In order to examine whether the visual picture of the mother would, by itself, encourage toddlers to play in an unfamiliar situation, the effects of films of mothers were compared to the actual presence of the mothers, and to films of unfamiliar women. (CM)

This study applied Meehl's taxometric techniques for distinguishing latent types from late continua to Strange Situation data on 1,139 fifteen-month-olds from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Results indicated that variation in attachment patterns was largely continuous, not categorical. Implications of dimensional models for individual…

Attachment representations and self-confidence were assessed at age 7 on the basis of children's responses to a separation story and independent observations, although cognitive functioning was measured at ages 7-17 years based on a battery of Piagetian tasks assessing concrete and formal reasoning. Children with a secure attachment representation…

Assessed 26 lesbian couples' division of labor, their satisfaction with division of labor and their relationships, and their children's psychosocial adjustment. Found that parents were more satisfied and children were more well adjusted when the labor involved in child care was more evenly distributed between parents. (MDM)

Examined mothers' representations of their relationship with toddler sons over a 13-month period. Found that the three factors characterizing mothers' representations for 15-month olds also fit data for 28-month olds. Found significant increases in anger but no changes in joy, pleasure, coherence, guilt, and separation distress. Changes in…

This study investigated relations among preschoolers' attachment security to mothers, family stress, and peer and teacher relationships. Less family stress was related to more secure mother-child relationships. Less securely attached children expressed more anger-aggression in preschools. Boys' family stress was related to anger- aggression 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…

Examined processes whereby attachment and other factors contribute to social/emotional adjustment among African-American children. Found that attachment assessed at 4.5 years uniquely predicted perceived social support two years later. Insecure attachment predicted self-reported behavior problems and parental report of internalizing problems.…

Tested two models of the relationship between a hypothetical attachment mechanism and an incompatible motivation (a tendency to explore) by pitting two levels of attachment motivation against two levels of exploratory motivation among 15- to 18-month-old infants, alternating freely between play with novel toys at one end of the room and visits…

Peer competence in preschool children in two classes was assessed via (a) teacher rankings of social competence, (b) peer sociometrics, and behavioral measures of (c) social participation, and others. Affective expression and social behavior were temporally stable and consistent across contexts for both classes; however, patterns of…

Examined mother-infant teaching interactions, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scores, and infant attachment security in 197 adolescent mothers and their infants. Adolescent mothers who were living with neither their own mothers nor their partners had better teaching interactions but lower HOME scores than those…

Assessed temperament of children of 5-42 months of age. A Q-sort measure was used to assess children's attachment security between 12 and 45 months. Analysis of results revealed an association between temperament and attachment security at all ages. (BC)

Examined maternal care and infant attachment security in a sample from the United States (Colorado) and one from Colombia. Found that maternal sensitivity and infant security were significantly associated in both samples. Identified six common and two noncommon domains (one per sample) of caregiving; associations between domains of maternal…

Analyzed relationships between child-care experience and preschoolers' attachment. Found that maternal sensitivity was the strongest predictor of preschoolers' attachment. When maternal sensitivity was low, more hours per week in child care at 15 months somewhat increased the risk of the insecure-ambivalent classification at 36 months. Found…