Research Information System
Thesis Type: Postgraduate
Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Turkey
Approval Date: 2020
Student: Aysu Akış
Supervisor: BAŞAK ŞAHİN ACAR
Abstract:The current study aimed to investigate mother-child dyads’ elaborativeness in shared memory conversations in relation to the moderator role of mothers’ romantic attachment style. Within the scope of the current study, home visits were implemented with the participation of 288 mothers and their 4 to 6-year-old-children. Each motherchild dyad conversed about a shared past event for 5 minutes during the home visits, and mothers reported their attachment styles. Conversations were coded separately for mothers and children to assess their elaborativeness. The findings revealed that the age group of children was an important factor for relationships among maternal attachment styles, mothers’, and children’s elaborativeness in memory conversations. In 48-60 months age group, maternal attachment anxiety had a moderator role in the relationship between mothers’ and children’s elaborativeness, and lower maternal attachment anxiety supported high elaborative reminiscing style of mother-child dyads. However, in 61-72 months age group and 48-72 months overall age group, v maternal attachment anxiety did not moderate the relationship between elaborativeness of dyads. Furthermore, maternal attachment avoidance did not moderate the relationship between mothers’ and children’s elaborativeness in all age groups. The current study demonstrated the predictive value of mothers’ elaborativeness for child elaborativeness from 4 to 6 ages by replicating previous findings in the autobiographical memory literature. The findings were discussed in light of the related literature.