The correlation between mother's attachment style and communication skills of their educable mentally retarded sons

Background: According to the attachment theory, maternal behavior and mothers' reactions toward her child, is affected by her attachment style; and maternal role is important during the development of communicative skills. This study was conducted in order to find out the relation between the maternal attachment styles of mother and communicative skills of their mentally retarded male students.  

Methods: This study is correlational one in which a sample consisting of 127 mentally retarded male students of Shiraz in the three base first, second and third academic years of 2008-2009, along with their mothers were selected. The maternal attachment style questionnaire for collecting data on adult attachment style (AAS) (1987) was used. Data communication skills by mentally retarded male students sub-tests "communication skills" Vineland's social tests (1965) were also collected. The Spearman correlation test; analysis of variance and Scheffe's test were used for data analyses.

Results: Whereas there was a positive significant correlation between Secure attachment style of mothers with the communicative skills of mentally-retarded male students of secondary school (p<0.001); mothers with maternally insecure attachment styles (avoidant and ambivalent), had a negative significant correlation with their sons’ communicative skills. (p=0.031 and p<0.002, respectively).

Conclusion: Attachment styles of mothers have a significant effect on the communicative skills of their mentally retarded sons.