International Journal

of Behavioral Development
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Mind-mindedness in adult and adolescent mothers: Relations to maternal sensitivity and infant
attachment
Isabelle Demers, Annie Bernier, George M. Tarabulsy and Marc A. Provost
International Journal of Behavioral Development 2010 34: 529 originally published online 30 July 2010
DOI: 10.1177/0165025410365802
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Mind-mindedness in adult and

adolescent mothers: Relations to
maternal sensitivity and infant
attachment

International Journal of
Behavioral Development
34(6) 529537
The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0165025410365802
ijbd.sagepub.com

Isabelle Demers,1 Annie Bernier,1 George M. Tarabulsy,2 and

Marc A. Provost3

Abstract
This article examines the quality of maternal mind-mindedness among adult and adolescent mothers, using an assessment of the appropriateness and emotional valence of maternal mind-related comments while interacting with their infants. Twenty-nine adult mothers and
69 adolescent mothers participated in two assessments with their 18-month-old infants. Results showed that adult mothers used more
mind-related comments when interacting with their child, especially comments referring to infant mental states. Adult mothers also used
more appropriate and positive mind-related comments. Home observations and strange situation assessments revealed that two dimensions of mind-mindedness were associated with maternal sensitivity and three with infant attachment in adult mothers, whereas only one
dimension was associated with maternal sensitivity in adolescent mothers.
Keywords
adolescent mothers, adult mothers, infant attachment, maternal sensitivity, mind-mindedness

In the past few years, maternal mind-mindedness, or mothers

proclivity to comment on infant mental activity during motherinfant
interactions, has been found to relate to maternal sensitivity and child
attachment security (Laranjo, Bernier, & Meins, 2008; Lundy, 2003;
Meins, Fernyhough, Fradley, & Tuckey, 2001), maternal state of
mind with respect to attachment (Arnott & Meins, 2007), and child
theory of mind understanding (Meins et al., 2002). Mindmindedness thus appears to be a useful construct in the study of
maternal behavior and child development. However, and despite
convincing evidence that negative comments and behaviors toward
infants are associated with lower maternal sensitivity and insecure
attachment (George & Solomon, 1996; Oppenheim, Koren-Karie,
& Sagi, 2001), the valence (positive, negative or neutral quality) of
mothers mind-related comments has not yet been considered in
measures of mind-mindedness. Furthermore, although some of the
greatest advances in the field of parent-child relationships have
stemmed from the study of at-risk populations (e.g., Sroufe, Egeland,
Carlson, & Collins, 2005), including adolescent mothers (Ward &
Carlson, 1995; Whitman, Borkowski, Keogh, & Weed, 2001),
mind-mindedness has mainly been studied among low-risk community samples. This study aims at addressing these gaps with a group
of adult and adolescent mothers.

to consider and treat their infant as having an active and

autonomous mental life of thoughts, intentions, desires, etc.
According to Meins (1999), mothers capacity to consider their
infant as an intentional individual governed by a mental life allows
them to attribute meaning to the infants behavioral signals (crying,
looking away, etc.), and thus to respond accurately to the underlying need. Mind-mindedness would thus be associated with infant
attachment because it constitutes a prerequisite for maternal sensitivity (Meins, 1999), one of the best documented antecedents of
attachment security (De Wolff & Van IJzendoorn, 1997). Recent
empirical evidence shows continuity between antenatal representational and post-natal behavioral assessments of mind-mindedness
(Arnott & Meins, 2007), suggesting that the cognitive components
of mind-mindedness can lay a foundation for parents subsequent
interactive behavior.
Meins et al. (2001) operationalized mind-mindedness in the first
year of life as a parental tendency to comment appropriately on
their infants internal states. These authors found that infants of
mothers who used more appropriate mind-related comments during
free play at 6 months were more likely to be securely attached to
them at 12 months. Moreover, their results revealed that maternal

Maternal mind-mindedness, sensitivity, and

attachment
Mind-mindedness was introduced by Meins (1997b) as a way of
returning to Ainsworths original emphasis that interactive sensitivity depended on mothers ability to see events from their childs
point of view. Mind-mindedness is defined as mothers proclivity

2
3

University of Montreal, Canada

Universite Laval, Canada
Universite du Quebec a` Trois-Rivie`res, Canada

Corresponding author:
Annie Bernier, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, P.O. Box
6128, Downtown Station, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada.
Email: annie.bernier@umontreal.ca

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530

International Journal of Behavioral Development 34(6)

sensitivity and appropriate mind-mindedness made independent

contributions to the prediction of security of attachment, accounting
respectively for 6.5% and 12.7% of explained variance. The links
between maternal use of mind-related comments, maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security have since been replicated independently and with different assessments of sensitivity and
attachment (Laranjo et al., 2008; Lundy, 2003), thus confirming the
role played by mind-mindedness in parentchild relationships.

Refining the assessment of mind-mindedness

In their original measure of mind-mindedness, Meins et al. (2001)
did not include, aside from the appropriateness of the comments,
other qualitative information such as the valence of maternal mindrelated comments. In this context, valence refers to the positive,
negative or neutral quality of maternal comments on child activity.
A considerable number of studies have shown that the quality, and
more precisely the valence, of maternal comments on the child are
meaningfully related to other aspects of motherchild relationships
(Benoit, Parker, & Zeanah, 1997; Demers, Bernier, Tarabulsy, &
Provost, 2010; George & Solomon, 1996; Oppenheim et al.,
2001). Most measures of maternal behavior include a scale that
takes the valence of interactions into account, and behaviors that
are considered negative are consistently related to lower maternal
sensitivity (e.g., Laible, 2006; Lyons-Ruth, Yellin, Melnick, &
Atwood, 2005; Pederson & Moran, 1995). Furthermore, Meins
(1997a) showed that the valence of mothers feedback during a box
construction task was associated with infant attachment security,
with mothers of secure children being less likely to give negative
feedback.
In light of such results, it is surprising that valence has not yet
been included in the assessment of mind-mindedness. One explanation may relate to the fact that most studies of mind-mindedness
to date have involved low-risk samples. In such normative
populations, negative comments on infant activity may be infrequent, making for redundancy between absolute levels of mindmindedness and positive or neutral comments. In contrast, with
populations at higher risk for caregiving difficulties, for instance,
due to social or economic hardship, negative comments about
or to the child are more frequent and are therefore included in
assessments of maternal behavior (e.g., Lyons-Ruth et al.,
2005). It may thus be especially relevant to consider the valence
of mind-related comments when assessing mind-mindedness in
high-risk populations.
One such group is that of adolescent mothers, who are at higher
risk of living in an adverse environment (Jaffee, Caspi, Moffitt,
Belsky, & Silva, 2001) and of experiencing problems in parenting
behaviors (Borkowski, Whitman, & Farris, 2007; Madigan, Moran,
& Pederson, 2006). Adolescent mothers face the important challenge of having to accelerate certain aspects of their own development to take on the responsibilities of parenthood (Grotevant &
Cooper, 1986). Often pressed by this event, many adolescent mothers enter parenthood with a lack of general knowledge about child
development (Musik, 1994; Sommer et al., 1993), which has an
impact on the quality of their caregiving. Adolescent mothers
tend to be less sensitive, to offer less verbal stimulation and to be
more intrusive and coercive in their interactions with their infants
(Borkowski et al., 2002; Culp, Osofsky, & OBrien, 1996; Jaffee
et al., 2001). The cumulative effects of these factors place infants
of adolescent mothers on a risky socio-emotional developmental

pathway (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998; Garcia Coll, Vohr,

Hoffman, & Oh, 1986; Greenberg, 1999; Lefever, Nicholson, &
Noria, 2007; Madigan et al., 2006; Moran, Pederson, & Krupka,
2005; Ward & Carlson, 1995).
Considering their own level of cognitive development, their
caregiving difficulties, and their often difficult and chaotic environment, it may be more difficult for adolescent mothers to comment
in an appropriate, mind-minded, and positive way on their infants
mental activity. One would therefore expect adolescent and adult
mothers to differ in their level and quality of mind-related comments used during motherinfant interactions. To our knowledge,
no comparative study between high- and low-risk samples with
regards to mind-mindedness has been conducted. This is likely to
be an important undertaking however, given that much critical
knowledge regarding parental influences on child socio-emotional
development has arisen from studies of high-risk samples (e.g.,
Jaffee et al., 2001; Lyons-Ruth et al., 2005; Sroufe et al., 2005).
Furthermore, studying mind-mindedness in two distinctively
different groups of mothers may begin to shed light on a question that
has received little empirical attention thus far: the precursors of
mind-mindedness. Indeed, while individual differences in mindmindedness are well documented and are reliably linked to a number
of child outcomes as presented above, research has yet to investigate
the antecedents of those individual differences. The only sources of
variation identified thus far are maternal state of mind with respect to
her own attachment experiences (Arnott & Meins, 2007; Demers
et al., 2010) and parenting stress (Demers et al., 2010). Owing to previous research on other types of maternal behavior, for instance,
maternal sensitivity, we argue that socio-economic factors, environmental conditions and maternal psychological adjustment are all
likely to contribute to variation in mind-mindedness. Adolescent
mothers differ strikingly from their adult counterparts on the above
variables (Whitman et al., 2001), and may thus differ on level and
quality of mind-mindedness. Furthermore, past research has suggested that the determinants of parenting among adolescent mothers
differ from those which have been documented with adult mothers
(Shapiro & Mangelsdorf, 1994). Accordingly, it cannot be assumed
that mind-mindedness plays the same positive role in the relationships between adolescent mothers and their infants as has been
observed with adult mothers.

The current study

The current study thus pursued three goals. First, we examined differences between adolescent and adult mothers with regard to
mind-mindedness. Considering past studies revealing a number of
differences between these groups, we expected that adult mothers
would show higher levels and quality (appropriateness and positive
valence) of mind-mindedness than adolescent mothers when interacting with their infants. The second goal was to explore which
dimensions of mind-mindedness, including the valence of mindrelated comments, were related to maternal sensitivity and infant
attachment security. Based on previous results (e.g., Oppenheim
et al., 2001; Slade, Belsky, Aber, & Phelps, 1999), we hypothesized
that negative mind-related comments would be negatively linked to
maternal sensitivity and attachment security, whereas positive
mind-related comments were expected to be associated with higher
maternal sensitivity and security of attachment. We also expected
to replicate previous results showing positive relations between
appropriate mind-related comments and both sensitivity and

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531

attachment. Finally, we examined whether the relations among

mind-mindedness, sensitivity and attachment were similar in the
two groups of mothers. Owing to the paucity of prior research, no
a priori hypotheses were formulated.

Method
Participants
The participants in this study were 72 adolescent (36 boys) and 32
adult (21 boys) mothers and their 18-month-old infants. Infant
mother dyads were recruited from three different sources: publication of ads in local papers, help of maternity ward nurses of the
major birthing hospital of a Canadian city (pop. 100,000) and help
of public health nurses conducting home visits when children were
1 month old. Forty-one adolescent mothers (20 years of age or less)
were recruited by maternity ward nurses, 23 via public health
nurses and 8 by newspaper ads. Twenty-two adult mothers (21 years
and above) were recruited by maternity ward nurses, 8 by public
health nurses and 2 through newspaper ads. Nurses were instructed
to present the project to mothers they worked with. Interested
mothers signed a consent form, permitting nurses to communicate
coordinates to research personnel who, in turn, contacted parents
and provided greater detail regarding the study. Mothers were told
that the study focused on the development of the motherinfant
relationship and different aspects of the experience of parenting and
child development, and that participation involved a home visit and
a laboratory visit when the child was 18 months old. Ethical
approval for this study was obtained from the hospital ethics review
board and the university research ethics committee.
All mothers were Caucasian and French-speaking. Adolescent
mothers had a mean age of 18.4 years (SD 1.5) and an average
of 10 years of formal schooling (SD 1.7). Family income was
based on categorical scores distributed as follows: 0 < 15K$; 1
1530K$; 2 3045K$; 3 4560K$; 4 60K$ and over.
Mean annual family income for adolescent mothers was .11 (SD
.32). Adult mothers had a mean age of 28.7 years (SD 4.9),
an average of 14.9 years of education (SD 3.1) and a mean annual
family income of 2.37 (SD 1.3).

Measures
Maternal mind-mindedness.

Mind-mindedness was measured through a 10-minute free-play session between the mother
and her child. Following Meins et al. (2001), five categories of
maternal comments were assessed: (1) comments on infant mental
states such as thoughts, desires or knowledge (You recognize this
toy; You want to play); (2) comments on mental processes
(Youre thinking about how you could do that); (3) comments on
infants emotional engagement (You are tired of this game); (4)
comments on infant attempts to manipulate other peoples thoughts
(You are kidding me!); and (5) comments that involve the mother
speaking for her infant (Mommy, I can do it by myself). Scores
consisted of the total number of comments of each category that were
used by the mother during the 10-minute sequence. These are referred
to as quantitative indicators hereafter.
In a second step, each mind-related comment, regardless of category, was coded as appropriate or inappropriate following Meins
et al.s (2001) guidelines. A comment was considered appropriate
if it fit one of these three criteria: (1) the coder agreed with the
mothers comment on her infants psychological state; (2) the

comment was linked with a past or future event; and/or (3) the
comment clarified how to proceed after a lull in the interaction.
Other comments were classified as inappropriate. Finally, each
mind-related comment was classified as evidencing a quality of
positive, negative or neutral valence, based on the comment itself
but also on the context and the mothers tone of voice. Scores for
both appropriateness and valence, referred to as qualitative indicators in the following sections, were computed as proportions of the
total number of mind-related comments. Note that although the
original mind-mindedness coding scheme was developed with
younger infants (6 months of age; Meins et al., 2001), no adaptations were found to be necessary with the current sample.
A random set of 24 videotapes (23%) were independently rated
by a second trained coder. Intra-class correlation (ICC) coefficients (single measures) between coders were as follows: .96 for
mental state comments, .74 for comments on mental processes,
.57 for maternal comments on infant emotional engagement, .95
for comments on infants attempts to manipulate other peoples
thoughts and -.04 for comments that involved the mother speaking
for her infant. Scores for infant emotional engagement and for
comments that involved the mother speaking for her infant are
therefore not used in subsequent analyses. ICC coefficients were
.84 for appropriateness and .96 for inappropriateness of comments, and .86 for positive, .95 for negative and .89 for neutral
mind-related comments.

Maternal sensitivity. The Maternal Behavior Q-Sort

(MBQS; Pederson & Moran, 1995) consists of 90 items that
describe potential maternal behaviors during interactions with the
child in the home. Items are sorted in nine clusters of 10 items each.
These nine clusters range from most descriptive of the mothers
behaviors (score of 9) through least descriptive (score of 1). The
final sensitivity score consists of the correlation between the mothers sort and the sort for the prototypically sensitive and responsive
mother, provided by Pederson and Moran (1995). Scores can thus
vary from -1 (least sensitive) to 1 (prototypically sensitive/
responsive).
The MBQS is anchored in attachment theory, particularly in
the descriptions of sensitivity provided by Ainsworth, Blehar,
Waters, and Wall (1978). Pederson, Moran and their colleagues
(Pederson, Gleason, Moran, & Bento, 1998; Pederson & Moran,
1995; 1996) have presented detailed descriptions regarding the
development of the MBQS, as well as its validity and its reliability. These authors longitudinal studies show that the MBQS is
useful in predicting multiple aspects of infant development. Moreover, the MBQS is significantly correlated with other assessments
of maternal behavior, such as those measured with the HOME
Inventory (Bradley & Caldwell, 1978) and the Ainsworth scales
(see Pederson & Moran, 1995). In the current study, inter-rater
reliability was established for a subset of 41 dyads by having two
trained assistants run the home visit together and rate the MBQS
independently after the visit. Inter-rater agreement was found to
be satisfactory, ICC .79.
Infant attachment security. Infant attachment security was
assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth et al.,
1978) when the child was 18 months old. The Strange Situation
took place in our laboratory, according to Ainsworth and her colleagues procedure (1978). Infants were classified as secure,
insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant and insecure-disorganized.

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International Journal of Behavioral Development 34(6)

Secure infants responded to the mothers return by showing a desire

for proximity and contact and they were effective in obtaining
comfort from their mother when needed, but could also resume
exploration. Avoidant children showed little or no need for proximity or interaction with their mothers, and even tended to ignore or
avoid their mothers during reunion. Resistant babies had a tendency
to fuss during separations and had difficulty playing once their
mothers were back. They displayed angry behaviors that appeared
to interfere with their capacity to be comforted by their mothers.
Finally, disorganized children exhibited incomprehensible, odd,
conflicted or contradictory behaviors in the presence of their
mother. These children did not seem to have an organized strategy
to cope with the stress of the situation.
Coding was conducted in an independent laboratory by Sandi
Bento and David R. Pederson at the University of Western Ontario.
Some 25 dyads were randomly selected for inter-rater reliability.
Agreement as to four-way classification was 92% (23/25), and
96% (24/25) for the secure/insecure distinction. Six dyads were
unable to come to the laboratory (three adult and three adolescent
mothers). Analyses pertaining to child attachment are thus based
on 98 dyads: 36 children were classified as secure (20 in the adolescent group; 16 in the adult group), 14 as avoidant (12 in the adolescent group; 2 in the adult group), 3 as resistant (2 in the adolescent
group; 1 in the adult group), and 45 as disorganized (35 in the adolescent group; 10 in the adult group). To increase statistical power
and allow the use of similar statistical analyses on both sensitivity
and attachment, and owing to a lack of hypotheses pertaining to
particular types of insecurity, a secure versus insecure (avoidant,
resistant, disorganized) breakdown is used in subsequent analyses.
The infant attachment security and maternal sensitivity correlation
was .43 for adult mothers and .05 for adolescent mothers.

Procedure
Dyads were visited in their homes when children were 18 months
old. The visit was led by one assistant, who prepared and manipulated different materials and took notes of maternal behaviors in
order to complete the MBQS after the visit. Scoring of the MBQS
was thus based on observations performed throughout the visit.
This visit was modeled after the work of Pederson and Moran
(1995), and was purposely designed to create a situation where
maternal attention was being solicited by both research tasks and
infant demands. Activities included an interview with the mother
and a time during which the mother had to complete questionnaires
while the infant was not looked after or kept busy by the research
assistant. A 10-minute free-play sequence between mother and
child was also videotaped, and later coded for maternal mindmindedness. Mothers were asked to use the toys that were provided,
i.e., a wooden puzzle and a shape sorter, and asked to play as they
normally would with their child. The visits lasted 90 minutes on
average. Two weeks after the home visit, mother and child came
to the university laboratory to complete the Strange Situation
procedure.
In order to maximize the validity of sensitivity scores, we followed Pederson and Morans (1995) guidelines to train and supervise our home visitors. Graduate research assistants first attended a
two-day training workshop pertaining to: (1) early infantmother
interactions; (2) observation of relevant behaviors and mother
infant interaction; and (3) techniques of home visiting. After the
workshop, the assistants performed their first few home visits with

a more experienced colleague, and they completed the MBQS

together. The first few visits made independently by the junior
home visitors were followed by a debriefing session with the third
author of this report, in order to review the salient elements of the
visit before scoring the MBQS.
Observers in charge of maternal sensitivity assessment did not
participate in the coding of mind-mindedness, were instructed not
to include the free-play period (from which mind-mindedness was
assessed) in their observations for maternal sensitivity, and were
not familiar with the concept of mind-mindedness and its
measurement. To further ensure independence of observations, the
mind-mindedness coders were in a different university, and had
no contact with the families or the home visitors throughout data
collection. They were thus blind to all information regarding the
families and to any aspect of the home visits that was not part of the
10-minute filmed sequence. As mentioned above, attachment
coding was performed by independent observers as well, in a third
university.

Results
Preliminary analyses
Table 1 presents mean and standard deviation values for the total
number of mind-related comments in each category (quantitative
indicators) as well as the ratio of each qualitative indicator (for
appropriateness and valence) to total number of comments. In terms
of quantitative indicators, both groups of mothers mainly commented on childrens mental states, and on mental processes to a degree.
Comments on childrens intention to manipulate others minds
were infrequent. Comments on mental states, processes, and
attempts to manipulate others minds were modestly related (rs
between .05 and .34), and were thus retained as distinct variables
in subsequent analyses.
With respect to qualitative indicators, the vast majority of comments in both groups were appropriate and neutral. Hence, using
ratios instead of absolute frequency of use of appropriate/inappropriate and positive/negative/neutral comments allows for
non-redundancy of analyses pertaining to appropriate and total
comments, and to neutral and total comments. Note, however, that
given the extremely rare use of positive comments by adolescent
mothers, nearly all their comments were either neutral or negative,
thus yielding a near perfect negative relation between these two
proportional scores (r .97). This empirical proximity between
neutral and negative comments was true as well, but to a lesser
degree (r .81), among adult mothers. In order to have comparable analytic plans for both groups of mothers, all three valence
indicators are retained for the two groups, but any redundant association with neutral and negative comments among adolescent
mothers will be highlighted as such. Furthermore, given that the
ratios of appropriate and inappropriate comments are linearly
dependent on each other in both groups of mothers, the ratio of
inappropriate comments was dropped from further analyses. The
only other correlation above .40 among mind-mindedness indicators is that between negative comments and comments on attempts
to manipulate others minds, r .60. Qualitative indicators are thus
retained as distinct variables in all subsequent analyses. Finally, in
no group was child gender associated with maternal sensitivity,
attachment security or any quantitative or qualitative indicator of
mind-mindedness.

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Bernier et al

533

Table 1. Means (standard deviations) on the quantitative indicators of

mind-mindedness, and mean ratio of each qualitative indicator
Variables

Quantitative indicators
Mental states
Mental processes
Manipulate other peoples minds
Total of mind-related comments
Qualitative indicators
Appropriateness
Inappropriateness
Neutral valence
Positive valence
Negative valence

Adult mothers Adolescent mothers

(N 32)
(N 72)

5.59
1.56
0.41
8.63

(4.13)
(1.39)
(0.80)
(4.76)

98.2%
1.8%
92.1%
2.8%
5.1%

2.90
1.28
0.43
5.49

(3.05)
(1.54)
(0.89)
(4.20)

91.8%
8.2%
89.3%
0.3%
10.4%

Differences between adolescent and

adult mothers
Two sets of mind-mindedness variables (quantitative indicators and
valence) were each submitted to a multivariate analysis of variance
with group (adult or adolescent mother) as the independent variable, while appropriateness was submitted to a t-test. Regarding the
quantitative use of mind-related comments, we found a significant
group effect at the multivariate level (Wilks lambda .87,
F (4,99) 3.59, p < .01), which was explained at the univariate
level by adult mothers greater use of mental state comments,
F (1,102) 13.75, p < .001, Z2 .12, and total mind-related comments, F (1,102) 11.39, p < .001, Z2 .10. The group effect was
marginally significant at the multivariate level (Wilks lambda
.92, F (3,94) 2.62, p .06) with respect to the valence of
mind-related comments. Univariate analyses revealed that adult
mothers used proportionally more positive comments, F (1,96)
4.68, p < .05, Z2 .05. In fact, adolescent mothers used almost
no positive comments at all (0.3% of all comments on average).
Adolescent mothers used twice as many negative mind-related
comments as adult mothers (10.4% vs. 5.1%), but this did not reach
statistical significance, F (1,96) 2.71, p .11, Z2 .03. Finally,
adult mothers made a proportionally greater use of appropriate
comments than adolescent mothers, t (96) 2.12, p < .05, Z2 .04.
As expected and frequently reported in previous studies, adult
mothers (M .56) were found to be more sensitive than adolescent
mothers (M .29), t (102) 3.28, p < .001. Table 2 displays the
breakdown of secure versus insecure attachment classifications for
infants in each group of mothers. Infants of adult mothers were
more likely to be classified as securely attached than those of adolescent mothers, w2 (1, N 98) 6.03, p < .05.

Relations between mind-mindedness, maternal

sensitivity and infant attachment
Table 3 presents the links between quantitative and qualitative indicators of mind-mindedness, maternal sensitivity, and infant attachment. Among adult mothers, higher maternal sensitivity was related
to a greater overall use of mind-related comments and a lesser use
of negative comments. It was also marginally associated with
increased use of comments on infants mental processes and of
neutral comments. Results were somewhat similar with infant
attachment: greater attachment security was positively associated

Table 2. Breakdown of attachment status according to group

Secure
Insecure

Adult mothers
(N 29)

Adolescent mothers
(N 6 9)

B: 16 (55%)
A: 2 (7%)
C: 1 (4%)
D: 10 (34%)

B: 20 (29%)
A: 12 (17%)
C: 2 (3%)
D: 35 (51%)

Notes. w2 (1, N 98) 6.03, p < .05.

Attachment classifications: A: Avoidant; B: Secure; C: Resistant; D: Disorganized.

with greater use of appropriate (rather than overall) and neutral

mind-related comments, and negatively related to the use of
negative comments.
In adolescent mothers, only one relation reached significance:
more sensitive mothers commented to a lesser degree on infants
attempts to manipulate others minds. Note that such comments
often presented a negative valence (e.g., You really are trying to
upset me, arent you?), especially among adolescent mothers (r
.70 with the use of negative comments). Other relations
approached significance among adolescent mothers: more sensitive
mothers tended to make proportionally more appropriate and fewer
negative comments (and more neutral comments as well, but as
highlighted above, this is redundant with their lesser use of negative
comments). However, no relation between maternal mind-related
comments and child attachment security approached significance
among adolescent mothers. Fishers test indicated that the significant relation found between adult mothers sensitivity and their use
of overall mind-related comments was significantly greater than
that found with adolescent mothers (Z 1.65, p < .05), whereas the
negative relation between sensitivity and the use of negative mindrelated comments among adult mothers was marginally greater than
that obtained with adolescent mothers (Z 1.40, p .08). Finally,
although it was non-significant in both groups, the relation between
attachment security and use of overall mind-related comments was
greater in adult than adolescents mothers (Z 1.81, p < .05). All
other pairs of correlations were not significantly different.
Note that the use of comments on childrens intention to manipulate others minds, as well as ratios of appropriate, positive and
negative comments had low variability. All four variables had elevated skewness indices (above 1.87), and the KolmogorovSmirnoff test confirmed that all four distributions significantly departed
from the normal distribution (all ps < .10). To ensure reliability
of results, we thus re-ran the above correlations using the nonparametric equivalent to Pearsons correlation, i.e., Spearmans rho
correlation coefficient. These analyses revealed the same pattern of
relations as that presented above, both in terms of magnitude and
levels of significance of the correlations, for both groups of
mothers.

Discussion
Differences between adult and
adolescent mothers
The first question addressed in the current study pertained to differences between adolescent and adult mothers in their level and quality of mind-mindedness. Results revealed that, when interacting
with their infants, adult mothers used more mind-related comments,

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International Journal of Behavioral Development 34(6)

Table 3. Zero-order correlations between indicators of mind-mindedness, maternal sensitivity and infant attachment for both groups of mothers
Adult mothers

Adolescent mothers

Mind-mindedness

Sensitivity

Attachment

Sensitivity

Attachment

Mental states
Mental processes
Manipulate others minds
Total of mind-related comments
Appropriateness
Positive valence
Negative valence
Neutral valence

.29
.34t
.01
.41* a
.14
.05
.48** b
.33t

.21
.27
.01
.30 a
.37*
.22
.40*
.42*

.07
.10
.24*
.07 a
.23t
.06
.21t b
.21t

.06
.03
.13
.11a
.17
.08
.18
.19

Notes. t p < .10; *p < .05; ** p < .01.

a
indicates a significantly (p < .05) greater correlation among adult than adolescent mothers.
b
indicates a marginally (p < .10) greater correlation among adult than adolescent mothers.

especially comments on mental states, and that these comments

were more likely to be positive and appropriate than what was
observed with adolescent mothers. In fact, adolescent mothers used
almost no positive comments at all, and over 10% of their comments on their infants mental activity were negative. Not surprisingly, adult mothers were also observed to be more sensitive than
adolescent mothers, and their children were more likely to be classified as securely attached to them. These results expand previous
findings by identifying precise verbal behaviors that differentiate
adult and adolescent mothers, and which are thus implicated in the
maladaptive caregiving patterns displayed by adolescent mothers.
For instance, the greater use of inappropriate comments by adolescent mothers (as indicated by the greater use of appropriate comments by adult mothers) suggests that their lower levels of
responsiveness, documented here and elsewhere (Borkowski
et al., 2002; Culp et al., 1996; Garcia Coll et al., 1986; Jaffee
et al., 2001), may stem in part from frequent failures in accurately
interpreting the meaning of their infants signals.
These results may also inform the search for the origins of
mind-mindedness, on which very little is known so far. Adolescent mothers tend to differ from their adult counterparts in many
areas: age, education, income, stability of housing, social support,
marital stability, psychological adjustment, etc. Although the current study does not permit one to tease apart these different demographic and psychological factors because they are confounded
with group membership, it does suggest that personal background
and current life situation can influence mothers display of mindminded behavior when interacting with their infants. It is conceivable that different factors influence maternal mind-mindedness,
such as characteristics of personal history (e.g., mental health, history of abuse) and current circumstances (e.g., extreme poverty,
marital conflict or violence). The current findings, combined with
previous results of a lack of association between maternal education and mind-mindedness, converge with the recent model of
attachment disorganization proposed by Bernier and Meins
(2008) in suggesting that cumulative models involving the interplay between multiple determinants are likely to be more fruitful
in explaining developmental phenomena than a narrow focus on
one or a few factors. Moreover, the current findings support intervention initiatives that address parental cognitions about their
child as part of improving the quality of maternal interactive
behavior and attachment security in high risk populations
(Hoffman, Marvin, Cooper, & Powell, 2006; Lieberman, 2007;
Moran et al., 2005).

Relations among mind-mindedness, sensitivity and

child attachment with adult mothers
The second goal of this study was to examine links between indicators of mind-mindedness and maternal sensitivity and infant attachment in both groups of mothers, in order to evaluate which
indicators of mind-mindedness were related concurrently to the
socio-affective quality of the motherchild relationship. Results
showed notable differences between groups in this regard. In adult
mothers, results revealed that more sensitive mothers used more
mind-related comments overall, but proportionally fewer negative
comments. They were also marginally more likely to use comments
on the childs current mental processes, and comments of a neutral
valence. Thus, adult mothers who are aware of their childs mental
life, perhaps especially the childs current activity as it is taking
place during interactions (i.e., mental processes), and who do not
attribute negative intentions to the child, appear to be well equipped
to provide the child with sensitive responsiveness. As one would
expect, these predispositions relate to the overall quality of the
motherchild attachment relationship as well: children of adult
mothers were more likely to be securely attached when their mothers used more appropriate and neutral as well as fewer negative
mind-related comments.
However, these two sets of results also highlight a potentially
interesting difference: while total use of mind-related comments
was positively related to sensitivity, regardless of appropriateness,
only appropriate mind-related comments were related to attachment
security. This appears to suggest that all maternal attempts to attend
to their childrens mental life, accurate or not, indicate an effort to
try and consider things from the childs point of view, and are more
often seen in more sensitive adult mothers. Indeed, one may well
imagine that more sensitive mothers show a greater interest in their
infants mental activities, but are not always accurate in their interpretations of these activities. However, the results also suggest that
only the proportion of these mind-related comments that accurately
reflects the infants internal experience are positively related to the
security of the attachment relationship. This may reflect the importance for the child to feel understood in order to develop the confidence that the caregiver will be not only available, but also able to
provide help should the child face difficulty. This is speculative,
however, as previous studies that examined mind-mindedness in
relation to maternal sensitivity and child attachment (Laranjo
et al., 2008; Lundy, 2003; Meins et al., 2001) report relations with
appropriate comments only, thus not permitting comparison of the

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535

current results with those from prior research. Future studies are
needed to identify specific aspects of mind-mindedness that relate
uniquely to sensitivity, to attachment, or to both.
While the use of appropriate mind-related comments has been
examined in previous studies, the valence of mental comments had
not previously been measured by other research teams and thus
deserves special attention. It appears that an inclination toward
attributing negative intentions to the child interferes with mothers
ability to understand and to attend to the childs emotional and
physical needs. For instance, a mother who interprets her childs
fussiness as indicating that the baby is trying to annoy her is much
less likely to respond in a warm and nurturing way than a mother
who interprets the fussiness as an indication that the child is
not feeling well, or was scared by a noise. That such inadequate
cognitive predispositions be related to insecure attachment stands
to reason. Indeed, the childs perception of himself or herself, presumed to be at the core of attachment working models, is unlikely to
be positive (and thus secure) if his or her actions and cognitions are
repeatedly interpreted and responded to in a negative manner. In
contrast, the finding that a proportionally greater use of neutral
comments is related to both maternal sensitivity (marginally) and
attachment security was not expected. One may speculate that adult
mothers emphasis on neutral aspects of their childrens mental
activity indicates a balanced conceptualization of the child and a
realistic consideration of his or her mental life. This ability
could potentially result in a greater capacity to perceive and to
respond to a broad range of infant signals, and hence to a greater
likelihood of developing a secure attachment relationship.
Finally, it appears counterintuitive that the use of positively
valenced comments on childrens activity was not significantly
associated either with maternal sensitivity or infant attachment.
This null finding may be partly explained by the infrequent use
of positive comments by mothers, which is perhaps to be expected
when focusing on mental references in analyzing maternal speech.
Indeed, comments pertaining to childrens mental activity are often
neutral: You just noticed the puzzle; You are thinking of
daddy, etc. In light of this low frequency of positive comments,
it is difficult to conclude with confidence as to the role of this aspect
of maternal mind-mindedness. However, if indeed the low frequency of positive comments is responsible for their lack of association with sensitivity and attachment, it is all the more interesting
that negative comments by adult mothers, although infrequent as
well, were related to the same aspects of motherchild relationships. This tentatively suggests that the sheer use of negative comments on the childs mental activity, even very infrequently, may
constitute an indicator of a broader maladaptive process that needs
to be taken seriously.
The apparent salience of negative comments as an important
aspect of adult mothers discourse when playing with their
18-month-olds should also be interpreted through developmental
lenses. Prior studies, which have shown appropriate mindrelated comments to relate to maternal sensitivity and child attachment security (Laranjo et al., 2008; Meins et al., 2001) were conducted with infants 6- to 12-months-old. One may speculate that
with such young infants, limited motor and expressive abilities
make their mental activity somewhat opaque. In such a situation,
parents who lack the capacity to see things from their infants
point of view may be more likely to misinterpret his or her verbal
and behavioral signals, and thus make inappropriate mind-related
comments. However, with infants increasing age and growing
autonomy, they are more likely to have their own agenda, which

may well run counter to that of the parent. Non-mind-minded parents may interpret this autonomy as being intrusive in their own
activities, leading to negative comments and interactions. Hence,
one may propose that inadequate mind-mindedness could take different forms according to infant developmental stage, with perhaps inappropriate comments being more frequent with young
infants, while low mind-mindedness would be rather indicated
by negative comments as infants grow into increasingly autonomous toddlers. The findings of the current study highlight possible
age differences in the precise aspects of mind-related discourse
that best reflect the concurrent quality of the relationship.

Relations among mind-mindedness, sensitivity and

child attachment with adolescent mothers
The results reported here highlight an intriguing phenomenon: the
near absence of significant relations between indicators of mindmindedness and either maternal sensitivity or child attachment
security among adolescent mothers. Given that this is the first study
to examine mind-mindedness among a high-risk group, it remains
to be seen whether the lack of relations is true of other high-risk
groups, is specific to adolescent mothers and their children, or perhaps is specific to this sample and does not generalize. However,
prior studies have found that certain developmental processes
which are well demonstrated among adult mothers and their children do not take place among dyads involving adolescent mothers
(Aiello & Lancaster, 2007; Lemelin, Tarabulsy, & Provost, 2006;
Shapiro & Mangelsdorf, 1994; Ward & Carlson, 1995). One may
speculate that certain developmental processes which are presumed
to be basic, generalizable phenomena are actually fundamentally
different with adolescent mothers or in populations at risk for
caregiving difficulties. Hence, it could be that a mind-minded
orientation toward the childs inner life is beneficial for adult mothers relationships with their infants, but is less relevant for adolescent mothers, who often face pressing challenges related to family
organization, mental health, and social support. These challenges
may well take precedence and limit the opportunities for a
mind-minded orientation to contribute to the quality of adolescent
mothers caregiving relationships. Furthermore, it is possible that
high-risk contexts entail particular conditions that require assessment. For example, one may speculate that with adolescent
mothers, such elements as verbal competence and linguistic
complexity may prove to be more critical in determining maternal
sensitivity and attachment security.

Limitations and future research

This study presents some methodological limitations that need to be
considered when interpreting the results. First, the small sample
size of the adult mothers group weakened statistical power. Ideally,
two groups of equal size would have been used. Furthermore,
although the high proportion of attachment disorganization found
in the adolescent mothers group is comparable to previous findings
with similar populations (Borkowski et al., 2007; Madigan, Moran,
& Pederson, 2006), the fairly high level of disorganization in
the adult mothers group was unexpected, and remains difficult
to explain at this point. This high proportion of disorganization
may explain the low correlation that we found between maternal
sensitivity and child attachment. Finally, notwithstanding the methodological precautions that were taken to ensure independent

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International Journal of Behavioral Development 34(6)

observations of maternal sensitivity and mind-mindedness, future

studies should use a more stringent test of their relation by assessing
these two aspects of maternal interactive behavior in independent
assessment sessions. And yet, in light of the modest and often
non-significant correlations between maternal sensitivity and
mind-mindedness, it appears very unlikely that these relations were
inflated by the methodology. In terms of future research directions,
there is also a pressing need to explore the potential child contributions to maternal mind-mindedness. At 18 months of age, multiple
aspects of the parentchild relationship and many child characteristics are well established, and dynamic bi-directional effects appear
more likely than simple linear relations. Longitudinal designs
involving repeated assessments of child characteristics and maternal behavior are needed to sort out the underlying developmental
sequence.
This study highlighted the valence of mind-related comments as
an important qualitative indicator of mind-mindedness, perhaps
especially as infants grow into toddlers. It also brought novel information about adolescent mothers verbal behavior with their
infants. Considering that this was the first study to explore mindmindedness in a high-risk sample, we believe that mindmindedness should continue to be studied in different populations
in order to clarify its role, not only in the development of the parentinfant relationship, but also in childrens social, cognitive and
emotional development.
Funding
Authors would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humatinies
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Fonds de Recherche
sur la Societe et la Culture (FQRSC) for funding provided to the
third and fourth authors.
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