Reminiscing Style During Conversations About Emotion-laden Events and Effects of Attachment Security Among Italian Mother-Child Dyads

Previous research has established that mothers' and children's elaborative/evaluative styles during conversations about emotion-laden events are associated with a range of social-cognitive accomplishments, and this has prompted researchers to identify factors that predict stylistic differences in conversation styles. The study explored whether patterns and variations in reminiscing styles reported in other cultures would be observed in an Italian sample (N=40 dyads). Attachment security, assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview for mothers and the Q-Sort for children, were tested as possible sources of variation in conversation style. The two reminiscing styles identified through a clustering procedure were consistent with those displayed by dyads from other cultural groups; moreover, these were significantly related to both mothers' and children's attachment security. These results extend knowledge on reminiscing conversations during early childhood to a different cultural context and contribute to an understanding of how individual differences in attachment affect partners' participation in such conversations.