Adolescent Parenting, Subthreshold Neglect, and Infant Attachment

This project investigated the impact of subthreshold neglect on the security and organization of infant-mother attachment bonds. Subthreshold neglect was defined as poor parenting that was not severe enough to mandate involvement of child protection agencies. On average, teen mothers were more neglectful than low-resource and high-resource adult mothers; however, the rates of insecure and disorganized attachment did not differ significantly between teens and adults. Across all groups, subthreshold neglect of children's developmental advance and emotional needs was associated with insecure infant-mother attachment. Specifically, mothers who were more neglectful were more likely to have children with an insecure-avoidant attachment pattern. Subthreshold neglect was not associated with the disorganization of the attachment bond. Results are discussed in terms of differences between subthreshold and substantiated child neglect as well as implications for intervention and prevention with subthreshold neglect.