ABSTRACT
An extensive theoretical and empirical literature addresses attachment between parents (mainly mothers) and their children (Ainsworth 1982; Bowlby 1982; Sroufe & Waters 1971). These works both examine the processes by which the ties that bind are formed and also assess the quality of those ties through the use of child development and learning theorist Mary B. Ainsworth’s well-known “Strange Situation” research paradigm (Ainsworth & Wittig 1969). This literature includes investigation and elucidation of representational “working models” of the self and the attachment figure originally described by John Bowlby. More recently, research about the nature and changes in these working models over time (Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy 1985) enriches thinking about what it means to parent and to be parented. These works focus on the deep attachment between mother and child.
