David Oppenheim

Emotion regulation in mother-child narrative co-construction : Associations with children's narratives and adaptation

The associations were studied between early mother-child co-construction of a separation-reunion narrative and childrens concurrent and later (a) emotion narratives and (b) behavior problems. Fifty-one children and their mothers were observed during a co-construction task when the children were age 4 1/2. At ages 4 1/2 and 5 1/2, childrens narratives were elicited using the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (MSSB), and mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist. Results showed that children who were more emotionally coherent during the co-constructions had MSSB narratives that were more coherent, had more prosocial themes, and had fewer aggressive themes at ages 4 1/2 and 5 1/2. Moreover, such children had fewer behavior problems at both ages. The relations between narrative processes and emotion regulation are discussed.

Can Emotions and Themes in Children's Play Predict Behavior Problems?

OBJECTIVE To empirically test whether systematic examination of emotions and themes in childrens play can provide useful information about childhood problems. METHOD Using the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery and coding system, distress and destructive themes (aggression, personal injury, and atypical negative responses) were coded from the play of 51 children at ages 3, 4, and 5 years, in a low-risk, nonclinical volunteer sample. To measure behavior problems, both parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist at all ages, and teachers completed the Teachers Report Form when the children reached 5 years of age. RESULTS Both distress and destructive themes in the play of 4- and 5-year-olds were found to correlate with externalizing behavior problems as rated by parents and teachers. CONCLUSIONS Children who display more distress during play at 4 and 5 years of age and who demonstrate destructive themes at 4 and 5 years of age appear to have more externalizing behavior problems, as rated by their parents and teachers. These results provide empirical support for the use of play as an assessment tool in young children. The findings suggest approaches to and limitations of play interpretation.

Mothers’ empathic understanding of their preschoolers’ internal experience: Relations with early attachment

This study examined the links between mothers’ empathic understanding of their preschoolers’ internal experience and early infant-mother attachment. The empathic understanding of 118 mothers of 4.5-year-olds was assessed by showing them three videotaped segments of observations of their children and themselves and interviewing them regarding their children’s and their own thoughts and feelings. Interviews were rated and then classi” ed into one empathic and three nonempathic categories, and mothers’ misperceptions of the observations were coded as well. Infant-mother attachment classifications obtained using the Strange Situation when infants were 12 months old were also available. Results showed associations between mothers’ empathic understanding classifications and children’s attachment classifications as well as differences between mothers of secure and insecure children on one of the two interview composite scores. Also, mothers of insecurely attached children had more misperceptions than those of securely attached children. The contributions of this study to the work on mothers’ representations of their children are discussed.

Maternal Insightfulness and Resolution of the Diagnosis Are Associated with Secure Attachment in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

In the current study (a) maternal insightfulness into the experience of the child and (b) resolution with respect to the childs diagnosis and their associations with childrens security of attachment were examined in a sample of 45 preschoolers (mean age = 49 months) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It was hypothesized that mothers who were insightful and resolved would be more likely to have securely attached children than mothers who were neither insightful nor resolved. The findings supported this hypothesis. The implications of insightfulness and resolution for child attachment in the context of ASD are discussed.

The Attachment Doll-play Interview for Preschoolers

Children’s narratives about attachment themes were elicited using the Attachment Doll-play Interview (ADI) and compared with measures of attachment based on a separation-reunion observation and on the Waters and Deane (1985) Attachment Q-sort. Two correlates of attachment, self-esteem and attention-seeking strategies, were also measured. Children who were more secure based on the ADI, as reflected in emotional openness and descriptions of positive mother-child interactions, behaved more independently during separations and reunions, and were rated by teachers as having higher levels of self-esteem and age-appropriate attention-seeking strategies. No significant correlations were found between ADI responses and the Attachment Q-sort. The results of this study converge with previous research which has used narratives to assess attachment among young children, and highlight the importance of open communication as an aspect of security.

Child, parent, and parent–child emotion narratives: Implications for developmental psychopathology

Studies using narratives with children and parents offer ways to study affective meaning-making processes that are central in many theories of developmental psychopathology. This paper reviews theory regarding affective meaning making, and argues that narratives are particularly suited to examine such processes. The review of narrative studies and methods is organized into three sections according to the focus on child, parent, and parent-child narratives. Within each focus three levels of analysis are considered: (a) narrative organization and coherence, (b) narrative content, and (c) the behavior/interactions of the narrator(s). The implications of this research for developmental psychopathology and clinical work are discussed with an emphasis on parent-child jointly constructed narratives as the meeting point of individual child and parent narratives.

Open mother-pre-schooler communication: relations with early secure attachment.

The study examined the links between early infant-mother attachment assessed using Ainsworths Strange Situation at 1 year and mother-pre-schooler communication at 4.5 years in 113 mother-child dyads. Mother-child communication was assessed during a reunion that followed a one-hour separation and was classified into one of three Open communication or one of five Non-open communication patterns. Results showed that boys who were classified as Secure (B) in infancy tended to have open communication with their mothers, while children of both genders who were classified as Insecure/Disorganized (D) in infancy were likely to have non-open communication with their mothers. No associations were found between the Insecure/Ambivalent (C) attachment pattern and later communication. The contributions of this study to the understanding of the expression of the secure base phenomenon in open mother-child communication are discussed.

Social information processing in middle childhood: Relations to infant-mother attachment

This longitudinal study was designed to examine the links between infant-mother attachment and social information processing in middle childhood. The Strange Situation was used to assess infant-mother attachment at 12 months and a revised and adapted Hebrew version of the Social Information Processing Interview (Dodge & Price, 1994) was used to measure social information processing in middle childhood (at 7.5 years). Findings revealed that with regard to both peer-group relationships and mother-child relationships, secure children demonstrated more competent social information processing than insecure-ambivalent children in one out of four social information processing stages. The major characteristic distinguishing secure from insecure-ambivalent childrens social information processing was their level of expectations from others: secure children expected others to be emotionally and instrumentally available to them (but in the case of peers — only if their own behavior was socially acceptable), whereas ambivalent children did not expect others to be available to them in both peer-group and mother-child circumstances.

Associations Between 3‐Year‐Olds' Narrative Co‐Constructions with Mothers and Fathers and Their Story Completions About Affective Themes

Oral narratives are important developmental attainments for young children, and they provide them with a new mode for organizing personal experience. Narratives are not only individual constructions, however; they are also shaped and transformed b y parent–child transactions. In this study the relations between mother– and father–child co-constructions of a narrative involving emotional themes and the emotional organization of childrens narratives obtained using the MacArthur Sto ry-Stem Battery (MSSB) were investigated. The results showed associations between both mother– and father–child co-constructions and childrens MSSB narratives. In addition, the findings highlighted the dyadic aspects of co-constructions and t he importance of taking into consideration childrens co-constructions with both parents.

Negotiation Styles in Mother--Child Narrative Co-Construction in Middle Childhood: Associations with Early Attachment.

This study examined associations between infant—mother attachment, assessed using Ainsworths Strange Situation at 12-months, and mother—child narrative co-construction in 110 Israeli mothers and their 71/2 year-old children to examine aspects of Bowlbys (1973) notion of Goal-Corrected Partnerships. Narrative co-constructions were classified into a mutual-balanced style or one of two non-mutual/unbalanced styles of affective negotiation. Dyads with children classified as secure were more likely to be classified as mutual-balanced than dyads with children classified as insecure (ambivalent or disorganized). The latter were likely to be classified into one of the two Non-mutual/Unbalanced classifications (i.e., Disengaged or Overwhelming). Contributions of this study to broadening our understanding of secure-base in the post-infancy years, and for increasing our knowledge about goal-corrected partnerships, are discussed.