Disruptive behavior disorder and intergenerational attachment patterns: a comparison of clinic-referred and normally functioning preschoolers and their mothers.

This study examined linkages between child disruptive behavior disorder (DBD), quality of mother-child interactions, and mothers' recollections of and attitudes toward their own parents. Twenty-five preschool boys referred to a psychiatric clinic were matched with normally functioning boys. Mothers and sons were videotaped during a separation-reunion sequence, the Adult Attachment Interview was administered to mothers, and mothers completed questionnaires assessing family environment. Mothers of boys with DBD described relationships with their own parents less coherently than comparison mothers did, indicating less secure representations of attachment. Maternal and child attachment classifications were concordant. Log-linear analyses suggested that the influence of maternal representation of attachment on disruptive behavior problems was secondary to the quality of mother-child interaction.