A factor analytic study of the mother-infant dyad.

Abstract

Ratings of a sample of 30 mothers and children at the age of approximately 1 year yielded 9 factors based on composites of mother's personality, mother's behavior, child's personality, child's behavior, and child's mental and motor development. The patterns of the loadings in each case are suggestive of a causal sequence of relationships between the personality characteristics of the mother, the modes of maternal behavior she adopts, and the responses and development of her infant. The reciprocal quality of the interactions described by these factors tends to support the case for psychosocial determinism that is quite specific regarding the instrumental qualities and consequences of the mother's behavior. The 9 factors appear to be distributed along a continuum ranging from child-centered to mothercentered maternal functioning, a continuum which in turn appears to be related to disturbances in both mother and child as the degree of maternal self-reference increases