ABSTRACT
The study of parental representations of the child grows out of developments in attachment research. In 1985, Main, Kaplan, and Cassidy began to examine the impact of parental representations of attachment upon child attachment outcomes. The resolved/unresolved distinction was also predictive of negative representations of the child. Thus, as might be expected given prior research, maternal representations of attachment were in meaningful ways predictive of parental representations of the child. Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) were analysed along the resolved/unresolved dimension; in this analysis, both unresolved status and parental despair in relation to the child predicted child role reversal in the story stems. The relationship between a mother's attachment organization and her representation of the child is not always lawful and may, indeed, have something to do with the child's own capacities. Such children might be best positioned to connect in a positive way with an adoptive mother, despite her own insecure attachment organization.
