Conference Agenda

Research has shown that caregiver sensitivity determines future social and emotional development of the child. A child’s experiences with care-giver are impacted by the socio-cultural context in which both the child and caregiver live in. Most measures on caregiver sensitivity are developed for use in Western samples and are often applied to non-Western samples without culturally specific adaptation that takes into account differences in caregiving and family structure. We thus seek to adapt the Maternal Behaviour Q-sort - MBQ-sort (Pederson & Moran,1995) for use in Kenya. In the first phase of this study we identify culture-specific patterns of sensitivity to determine which concrete behaviors are seen as ideal in the Kenyan context.

This is a qualitative study involving 60 caregivers of children below 5 years of age and 20 community health workers (CHW) drawn from 4 major ethnic groups in Kenya (Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya and Kalenjin) to reflect ethnic diversity. In this phase, we seek to answer our first research question: What are the characteristics of a sensitive and responsive caregiver in Kenya?

Being an ongoing study, 20 caregivers and 8 CHWs sorted the MBQ cards to reflect a range of descriptive behaviours from the most ideal mother to the least ideal mother in their context. In addition, participants engaged in 3 Focus Group Discussions to answer the question: Who is an ideal mother? What does she do to/with her child?

Preliminary findings show that although there is some degree of agreement between our care-givers beliefs/ideas on who an ideal mother is and the MBQ criterion, there are differences in certain descriptors of an ideal mother reflecting cultural specificity. These initial results highlight the importance of the ongoing adaptation process to come up with relevant measures which yield valid data that can be used to inform parenting interventions.

Background: Attachment research shows that the ecological context of parenting strongly shapes the association between caregiving quality and early caregiver-infant attachment. Culture is one key ecological factor: cultural beliefs are translated into child-rearing patterns that impact caregiver proximity, responsiveness and sensitivity to infant attachment behaviours. Social exclusion is another. Families marginalized by poverty, geography, or social status commonly face elevated stress levels, resource limitations, educational disparities, and weak support systems, all of which can erode caregiver responsiveness and the quality of early interactions with infants.

Rationale: Recent work has extended attachment research to low and middle-income nations, prompting discussions regarding the cross-cultural applicability and validity of core constructs and measures. Notably, caregiver “sensitivity” is known to manifest differently across cultural ecologies yet widely used tools and intervention frameworks are applied without requisite adjustments. This is significant in countries such as Kenya, where Afrocentric parenting traditions offer valuable insights and systems that can contribute to children’s well-being and family resilience.

Study aims: Based on social / constructivist / interpretive paradigms and phenomenology as inquiry, the study aims to examine the applicability of the construct of maternal sensitivity, maternal insightfulness, and culturally salient notions of “good motherhood” among 50 mother-infant dyads in two Kenyan communities: 25 Maasai dyads in Kajiado county and 25 dyads living in Nairobi’s informal settlements.

By observing, engaging and connecting caregiving practices into dialogue with attachment theory, the study aims to (a) assess how social exclusion is defined, experienced, and addressed in the two study sites and how it is reflected in Kenyan early childhood development policies, (b) assess how sensitive caregiving is practiced, good motherhood is described and what cultural norms, social support, and material constraints influence these practices, and (c) determine whether the assessment tools adequately capture the specific behavioral manifestations of maternal sensitivity.

Rural-to-urban migrant children in China face developmental challenges that may affect academic outcomes. Parental attachment plays an important role in academic functioning, but evidence on middle childhood migrant children is limited. The present study examined the association between children’s attachment to parents and academic performance among Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children in middle childhood. Participants were 299 migrant children aged 10.66~13.38 attending urban primary schools. Children’s attachment representations were assessed using the middle childhood version of the Attachment Script Assessment, a narrative-based measure of secure base script knowledge, and children’s perceived attachment security with parents was assessed using a self-report measure, the Security Scale Questionnaire, which is appropriate for middle childhood. Academic performance was obtained from school examination records in Chinese, mathematics, and English. No significant association was found between secure base script knowledge and children’s perceived attachment security with parents (r_mother = − 0.02, p = 0.76; r_father = 0.07, p = 0.26). Results further indicated that secure base script knowledge was positively associated with academic performance (r = 0.30~0.39, p < 0.001). Children’s perceived attachment security with mothers was positively associated with mathematics performance (r = 0.12, p = .03), whereas attachment security with fathers was positively associated with English performance (r = 14, p = .02). In a structural equation model (The model showed acceptable fit to the data: χ²(11) = 35.47, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.95; TLI = 0.93; RMSEA = 0.09; SRMR = 0.05), secure base script knowledge (β = 0.41, p < 0.001) and children’s perceived attachment security with fathers (β = 0.14, p < = 0.03) uniquely and positively predicted academic performance, whereas attachment security with mothers did not. These findings underscore parental attachment as a protective factor for migrant children’s academic development and suggest the value of family-based and educational support interventions.

Within secure attachment relationships, caregivers function as primary sources of self-regulation and fosters empathy. Affective empathy refers to the direct sharing of others’ emotional states, whereas cognitive empathy involves understanding the meaning of others’ affective displays. Although robust evidence links secure attachment to empathy, research examining the mediating role of emotion regulation (ER) during middle childhood remains limited. The present study aimed to address this gap.

Participants were 214 children (108 girls) aged 8-12 years (M=9.28±1.09) and their parents (86.3% mothers). Children completed the Security Scale (SS), assessing Safe Haven (SH) and Secure Base (SB), as well the Questionnaire to Assess Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Children (QACE). Primary caregivers completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist assessing children’s ER and lability/negativity.

Results indicated that global ER was positively associated with cognitive (rCEcog=.17, p<.05) but not affective empathy. Mediation analyses revealed that attachment significantly predicted children’s empathy (β=.40–.53, p<.001); however, ER did not mediate this association. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that maternal SH and paternal SB predicted cognitive and global empathy, whereas only maternal SH predicted affective empathy.

These results underscore the robustness of attachment theory as an organizing framework for socioemotional development and suggest that theoretical models may need refinement regarding the processes during middle childhood.