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Mommy, Where are You?Sleep Interventions and
Security of Infant-Mother Attachment

• presented by
• Megan Blair
• Department of Psychology and Social Behavior,
• The University of California, Irvine

May 13, 2006
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Bedtime for Baby . . .
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Advice from professionals . . .

• Sleep Intervention Methods
• Help a young child learn to sleep through the
  night on his or her own
• Range from responsive to very non-responsive
• Can be as extreme as leaving child to cry for
  long periods of time

(Owens, France Wiggs, 1999)
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More advice from professionals . . .

• How to promote a secure attachment
• provide sensitive, consistent, appropriate
  responses to your childs needs

(Bowlby, 1982 Ainsworth, 1982)
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One might wonder . . .
Daytime consistent, responsive care
Secure Attachment
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Secure Infant Attachment . . .

• Benefits of a Secure Attachment
• Infant will explore a new environment, confident
  that the parent will protect him/her if needed.
• Securely attached children grow up to be more
  enthusiastic, goal-oriented, and better able to
  solve problems, compared to children who were
  insecurely attached (Carlson et al., 2003).

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Insecure Infant Attachment . . .

• Insecure-Avoidant
• When distressed, child does not expect comfort
  from mother because she typically does not
  provide it
• Child learns to inhibit feelings - especially
  anger
• Child expects mother to be emotionally
  unavailable when he/she needs care or protection
  (based on history of maternal caregiving)

(Ainsworth et al., 1978 Main, 2000)
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Insecure Infant Attachment . . .

• Insecure-Resistant
• Child cries a lot if separated from mother and
  cannot be soothed easily by mother when she
  returns
• When distressed, child both seeks and resists
  contact with mother because he/she does not
  believe in mothers ability to soothe him/her
• Child expects inconsistent, unpredictable care
  (based on the history of caregiving provided by
  the mother)

(Ainsworth et al., 1978 Main, 2000)
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The Missing Link!
Security of Infant- Mother Attachment
Sleep Intervention Methods
?

• Is security of infant attachment to the mother
  associated with the use of sleep intervention
  methods?

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The Hypothesis . . .

• Infants who were subjected to sleep interventions
  that involve non-response or insensitive
  responses to their signals (e.g., crying) will be
  less likely to have secure attachments than
  infants who did not experience these methods.

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The Setting and Sample . . .

• Setting UCI Medical Center lab playroom and
  offices in Dr. Curt Sandmans suite
• Participants
• Recruited from larger study of child sleep
  location, family well-being, and attachment
  (Keller, Study of Child Sleep and Maternal and
  Child Well-Being)
• Families were also participants in a
• large longitudinal study of prenatal
• stress and development (Sandman
• Davis, UCI Women and Childrens
• Health and Well-Being Project)

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The Toddlers . . .

• 31 toddlers (17-19 months of age) and their
  mothers
• 17 boys (52) and 14 girls (48)

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The Mothers . . .

• 22 - 40 years of age (M 31.6)
• 94 married 100 living with childs father
• Employment Status
• 38 employed full-time
• 27 part-time work/school
• 35 not employed
• Primarily middle-class families (income ranged
  from less than 40,000 to more than 180,000
  median range 60,000 - 80,000)

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Mothers Educational Attainment . . .
High school diploma (10)
No high school diploma (3)
Some college education (26)
4-Year college degree or higher (61)
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Mothers Ethnic Background . . .
Other (13)
Hispanic (39)
Caucasian (48)
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Methods . . .

• Attachment Measure
• The Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth et
  al., 1978)
• 24 minute lab procedure
• Consists of time with mother and stranger, and
  time alone, in playroom
• Childs actions during separations and reunions
  videotaped and later coded to determine if infant
  is securely or insecurely attached to mother

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Methods . . .

• Sleep Intervention Measures
• Maternal survey
• Did you ever use a formal sleep training method
  to help your child learn to sleep through the
  night? (yes/no)
• How often did you respond to your childs
• signals by picking him/her up? (coded 1-5
• where 1never and 5always)
• How often did you remain outside of your
• childs room when he/she was crying?
• (coded 1-5 where 1never and 5always)

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Results . . .

• Attachment status
• 71 Secure
• 29 Insecure
• (44 Avoidant)
• (56 Resistant)

Frequency of Attachment Types
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Descriptive Results . . .

• 55 of children had learned to sleep through the
  night by 6 months 100 by 16 months
• 90 currently sleeping through the night
• Some children began reawakening after previously
  learning to sleep through the night
• 63 of mothers believe that parents have an
  important role in teaching their children to
  learn to sleep through the night however, only
  26 of mothers reported using a formal sleep
  intervention method

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Results . . .

• 90 of mothers reported some crying when their
  young child learned to sleep through the night.
• To get child to sleep, mothers tried . . .
• Nursing child
• Giving child a bottle/pacifier/toy
• Bringing child into parents bed
• Picking child up to comfort him/her
• Letting child cry

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Test of main hypothesis . . .

• Reported use of formal sleep intervention methods
  not significantly associated with security of
  infant attachment to mother

(?2 (1) .38, ns.)
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Follow-Up Research Question . . .

• Although they may not have reported using a
  formal sleep intervention method, some mothers
  have tried letting their child cry it out
  during the night.
• I examined whether reported non-responsive
  behaviors at night (not picking up distressed
  child remaining outside childs room) are
  associated with infant attachment

• Hypothesis Mothers of insecurely attached
  infants will provide less responsive care at
  night than mothers of securely attached infants

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Results . . .

• Mothers of securely attached infants were
  significantly more likely to provide responsive
  care when their children woke at night

Frequency of Picking Child Up During the Night
(t (28) 2.386, p lt .05)
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Results . . .
Frequency of Remaining Outside of Crying Childs
Room at Bedtime

• Mothers of Insecure-Avoidant babies were
  significantly more likely to be non-responsive
  when their children cried at bedtime

(t (24) 2.217, p lt .05)
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Conclusions and Implications . . .

• Use of a formal sleep intervention method was not
  significantly associated with security of
  attachment

• Non-responsiveness to childs signals at bedtime
  was related to greater likelihood of insecure
  attachments (especially insecure-avoidant) to
  mother

• Responsive care at night may be an important
  factor in promoting a secure infant attachment to
  mother

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Future Research . . .

• Larger sample
• Add nighttime component to studies of
  associations between parental behavior and
  security of attachment
• Longitudinal Design
• Study infants over a long period of time as they
  go through sleep intervention methods to see what
  effect these have on security of attachment

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A big thank you! to . . .
Thanks!

• Professor Wendy Goldberg
• Professor Valerie Jenness
• Ph.D. Candidate Meret Keller
• UROP and SURP
• Research Assistants
• Jenna Kieckhaefer
• Rebecca Grover
• Stephanie Sullivan
• Participating families

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For more information contact me at

• Megan Blair
• mblair_at_uci.edu
• (949) 823 - 9564