Attentional Problems in Dysfunctional Mother-Child Interactions: An Interbehavioral Model

A review of the literature on dysfunctional mother-child interactions indicates a consistent association between dysfunction and environmental stressors. The association does not always seem due to an absence of parenting skills but more so due to a stress-induced deficiency in maternal attention. Some mothers, who also live in the midst of stressors, are not in synchrony with cues offered through their children's various behaviors. The literature suggests that the stress-induced attention problem is mediated by organizational properties of a mother's response repertoire. These properties, conceptualized by the term response class, refer to covariations among the various behaviors composing the mother's repertoire. According to this interbehavioral model, mothers who manifest high response class intercorrelations will also be most susceptible to the attention-debilitating influences of stress. The heuristic value of this model is outlined in a section on clinical strategies geared to changing a mother's attention. Clinical teaching procedures described as analysis and synthesis are presented.