Self- and maternal representations, relatedness patterns, and problem behavior in middle childhood ARIELA WANIEL, a AVI BESSER, b AND BEATRIZ PRIEL a a Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and b Sapir Academic College Abstract The present study investigated the association between children’s representations of their mothers’ and teachers’ reports of children’s problem behavior. The research team conducted semistructured narrative interviews with a com- munity sample of 203 Israeli 9- to 11-year-old children. Ten months later, researchers collected teachers’ reports of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. This study investigated whether children’s self-representation narratives and their maladaptive relatedness stances questionnaire scores mediated this association. Results indicated that children reporting benevolent representations of their mothers exhibited lower levels of problem behavior. More positive self-representations and lower levels of skewness in children’s relatedness stances to their mothers both mediated this association. This article includes a discussion of these results in light of factors contributing to malad- justment in middle childhood. Object relations and attachment theories sug- gest that internal representations or working models of the caregiver are related to compe- tent adjustment by enabling the construction of a stable and positive self-perception and by molding adaptive patterns of interpersonal interaction with significant others (Greenberg & Mitchell, 1983). These interpersonal pat- terns of relatedness are significant predictors of adjustment outcomes in infant and adult samples (Buist, Dekovilc, Meeus, & Van-Aken, 2004; Fonagy & Target, 1997; Hamilton, 2000). Less is known, however, about these associations in school-age children, who were the focus of the present investigation. In the present study, we were interested in targeting the association between school-age children’s internal representation of mother, relatedness style to her, and maladaptive behavior. From a developmental standpoint, middle childhood is a period where children are beginning to represent objects cognitively at a more abstract level (Piaget, 1955, 1962) and their social in- teractions with significant others become more complex and intimate (Baldwin, Cole, & Baldwin, 1982; Baumrind, 1989). These par- allel processes have a direct bearing on the quality of children’s internal model of the caregiver and their perception of their relation- ship with her. Children’s object representations Object relations theories originated as an ap- proach that centered on processes that consti- tute and mediate the individual’s capacity for relating to others (e.g., Greenberg & Mitchell, Ariela Waniel, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben- Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel; Avi Besser, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Sapir Aca- demic College, D. N. Hof Ashkelon, Israel; Beatriz Priel, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben-Gurion Univer- sity of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. We based this article in part on Ariela Waniel’s doc- toral dissertation under the direction of Beatriz Priel. The Research Advisory Board of the International Psychoana- lytical Association supported this research in part. We extend grateful thanks to the teachers and students who agreed to participate in this study. Correspondence should be addressed to Beatriz Priel, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel, e-mail: bpriel@bgu.ac.il. Personal Relationships , 15 (2008), 171–189. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright Ó 2008 IARR. 1350-4126=08 171