THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTHERS' ATTACHMENT STYLE, MINDFUL PARENTING, AND THE PERCEPTION OF THEIR CHILD

Objectives. Maternal attachment style plays a major role in the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology. Previous studies indicated that a secure attachment style is associated with higher levels of mindfulness and higher quality of parent-child relationship. However, most of these studies assessed general mindfulness in- stead of mindful parenting. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the mothers' attachment style, mindful parenting, and percep- tion of their child. Sample and settings. One hundred forty-four mothers who had a child below the age of three years completed self-report questionnaires, including a demographic questionnaire, the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale (IMP), and the Mothers' Object Relations Scale (MORS-SF). Hypotheses. The authors hypothesized that mothers with insecure attachment styles and a lower level of mindful parenting would have more invasive and less warm representations of their children than mothers with a secure attach- ment style and a higher level of mindful parent- ing. Statistical analyses. The authors conducted two mediation analyses with Mothers' Object Rela- tions Scale warmth and invasion subscales as dependent variables, the mother's attachment style as an independent variable and mindful parenting as a mediator.Results. In the mediation analysis, the direct effects of the mothers' attachment style on the perception of the child were not significant. However, the indirect effects through mindful parenting were significant; a higher level of mindful parenting was associated with higher levels of MORS-SF warmth and lower levels of MORS-SF invasion. These findings suggest that attachment styles are related to the perception of the child through mindful parenting. Mindful- ness-based parental training programs might be helpful in improving the parent-child relation- ship in case of attachment-related problems. Limitations. Cross-sectional design and the use of self-report measures are the main limitations of the current study.