Mothers' Attachment Styles and Sleep Technique Choices for their Infants

This study examined the relationship between mothers' attachment styles and the sleep technique they chose in the first year of life of their infants. Participants consisted of 97 mothers whose children were between 12 and 35 months of age. The mothers filled out questionnaires online, including a Demographic Questionnaire, the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), and a Questionnaire created by the researcher regarding sleep technique choices used in the first year of the infants' lives. Results provided no evidence that mothers' choices to use an extinction method were related to the mothers' Attachment scores on the ECR-R. Results did provide evidence of mother's higher scores on the anxiety scales of the ECR-R significantly correlated with the use of more positive practice methods than did mothers' lower anxiety scores. Mother's higher scores on the anxiety scales of the ECR-R were also significantly correlated with the use of extinction methods at later ages than did mothers' lower anxiety scores. No evidence was found that anxiety scores affected the completion or non-completion of extinction methods. Results from post-hoc analyses indicated that mothers with higher anxiety scores rated their stress as higher when using extinction methods, but this finding was not significantly correlated with whether they completed the extinction technique. Mothers with higher avoidance scores also rated their stress as higher when using an extinction method. Mothers with higher anxiety and mothers with higher avoidance indicated that getting their infants to sleep in the first year of life was more difficult than did mothers with lower anxiety and avoidance scores.