Observations of mothers of 47 6-month-old infants with early histories of nonorganic failure to thrive indicated these mothers demonstrated less adaptive social interactional behavior, less positive affective behavior, and more arbitrary termination of feedings when compared to mothers of physically normal infants. (DB)

Asserts that sociocultural assumptions underlying items in the Parental Investment in the Child Questionnaire (PIC) are outdated and gender biased. Reviews the underlying logic of attachment theory and the PIC portrait of appropriate childrearing. Parental investment is shown to be maternal investment. The model provides debatable and unrealistic…

Incarcerated mothers (n = 357) at a maximum-security prison participated in a study of the relationship between contact and parenting stress, using the parenting stress index for incarcerated women (PSI-IW; Houck & Loper, 2002). The study examined contact before incarceration and the frequency of telephone, letter, and visitation contact…

Assessed parent-child interaction in 2-parent families with 12- and 18-month-old infants through questionnaires, interviews, family observations, and the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure. Found no effect of family stress and marital adjustment on infants' attachment classification. Parents of 12 month olds reported greater marital adjustment…

Examined security of attachment between pairs of young children and their mothers and fathers in maritally intact families. Found that younger and older children developed concordant attachments to both parents. Parents were consistent in caregiving to their two children. Associations were found between maternal caregiving and attachment only for…

Examines the pairings of adult attachment styles among married couples raising young children. There was no relation between adult attachment styles, parenting behavior, and the security of infant/parent attachments. Future work would benefit by focusing on the dyadic constellations of adult attachment styles and their implications for family…

Explored long-term effects of different childrearing contexts on attachment and separation representations of Israeli 16- to 18-year-olds. Found that adolescents raised in a kibbutz communal setting showed higher incidence of nonautonomous attachment representations and less competent coping with imagined separations than adolescents raised in a…

The author presents journal entries from her first 7 months as a foster parent of a 5-week-old girl in 2000, illustrating how she, her husband, and her birth children wrestled with their emotions and their role as a foster family. Their expectations of themselves as temporary caretakers were reinforced in foster parent training. What the training…

This monograph is divided into three main sections: theoretical grounding, student identity, and implications. The first section, theoretical grounding of parental involvement, looks at the reasons parents today are more likely to be involved in their students' lives and then reviews the literature of K-12 education and compares that information…

Theories furthering understanding of the effects of child rearing practices on psychiatric disturbance are briefly reviewed. Particular attention is given to family dynamics, the double-bind hypothesis, and the development of schizophrenia and related border line syndromes that lead to psychotic phenomena. The issue of child rearing practices is…

The attachment behavior of 35 white, middle-class 3 1/2- to 4-year-olds who had experienced different rearing histories was observed through a series of standardized episodes involving separations and reunions with the mother and a stranger. (Author/JMB)

Focuses on definition of sensitivity, developmental changes in sensitivity, and clinical implications of attachment. Maintains that promptness, consistency, and appropriateness are the main components of sensitivity across parenting dimensions. Suggests that studying infant antecedents to attachment security is equally important to that of parent…

Maintains that it is important to distinguish theory testing from effect-size evaluation when considering the impact of mothering on attachment security. Contends that it is possible that the De Wolff and van IJzendoorn meta-analysis both over- and underestimates mothering effects, as would be the case if infants varied in their susceptibility to…

This paper examines the role of internal working models in the development of parent-child relationships. Mental representations of child attachment, adult attachment, and parental caregiving are reviewed in light of adaptational deficits often associated with attachment insecurity. A reconceptualization of the link between insecurity and child…

A study of 53 Japanese mothers and their young children who were temporarily living in the United States found that, when life stress was high, mothers reported less parenting stress if social support was adequate. The more satisfied mothers were with their support, the less secure was their children's attachment. (BC)