Steele, Miriam; Perez, Alejandra; Segal, Francesca; Fearon, Pasco; Fonagy, Peter; Steele, Howard; (2025) Transition to motherhood: stability and change in attachment representations from pregnancy to 5 years. Attachment & Human Development 10.1080/14616734.2025.2484923. (In press).

Text Fonagy_Stability of AAI over 5 years non-blinded_accepted revision.pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 15 April 2026. Download (387kB)

Abstract

This paper reports on Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs) obtained from a low-risk sample of 51 pregnant women expecting their first child who were interviewed again when the child was five years of age. This is the first report of test-retest results that extends over five years that includes the transition to motherhood. Results suggest significant levels of continuity at the level of AAI classifications with three-way stability being 90% and two-way stability being 88%. When change was observed, it was more likely to be a move toward rather than away from security. At the level of dimensional scores, significant changes indicated a softening stance with higher coherence ratings, lower idealization scores, and less insistence on an inability to recall. This move toward a significantly more balanced state of mind regarding attachment was most evident among those mothers who maintained or became autonomous-secure.

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