The accuracy of children's long-term memory for distressing events is of theoretical and legal interest. In this longitudinal study, 3- to 5-year-olds and their main parental caretakers individually participated in a mildly distressing event, and 1 h later the children's memory/suggestibility was assessed (Time 1). Six to seven years later (Time…

Attachment theorists have long recognized that multiple attachments characterize the typical experience of most children. But an appreciation of attachment networks is new, and this commentary draws on some of the most theoretically provocative themes of the contributions to this special issue. These include: how the quality of attachment…

This study investigated age and gender differences in the quality of attachment to mothers, fathers, and peers, and the association of attachment with measures of self-evaluation in 584 Chinese adolescents in junior high, high school, and university. Their responses to the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment indexed attachment quality, and…

This study investigated the relations among attachment, mother-child discourse, and theory of mind in a sample of 76 four-year-old children (mean age = 4.48 years; 36 boys). Mother-child conversations about a past event were coded for maternal use of elaborative discourse and mothers' references to mental states. Mothers completed the attachment…

The relation between maternal behavior and child attachment security is weaker among low SES samples, but it is unclear how stressors/risks associated with low SES alter the dynamics of attachment relationships. Results of this study of 63 low income mothers and their 24-36-month-old children indicated that the influence of multiple economic risks…

Asserts (1) that contrary to Waters, findings affirm the importance of viewing mother-infant attachment as a dynamic relationship, responsive to family conditions, and (2) that these findings are consistent with those of other researchers. (Author/RH)

The contributions of temperamentally and nontemperamentally based emotional reactions to the organization of social interactive behavior within the Strange Situation are examined for the purpose of bettering the understanding of the emotional underpinnings of attachment system functioning. At 12 1/2 and 19 1/2 months, temperamental fear was…

Forty-three infants and mothers were observed in the Strange Situation when infants were 12.5 and 19.5 months old. Following each assessment, mothers completed a questionnaire concerning changes in family and care-giving circumstances. Results indicate that security of attachment reflects the current status of infant-mother interaction and that…

Examined relationship between preschoolers' attachment security and child and mother problem-solving behaviors in laboratory tasks. Found that, compared to children with higher scores, children with lower security scores on the Attachment Q-Sort made more unnecessary help-seeking bids and inability statements, were more frustrated, and asked for…

Two studies examined the influence of maternal discourse style and security of attachment on preschoolers' emotion understanding. Findings indicated that neither predicted 3-year-olds' emotion understanding. Secure attachment predicted higher emotion understanding among 5-year-olds, especially in the context of maternal use of elaborative…

Examined role of parent-child discourse within a supportive relationship in children's early conscience development. Found that children's attachment security predicted maternal and child references to feelings and moral evaluatives in narratives about previous behavior incidents. Attachment security, shared positive affect between mother and…

Examined the association between attachment and emotional understanding in 2.5- to 6-year olds. Found that age and attachment security predicted a child's aggregate score on emotional understanding tasks. When the score was separated by valence of the emotion, attachment security and age predicted a child's score for only emotions with negative…

Addresses the relevance of attachment theory and research to an understanding of the effects of early day care on sociopersonality development. Concludes that evidence is weaker than claimed by Jay Belsky and that further research is necessary before the effects of day care will be understood. (SKC)

Suggests future directions for study of sensitivity and its impact on early psychosocial development: (1) renewed attention to growth of attachment in context of other developing features of the parent-child relationship; (2) factors that moderate impact of sensitivity on developing security; (3) origins of individual differences in sensitivity;…

Despite its prevalence in low-income populations, there has been little attention paid to how maternal depression influences mother-child conversations about emotions and low-income preschool children's developing emotion understanding. The importance of a secure attachment as a positive influence on emotion understanding has also been…