Maintains that the preceding studies extend a long line of research demonstrating the coherence of individual development in attachment security. Notes that the studies clarify that attachment security can be stable from infancy through early adulthood and that changes in security are meaningfully related to changes in the family environment.…

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.…

Although a growing literature suggests that physical abuse is associated with delinquency, little empirical research has attempted to probe the nature of the mechanism that underlies the apparent relationship. Moreover, because the theoretical literature tends to invoke learning and strain theories as explanations for the apparent relationship,…

Data from the longitudinal Berkeley Becoming a Family Project were used to evaluate the possibility that husbands' and wives' working models of attachment are related to the quality of their marital relationship. The main issue investigated was that of whether there are connections between working models of childhood attachment relationships and…

Describes characteristics of the attachment behavior of 10 infants blind from birth. Behaviors studied were smiling, discriminating tactile behaviors, stranger avoidance and distress, and separation and reunion behaviors. (BRT)

Attempts to assess maternal and neonatal behavior and subsequent mother-infant interactions as potential determinants of the quality of attachment between mothers and their infants provide the focus of this paper. Several instruments and procedures that focused on (1) maternal and infant characteristics, (2) mother-infant interaction, and (3) life…

This longitudinal study examined the interrelationship between sex of the child and sex of the parent on the expression of attachment behaviors during the child's first 2 years. Special consideration was given developmental changes in the attachment structure and the relationship of attachment to cognitive development. Ten boys and 10 girls were…

Attempts to replicate Ainsworth's Baltimore study by conducting lengthy home observations of mother-infant interactions before observing the infants in the strange situation. (NH)

Investigated through direct observation in the home whether mothers socialize differently boys and girls growing up as opposite-sexed twins, triplets, and quadruplets as a function of their different genders. Children and mothers were rated on behaviors about which contradictory evidence had been reported in the literature. (Author/DB)

Explored fathers' specific contribution to their children's attachment representation at various ages. Found fathers' play sensitivity to be a better predictor of the child's long-term attachment representation than the early infant-father security of attachment. (Author)

Finds that mothers high in responsiveness in the infant's first year have more secure infants and have children who are more likely to use prosocial interaction strategies with peers, are rated by teachers as having fewer school problems, and score higher on the Stanford-Binet. (pcb)

Documents generally positive and supportive relationships between parents and children, more positive relationships with mothers than fathers, and an improvement in relationships as children mature from age 18 to 23. Further, parent-child relationships are perceived differently between parent and child. (JPS)

Assessments of parent and sibling attachments were made when the firstborn child of a two-child family was one, three, and six years old. Sibling conflict and aggression were related to maternal conflict with both children at six years. Affectionate fathering was associated with prosocial sibling interaction. (BC)

The relationships of 441 children with their mother and preschool teacher were assessed and classified in 3 categories. Children in the secure relationship category had more responsive teachers than other children. Children in the ambivalent relationship category had more responsive teachers than children in the avoidant relationship category. (BC)

Examined the relationship between attachment cognitions and social support in a community sample of 129 late-adolescent women. Found that attachment cognitions representing greater security in close relationships were associated with higher levels of perceived and enacted social support. Differences between subjects reporting secure and insecure…