gilstrap, B., & Rovine, M. (1984). The Pennsylvania infant and family development project I: Stability and change in mother-infant and father-infant interactions in a family setting at one, three and nine months. Child Development, 55, 692-705.

Belsky, J., Rovine, M., & Taylor, D. (1984). The Pennsylvania infant and family development project: Origins of individual differences in infant-mother attachments: Maternal and infant contributions. Child Development, 55, 718-728.

Berlin, L. J., & Cassidy, J. (1999). Relations among relationships. Contributions from attachment, theory and research. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 688-711). New York: Guilford.

Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and Loss: Vol. 2. Separation, anxiety, and anger. New York: Basic.

Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment (2d Rev. Ed.) New York: Basic Books (Original work published, 1969).

Bowlby, J. (1989). The role of attachment in personality development and psychopathology. In S. Greenspan & G. Pollack (Eds.), The course of life. Vol. 1: Infancy (pp. 229-270). Madison Connecticut: International University Press.

Bowlby, J. (2002). Cuidados Maternos e Saúde Mental. São Paulo: Martins Fontes (4.ª Ed.)

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of the attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28 (5), 759-775.

Bridges, L., Connell, J. P., & Belsky, J. (1988). Similarities and differences in infant-mother and infant-father interactions in the strange situation: A component process analysis. Developmental Psychology, 24 (1), 92-100.

Cabrera, N. J., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bradley, R. H., Hofferth, S., & Lamb, M. (2001). Fatherhood in the twenty-first century. Child Development, 71 (1), 127-136.

Caldera, Y. M. (2004). Paternal involvement and infant-father attachment: A Q-set study. Fathering, 2 (2), 191-210.

Cassidy, J. (1999). The nature of child’s ties. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shawer (Eds.), Handbook of attachment theory. Research and clinical applications (pp. 3-20). New York: The Guilford Press.

Cox, M., Owen, M., Henderson, V., & Margand, N. (1992). Prediction of infant-father and infant-mother attachment. Developmental Psychology, 28 (3), 474-483.

Cowan, P. A. (1997). Beyond meta-analysis: A plea for a family systems views of attachment. Child Development, 68, 601-603.

Easterbrooks, M. A., & Goldberg, W. A. (1984). Toddler development in the family: Impact of father involvement and parenting characteristics. Child Development, 55, 740-752.

Fox, N., Kimmerly, N., & Schafer, W. (1991). Attachment to mother/attachment to father: A meta-analysis. Child development, 62, 210-225.

Frosch, C., Mangelsdorf, S. C. & McHale, J. L. (2000). Marital behaviour and the security. Journal of Family Psychology, 14 (1), 144-161.

Goossens, F. A., & Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., (1990). Quality of infants’ attachments to professional caregivers. Relation to infant-parent attachment and day-care characteristics. Child Development, 61, 832-837.

Grossmann, K., Grossmann, K., Fremmer-Bombik, E., Kindler, H., Scheuerer-Englisch, H., & Zimmermann, P. (2002). The uniqueness of the child-father attachment relationship: Father’s sensitive and challenging play as a pivotal variable in a 16-year longitudinal study. Social development, 11 (3), 307-331.

Lamb, M. (1977). Father-infant and mother-infant interactions in the first year of life. Child Development, 48, 167-181.

Lamb, M. (1987). Introduction: The emergent American father. In M. Lamb (Ed.), The father’s role: Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 3-26). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lamb, M., Frodi, M., Hwang, C., & Frodi, A. (1983). Effects of paternal involvement for mothers and fathers. Child Development, 54, 450-458.

Lewis, C., & Lamb, M. (2003). Fathers’ influences on children’s development: The evidence from two-parents families. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 18 (2), 211-228.

Main, M., & Weston, D. R. (1981). The quality of the toddler’s relationship to mother and to father: Related to conflict behaviour and the readiness to establish new relationships. Child Development, 52, 932-940.

Marvin, R. S., & Britner, P. A. (1999). Normative development: The ontogeny of attachment. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment theory: Research and clinical applications (pp. 44-67). New York: The Guilford Press.

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (1997). The effects of infant child care on infant-mother attachment security: Results of the N.I.C.H.D. Study of Early Child Care. Child Development, 68 (5), 860-879.

Posada, G., Goa, Yuan, Wu, Fang, Posada, R., Tascon, M., Schoelmerich, A., Sagi, A., Kondo-Ikemura, K., Haaland, W., & Synnevaag, B. (1995). The secure-base phenomenon across cultures: Children’s behaviour, mother’s preferences and experts concepts. In Waters, Vaughn, Posada & Kondon-Ikemura (Eds.), Monographs of the Society for Research in the Child Development, 60 (2-3), 27-47.

Posada, G., Jacobs, A., Carbonell, G., Alzate, G., Bustamante, M., & Arenas, A. (1999). Maternal care and attachment security in ordinary and emergency contexts. Developmental Psychology, 35 (6), 1379-1388.

Posada, G., Waters, E., Crowell, J. A., & Lay, K. (1995). Is it easier to use a secure mother as a secure base? Attachment Q-Sort correlates of adult attachment interview. In Waters, Vaughn, Posada & Kondon-Ikemura (Eds.), Monographs of the Society for Research in the Child Development, 60 (2-3), 133-145.

Rosen, K. S., & Burke, P. B. (1999). Multiple attachment relationships within families: Mothers and fathers with two young children. Developmental Psychology, 35 (2), 436-444.

Rosen, K. S., & Rothbaum, F. (1993). Quality of parental caregiving and security of attachment. Developmental Psychology, 29 (2), 358-367.

Sagi, A., Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Aviezer, O., Donnell F., Koren-Karie, N. Joels, T., & Harel, Y. (1995). Attachments in a multiple-caregiver and multiple-infant environment: The case of the Israeli Kibbutzim. In Waters, Vaughn, Posada & Kondon-Ikemura (Eds.), Monographs of the Society for Research in the Child Development, 60 (2-3), 71-91.

Sroufe, A. (1985). Attachment classification from the perspective of infant-caregiver relationships and infant temperament. Child Development, 56, 1-14.

Sroufe, A., Fox, N. E., & Pancake, V. R. (1983). Attachment as an organizational construct. Child Development, 48, 1184-1199.

Sroufe, A., & Waters, E. (1977). Attachment and dependency in developmental perspective. Child Development, 54, 1615-1627.

Steele, H., Steele, M., & Fonagy, P. (1996). Associations among attachments classifications of mothers, fathers and their infants. Child Development, 67, 541-555.

Thompson, R. A. (1998). Early sociopersonality development. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbooks of Child Psychology – Social, Emotional and Personality Development: New york: Ed. John Wiley & Sons.

Van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (1996). Attachment representations in mothers, fathers, adolescents, and clinical groups: A meta-analytic search for normative data. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 8-27.

Van IJzendoorn, M. H., & De Wolf, M. (1997). In search of the absent father-meta-analyses of infant-father attachment: a rejoinder to our discussants. Child Development, 68, 604-609.

Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Vereijken, C. M., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Riksen-Walraven, J. M. (2004). Assessing attachment security with the attachment Q-sort: Meta-analytic evidence for the validity of the observer AQS. Child Development, 75, 1188-1213.

Veríssimo, M., Blicharsky, T., Strayer, F., & Santos, A. (1995). Vinculação e estilos de comunicação da criança. Análise Psicológica, 1-2 (XIII), 145-155.

Veríssimo, M., Monteiro, L., & Santos, A. J. (2006). Para além da mãe: vinculação na tríade mãe-pai-criança. In J.C. Coelho Rosa & S. Sousa (Eds.), Caderno do bebé (pp. 73-85). Fim de Século.

Veríssimo, M., Monteiro, L, Vaughn, B., Santos, A. J., & Watters, H. (2005). Coordenação entre o modelo interno dinâmico da mãe e o comportamento de base-segura dos seus filhos. Análise Psicológica, XXIII (2), 7-17.

Waters, E. (1995). Appendix A: Attachment Q-set (version 3.0). In Waters, Vaughn, Posada & kondon-Ikemura (Eds.), Monographs Child development, 60 (2-3), 234-246.

Waters, E. (2002). Live long and prosper. Retrieved (2006) from http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/gallery/live_long_/live_long.html.

Waters, E., & Cummings, E. M. (2000). A secure base from which to explore close relationships. Child Development, 71, 164-172.

Waters, E., & Deane, K. (1985). Defining and assessing individual differences in attachment relationships: Q-methodology and the organization of behavior in infancy and early childhood. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Monographs of the Society for Research in the Child Development, 50 (1-2), 41-65.

Waters, E., Noyes, D., Vaughn, B., & Ricks, M. (1985). Q-sort definitions of social competence and self-esteem: Discriminant validity of related constructs in theory and data. Developmental Psychology, 21, 508-522.

 

 

¹ Contacto: Lígia Monteiro, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Rua Jardim do Tabaco, 34, 1100 Lisboa. Lígia_monteiro@ispa.pt.

² Doutoranda Universidade Nova/ISPA, Bolseira F.C.T. (SFRH/BD/10277/2002), UIPCDE.

³ Professora Associada, ISPA, UIPCDE.

⁴ Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University.

⁵ Professor Associado, ISPA, UIPCDE.

⁶ Discentes da área de Psicologia Educacional, ISPA.

Agradecimentos: os autores gostariam de agradecer a todas as mães, pais e crianças que aceitaram participar neste estudo, financiado pela FCT (POCTI, Plurianual, UIPCDE). Os autores gostariam, ainda, de agradecer a colaboração de André Silva, Iolanda Queiroz, Ana Zilda Silva, Carla Oliveira, Inês Peceguina, Vera Oliveira e Sofia Meneres, na recolha dos dados. Os autores gostariam, também, de agradecer os comentários valiosos da professora Kelly Bost e da professora Zilda Fidalgo.