Inter-relations between mind-mindedness, maternal communicative style in the context of attachment distress, and infant–mother attachment security

The quality of the maternal communication plays a critical role in the development of secure infant–caregiver attachment. This relationship may be mediated by the caregivers’ capacity to recognize and appropriately respond to the child’s mental states (i.e., mind-mindedness). To specifically explore the role of mind-mindedness in the relationship between maternal communicative style and attachment, associations between maternal communicative style and attachment patterns were assessed in 88 infant–mother dyads using mind-mindedness as a mediator. Communicative style and attachment patterns were evaluated during the reunion episodes in the strange situation procedure. Communicative style was evaluated using the Coding System for the analysis of the Caregivers’ Communication Style scale, which produced three distinct communicative patterns: Misleading Communication, Denial Communication, and Affective Support. Attachment was classified by standard procedure as insecure-avoidant, secure, and insecure-ambivalent. Mind-mindedness, evaluated during free play, assessed mothers’ use of appropriate versus non-attuned mind-related comments. The results support a significant mediation of appropriate mind-minded comments in the relationship between affective supportive communicative style and both secure and insecure-avoidant attachment patterns, strengthening and mitigating direct relationships, respectively. No mediating role of mind-mindedness was found for insecure-ambivalent attachment. These findings help clarify the role of mind-mindedness in relation to communicative style and attachment and outline a certain behavioral consistency in mothers’ responses to their child across different observational contexts.