Parent/infant bonding is discussed in this study review. Bonding is defined prior to a discussion of research that places the concept in historical perspective. The discussion of research since 1950 focuses on Bowlby, Klaus and Kennell, Helfer, Mahler and Rheingold, and Brazelton. Attention is given to the capacities of the newborn, child abuse,…

Reviews results of published and unpublished research on the effects of maternal employment as they relate to: adjustment of the child, school achievement and intelligence, attitudes and perceptions, and activities of children with working mothers. (SET)

The author contends that families are uniquely constituted to bestow the gifts of caring, courage, and problem solving ability upon children. Clinical and epistemological insights as well as research evidence concerning child development and family relationships are presented as sources of information which will aid families to bestow these gifts.…

Addressed to trainers of infant day care providers, this presentation indicates knowledge and skills through which trainers can foster competence in caregivers. First, caregivers should be familiar with Eriksonian and Piagetian developmental theory. Second, caregivers should be aware of the guidelines for practice provided by empirical research.…

To determine whether the daily mother-infant separation involved in day care adversely affects children's emotional development, follow-up data on emotional development were compared for preschool children in day care and their home-reared counterparts. Follow-up assessments were done in the home at approximately age 3-1/2 for ten white middle…

This paper discusses the nature of the infant social world. Infants develop attachments to both parents. Father-child and mother-child relationships are qualitatively different. They involve different types of experiences and have different implications for the child's personality development. The fathers' sex-differentiating behavior focuses the…

This experiment tested the hypotheses that interpersonal dependence would be an inverse function of the individual's chronic and situational levels of self-esteem, and that interpersonal attraction would be an inverse function of the individual's induced/situational level of self-esteem, but would be unaffected by her chronic level. Subjects were…

This study examined the effect of a day care program on mother-child interaction patterns and attachment behaviors, and compared these patterns of behavior with those obtained from a matched sample of more advantaged home-reared infants. Subjects were 60 infants, ranging in age from 3 1/2 to 9 1/2 months, and their mothers. There were three groups…

A total of 20 children, between 17 and 38 months old, were observed in their day care centers and in a standardized laboratory procedure. In both settings, preseparation, separation, and reunion situations were observed. Observers coded proximity-increasing and proximity-decreasing behaviors to mother and to other adults; in addition, distress,…

The social development of 59 kibbutz-reared five-year-olds, whose attachments to mothers, fathers, and metaplott were assessed when they were 11 to 14 months old, was investigated. Findings raise questions regarding the developmental significance of attachment relationships with various significant adults. (RH)

Data collected from 82 family triads demonstrate that adolescents are more consonant with mothers than fathers, particularly in the area of kinship relations. Fathers' distinctive association with adolescents is in the area of friendship relations and concerns affective aspects of relationships. These patterns are not dependent on gender of…

Offers evidence supporting a model of bidirectional effects: the mother initiates maltreatment, but both mother and infant sustain the situation by their behaviors. Maltreated infants did not differ from controls in congenital characteristics, but displayed deviance in learned behavior patterns. Infants showed behavioral improvement after…

Explores the relation between the infant's ability to negotiate the environment and the quality of the infant-mother attachment relationship. (HOD)

Details the author's experiences in helping her adopted four-year-old daughter from Bangladesh cope with the loss of her biological family and her adjustment to a new culture, and offers suggestions for professionals and parents helping young children make similar adjustments. (HOD)

Investigates the impact of early maternal employment--direct (mother-child) and indirect (father-child) effects--in families with firstborn 20-month-olds. Shows maternal employment is not related to toddler outcomes (security of attachment or problem-solving behavior). (HOD)