Abstract

SANZ-GUERRA, Cristina  and  SIERRA-GARCIA, Purificación. Children's understanding of emotion in the system of care. Acción psicol. [online]. 2017, vol.14, n.2, pp.241-252.  Epub Sep 11, 2023. ISSN 2255-1271.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5944/ap.14.1.19365.

The mother-child relationship has traditionally been studied from the perspective of attachment theory. But in addition, they are a psychological and social phenomenon to which the child gives meaning and tries to understand. To explore the child’s understanding of this dimension of the relationship, we interviewed 85 children between 7 and 9 years old through a semistructured interview with four stories, in which the Attachment System and the System of Care were related. The analysis of the children’s responses shows that 97 % attribute discomfort in the mother in relation to the experience of threat of the child. Children of these ages already have an understanding of the Mother’s System of Care in connection with the child’s attachment system. The responsibility and empathy of the mother are part of the responses of children of these ages as activators of their behavior of care and protection for the child. Children's representations can be organized at increasingly sophisticated and complex levels of understanding. Knowing the feelings and motivations that children attribute to the mother in her role of primary caregiver and the child’s vision of the emotional laws that govern affective mother-child relationships, can offer us new perspectives on how attachment relationships are built and be useful in the detection and intervention in unhealthy attachments, in both members of the dyad.

Keywords : System of care; Attachment system; Child’s understanding; Internal working model.

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