Forcada-Guex et al. (2011) used interaction patterns to assess
maternal attachment representations and classified them as balanced,
disengaged, or distorted representations of attachment.
The mothers of preterm infants, whether with high or low PTS
symptoms, had less balanced representations of their infants than
mothers of full-term infants. Mothers with lower PTS symptoms
and in heterogeneous dyad interaction pattern showed more disengaged
representations, while mothers with high PTS symptoms
and in controlling dyadic patterns showed more distorted representations
(Forcada-Guex et al., 2011). Although these findings
showed the link between PTS symptoms and less positive
mother-infants interactions, the study failed to clarify the distinction
between the three representations.