"An Extraordinarily Pernicious Influence": The Discursive Figure of the Spoiling Grandmother before 1937.

Discourses about the dangers of spoiling children and images of grandparents came together in nineteenth-century literature, with the literary figure of the spoiling grandmother emerging as familiar cultural currency. From there, it would become a concern for the generation of psychoanalysts after Freud, for whom the grandmother represented a dangerous supplement to the importance of the mother for a child's psychological development. The literary and the psychological uses of the figure of the spoiling grandmother then intersected in scientific and popular guidance for parents in the battle for authority regarding the right way to engage in childcare.

Not just about food: attachments representations and maternal feeding practices in infancy.

The present study examined maternal attachment contributions on infant feeding behavior. Feeding is central for the development of the caregiver-infant relationship with lasting effects for children's health and self-regulation. Caregivers need to be attuned during feeding, so caregivers' attachment likely influences their feeding practices. While pregnant, 116 mothers were administered the Adult Attachment Interview. They completed an assessment of infant temperament at 6 weeks. At 8 months, mother-infant dyads were videotaped during feeding and mothers completed a depression assessment. Mothers classified as preoccupied showed higher levels of feeding conflict and control and less dyadic reciprocity compared with dismissing or secure. Regression analyses revealed that both involving anger and passivity predicted control. Maternal depression moderated the effect that both involving anger and passivity had on control. Maternal unresolved trauma increased the risk that mother-infant dyads showed controlling behaviors during feeding, though was not related to conflict or attunement.

'Pulling the world in and pushing it away': participating bodies and the concept of coping.

In her lead article in this special issue, Monica Greco (2018) offers the concept of participating bodies as a 'possibility of conceiving bodies themselves-and bodily events such as disease/illness-as expressing values and perhaps even socially meaningful "preferences"'. Such a position seeks to avoid capitulation to a) an image of bodily processes as without values or responsiveness, object rather than participant; b) an image of human agents as unitary, self-knowing, sovereign choosers-unless ill. This article will explore this perspective as applied to the idea of coping. The article will explore strategies of everyday living, through particular consideration of Lauren Berlant's reading of Two Girls, Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill. In her interpretation of the novel, Berlant assesses the kinds of problems for subjects and bodies that may be solved or managed through participation in or refraining from participation in thinking, food or sex. The account of coping and embodiment in Berlant's reflections will then be placed in dialogue with findings by Alexandra Michel, who watched the process of physical burnout in investment banking associates during a 13-year cultural ethnography, observing as the bankers heeded or ignored the cues their bodies gave about the limits of feasible demands. The article as a whole offers an illustration of the value of Greco's reflections for offering a fresh and valuable perspective on the concept of coping.

Fathers' attachment representations and infant feeding practices.

This study examined how fathers' adult attachment representations, assessed before the birth of their first child, predict feeding practices with their 8-month-old infants. Fathers have been underrepresented in child feeding research, particularly in longitudinal and observational studies. Feeding is a key parenting task of infancy and a growing number of studies have begun to explore the connection between attachment and parental feeding practices and behavior, revealing a clear link between mothers' adult attachment and how they feed their children. This is the first longitudinal examination of attachment as a prenatal predictor of fathers' infant feeding behavior. Participants were 118 first-time fathers and their infants. Adult Attachment Interviews were conducted in the third trimester of pregnancy, and father-infant feeding interactions were observed at home when the infant was 8-months-old. Videotaped feedings were coded using Chatoor's Feeding Scale (1997). Compared to other fathers, (1) those with secure attachment representations were more attuned to their infants during feeding, (2) those with dismissing representations were less attuned, and (3) those with unresolved trauma displayed more controlling behaviors. Fathers were more controlling with their sons than their daughters across all attachment representations. Study results suggest that father's infant feeding behaviors may influence by their own attachment representations. The links to fathers' controlling feeding practices are noteworthy because of the negative implications controlling parental feeding practices can have on child outcomes. The prediction of paternal feeding behaviors from assessments conducted prenatally has important intervention implications.

Attachment to Mother and Father at Transition to Middle Childhood.

The present study investigated concordance between representations of attachment to mother and attachment to father, and convergence between two narrative-based methods addressing these representations in middle childhood: the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST) and the Secure Base Script Test (SBST). One hundred and twenty 6-year-old children were assessed by separate administrations of the MCAST for mother and father, respectively, and results showed concordance of representations of attachment to mother and attachment to father at age 6.5 years. 75 children were additionally tested about 12 months later, with the SBST, which assesses scripted knowledge of secure base (and safe haven), not differentiating between mother and father attachment relationships. Concerning attachment to father, dichotomous classifications (MCAST) and a continuous dimension capturing scripted secure base knowledge (MCAST) converged with secure base scriptedness (SBST), yet we could not show the same pattern of convergence concerning attachment to mother. Results suggest some convergence between the two narrative methods of assessment of secure base script but also highlight complications when using the MCAST for measuring attachment to father in middle childhood.

Do toddlers prefer the primary caregiver or the parent with whom they feel more secure? The role of toddler emotion.

This study tested Bowlby and Ainsworth's hypothesis that a hierarchy of caregivers exists whereby infants prefer one caregiver over another when distressed. We examined parent gender (mother vs. father), primary caregiver status (defined as the parent who spent most time with the infant and performed most of the caregiving tasks), and role of toddlers' history of attachment security with each parent, as predictors of toddlers' preference for a particular caregiver when the toddlers are distressed and when they are content. Infants' attachment security with each parent was assessed at 12-15 months. At 24 months, mother-child and father-child interactions were observed in triadic (mother, father, toddler) home interactions. When distressed, regardless of the security of their attachment to each parent, toddlers more often interacted with the primary caregiver. When content, toddlers did not show this preference. As expected, toddlers' recovery from distress was predicted by their security of attachment with the parent whom they approached when distressed.