The main objective of this thesis was to identify facilitators of strong maternal affective attachment bonds to children. First, a systematized review of the literature was conducted to gather and synthesize all the research over the last 25 years that has identified correlates and predictors of maternal affective attachment. The review found 26 articles relevant to the research question, and main findings from the existing literature were summarized. The main study of the thesis was built upon the findings of the review using data collected through an online survey of Canadian mothers. First, a latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to cluster mothers into maternal profiles based on their patterns of responses to measures of previously identified correlates and predictors of the maternal affective attachment; symptom distress related to symptoms of depression and anxiety, the dimensions of avoidance and anxiety in mothers’ adult romantic attachment, and mothers’ sense of parental efficacy and satisfaction in the maternal role. Then, a MANOVA was conducted to determine whether profile membership would account for a significant portion of the variance in the maternal affective attachment bond to children. Results indicated that maternal profiles characterized by lower symptom distress, lower romantic attachment avoidance and anxiety, and higher efficacy and satisfaction in the parental role reported higher affective attachment, and perceived more closeness and less conflict in their relationships with their children. The results of this thesis help to inform the scholarship of motherhood by identifying salient maternal experiences associated with positive family outcomes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/37241 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Gosselin, Natasha Eve |
| Contributors | Gosselin, Julie |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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