Impact of Mother Attachment on the Psychological Immunity among girl students studying at Senior Secondary level

Abstract

Attachment can be understood as a long-lasting, deep and strong emotional bond formed between the primary caregiver (mother) and the child or infant, especially during early formative years which arises out of the human need to connect and seek affection, love, and security. It is seen that early attachment experiences impact our behaviour and relationships as adults. Mother-daughter attachment is a unique form of attachment which is studied under the Mother-Daughter Attachment Model helping us to explore and understand the attachment needs of the mother-daughter relationship across ages, cultures, and areas. The current study does not focus on the intergenerational attachment between mothers and girls, rather it tries to study the impact of gender as an independent variable on mother attachment and psychological immunity of 2160 adolescents (n1 (boys) = 1080; n2 (girls) = 1080) studying in senior secondary classes (class XI) of government and private schools in Delhi NCR. It also aims to investigate the impact of mother attachment as an independent variable on the Psychological Immunity (PI) of adolescents and among girls specifically, using linear regression analysis. It is seen that gender plays no significant role in influencing mother attachment, though girls are reported to demonstrate lesser externalizing behaviours than boys in case of avoidant or insecure attachments; however, mother attachment plays a significant role in impacting PI of students in the transition phase from childhood to adulthood. The study reveals how coping behaviours, daily stress management, and the mental well-being of adolescents are closely linked to maternal attachment, though mother attachment is not found to significantly impact the PI of girl students in particular. The need for mental health professionals to better understand the intricacies of mother-daughter relationships thereby helping to foster the need to support availability of better guidance and counselling services, healthier aging among mothers, better mental health and emotional well-being of girls and women is recommended.