The association between maternal sensitivity and attachment security has long been established among normative samples. However, less is known about how this association operates among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This meta-analytic review is the first to address the association between maternal sensitivity/availability and attachment security in a population of children with ASD (aged 1 to 7 years) and to explore if this association is moderated by child chronological age, mental age, ASD-related symptoms severity. The objective was also to assess the role of methodological moderators, including the informant of the attachment measure, country and publication year. A systematic search was performed on relevant databases. Seven studies were retained. Meta-analytic results showed a significant medium effect size between maternal sensitivity/availability and attachment security in children with ASD (r = .47; 95% CI: 0.32-.60; p < .001), which is a stronger association than in the general population (r = .24). Moderation analyses did not show any significant effect of child chronological age and publication year on effect sizes. The categorical moderators (e.g., informant, country) could not be tested due to the limited number of studies. More research is needed to better understand the way mothers adapt to their children with autism and identify the nuances regarding how maternal sensitivity/availability relates to child attachment in the context of ASD.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02227-z.
Keywords: Attachment; Autism spectrum disorder; Maternal sensitivity; maternal availability; meta-analysis.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.