Used home observations and laboratory procedures with 85 Chilean mothers and infants to examine the association between infants' chronic undernutrition and maternal sensitivity, sociodemographic variables, and infants' play and problem solving. Found that maternal sensitivity was correlated with maternal education, maternal weight, marital…

Notes that "Loveys," or transitional comfort objects, are an important prop in some children's emotional and intellectual development. Provides developmental information, and describes types of children who typically use loveys, challenges to child care programs when the object comes to school, and how children give up their attachments.…

Work in developmental psychiatry and psychology has increasingly focused on how internal representations of early experiences with primary figures of childhood affect relationship formation in later childhood and adulthood. Investigations of the reflective self function, which involves mental states in which individuals become the subject of their…

This paper reports the results of a study on the quality of attachment in two groups of interracially adopted infants in the Netherlands, and compares these results with results from a similar study of American interracial adoption. The two groups in the Netherlands consisted of 30 adoptive Asian children placed in White families, and 20 Asian and…

A prospective, longitudinal investigation was made of psychological aspects of pregnancy, birth, and the first year postpartum. The majority of participants were Caucasian (90 percent) and Chinese-Canadian (5 percent) men and women and their infant children. Adult participants completed a series of psychological and attitude measures selected to…

Love and romance continue to be important issues within every age group, not merely among the usually studied college students. Two issues, the nature or intensity of the love experienced and the motives or purposes of love were examined for different age groups. The ways in which the pursuit of heterosexual love may change throughout adult life…

Written for researchers and clinicians, this book integrates key perspectives in order to illuminate common beliefs about core processes of emotional development. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 discusses the nature of emotional development. Topics covered here include: (1) questions relevant in a developmental assessment of emotions;…

The normal, biologically adaptive development of attachment between the human infant under 3 years of age and mother/caregivers contrasts with the Anglo-Saxon cultural belief that babies should be accustomed to unpleasantness. Separation of hospitalized children from their mothers, as frequently done in the past, has resulted in psychological…

Presents four articles illustrating the impact of children's changing schools: (1) "Managing Changes in Primary Teachers" (Carla Gwinn); (2) "Losing a Child from a Primary Teaching Group: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do!" (Brooke Harrington); (3) "What to Say to Children Who Are Leaving" (Kay Albrecht); and (4) "Those Bonds Remain Forever" (Linda…

A model of women's readiness to terminate an abusive relationship was examined, using cognitive and emotional factors to predict readiness to change as conceptualized in the transtheoretical model. Factors previously identified in the domestic violence literature were selected to represent cognitive predictors (attribution and attachment style)…

This study was intended to determine whether differences in maternal attitude and behavior relate to differences in infants' Strange Situation security classification. Subjects for the present study were 38 white middle-class mothers and their normal, 1-year-old infants (20 male, 18 female). Infants who were classified as to the quality of their…

Describes a program developed to help parents become effective playmates. Suggests that interactive play between infants and adults has numerous benefits, although these benefits will not occur automatically; they require parents to develop the appropriate skills. Proposes methods to facilitate play and make an important contribution to the…

Infants' differential vocal response (DVR) towards their mother and a female stranger at 3 months of age has been predominantly investigated as an index of early cognitive functioning. The present study explored the relationship between DVR and different infant and mother indicators of the developing relationship quality in a sample of 23…

This study examined both maternal and child interaction styles, focusing on the association between differences in maternal level and quality of involvement and the synchrony and affective quality of child interaction behaviors. The subjects were 55 mother-child dyads in which the children (ages 2-5) had been referred to a mental health center…

This discussion explores some of the emotional factors affecting teachers and children in the educational process and their relationship to early childhood education. One major area of emotional experience in the classroom is related to the child's response to the content of what is being taught. Any novel situation and, in particular, a situation…