A total of 96 mothers of preschool children participated in a study examining the
relationships among identity status and the variables of family attachment style and
understanding of children’s development. Results indicated that women in
the committed identity statuses of identity achievement and, contrary to
expectation, foreclosure, were highest in secure attachment. Fearful
attachment predominated among the uncommitted identity statuses of
moratorium and identity diffusion. Achievement women were the
highest and diffusion women lowest in their understanding of
children’s development. Examination of attachment styles as categorical
variables, for achievements and foreclosures, revealed two different patterns within
each status: secure and insecure. When achievements and
foreclosures were grouped according to their attachment classifications and their
perspectivistic scores analysed, achieved-insecure women had
relatively high perspectivistic scores (in fact, the highest among the statuses) and
foreclosed-insecure women had relatively low ones (almost as low as diffuse
women). These results suggest that there may be two distinct patterns of both
foreclosure and achievement for adult women.
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