Sensitive attunement to infants’ internal states: Operationalizing the construct of mind-mindedness
Abstract
This paper focuses on caregiver sensitivity, its relation to mind-mindedness (caregivers' attunement to their infants' internal states), and how well both constructs predict infant attachment security. The seminal Baltimore research on sensitivity and its relation to attachment security is summarized, highlighting the conclusion that mothers in the insecure-resistant and insecure-avoidant categories could not be distinguished on the basis of sensitivity. The contrast between the complex, sophisticated construct detailed in the original studies and the broad-based nature of the sensitivity coding scale is discussed. This paper argues that we should return to Ainsworth, Bell, and Stayton's (1971, 1974) original emphasis on the caregiver's ability to perceive things from the child's point of view in defining a measure of the quality of early infant-caregiver interaction. This approach led to the development of the construct of mind-mindedness. There are two mind-mindedness indices: caregivers' tendency during infant-caregiver interaction to (a) comment appropriately on their infants' putative thoughts and feelings (appropriate mind-related comments), and (b) misread their infants' internal states (non-attuned mind-related comments). Both indices predict independent variance in infant-caregiver attachment security, and together can distinguish between the secure, avoidant, and resistant categories. The specific, multidimensional nature of mind-mindedness complements the global construct of sensitivity.
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Mothers' appropriate mind-related comments when interacting with their infants predicted attachment security.
“Meins' findings that mothers' appropriate mindrelated comments when interacting with their infants predicted attachment security”
From INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF ATTACHMENT IN ABUSED AND NEGLECTED MOTHERS: THE ROLE OF TRAUMA-SPECIFIC REFLECTIVE FUNCTIONING: Attachment, Reflective Function, and Trauma (2015) · cites this paper as Meins, 2013
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- Authors
- Meins, E.
- Affiliations
- University of York (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Meins, Elizabeth
- ORCID
- Meins, Elizabeth
- Venue
- Attachment & Human Development
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-11
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 5-6
- Pages
- 524-544
- ISSN
- 1461-6734 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-2988
- OpenAlex
- W2132933484
- Cited by
- 186
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 8.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Attachment & Human Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Staffordshire University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- mind-mindedness, caregiver sensitivity, infant attachment security, caregiver-infant interaction, internal state, insecure-avoidant attachment, insecure-resistant attachment, attachment classification
- MeSH terms
- Child, Preschool, Empathy, Female, Humans, Mother-Child Relations, Psychological Theory, Mindfulness
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