This paper applies a developmental structuralist approach to the classification of adaptive and pathologic personality organizations and behavior in infancy and early childhood, and it discusses implications of this approach for preventive intervention. In general, as development proceeds, the structural capacity of the developing infant and child…

This paper describes five experimental studies which explored the influence of fathers' home caregiving and interactional characteristics on their infant's laboratory behavior. Approximately 300 families with children ranging in age from 6 to 24 months were studied. Each infant's reactions were observed as a function of the manipulation of the…

This paper presents some findings of a detailed analysis of infants' approach behavior in a familiar, naturalistic setting. A total of 26, white, middle-class infant-mother pairs were observed in the home every three weeks during the first year of the child's life. Instances of infant approach to both mother and observer were coded from the…

Analysis of the verbal content of 48 Hispanic and Anglo mothers revealed that questions about a newborn infant's gender were more frequent than comments about family resemblance. The contradiction with previous research may be a result of (1) different time intervals for recording conversations or (2) different sociological backgrounds of mothers.…

Reviews Jay Belsky's "The 'Effects' of Infant Day Care Reconsidered," and offers a different conclusion: that the mother's attitudes toward the infant and toward her employment status may mediate day care effects on attachment and aggression. (SKC)

Combines and examines evidence from two longitudinal studies of infant and family development to determine whether experience of extensive nonmaternal care in the first year is associated with heightened risk of insecure infant-mother attachment and, in the case of sons, infant-father attachment. (Author/RWB)

Examination of 390 Black American adolescents demonstrates that males and females experience very different structured forms of social support. Females report more frequent contact with network members, who were both male and female, slightly older, and met in private settings. Males report larger groups of intimate friends, who are overwhelmingly…

Proposes the use of a distancing strategy model as an approach to studying the social genesis of representational competence in children. Explains how the model describes teaching strategies that make cognitive demands on children. (HOD)

This study explored the role of perinatal vulnerability (PV) in mothers and infants in relationship to the development of interaffectivity and attachment, and the relationship between interaffectivity and attachment. Participating were a low-risk sample of 74 middle-class mother/first-born infant dyads who had participated as volunteers in a…

Shyness and love scales were administered to 153 men and 217 women at Texas Lutheran College. Love, dating, and friendship groups were identified on the love scale with respect, congeniality, altruism, physical attraction, and attachment subscales. For the love and friendship groups, shyness appears to be a barrier. (Author/CM)

Matched groups of day-care and home-reared infants were assessed at 3.5 years old for aspects of emotional and language development. The data suggest that attendance in infant day care did not adversely affect the children's overall emotional or language development (Author/DB)

Analysis of questionnaire responses by 879 college students found respondents who indicated they had been abused as children reported less secure relationships, more depression, and greater use of destructive behaviors than their nonabused counterparts. Abuse history was substantially stronger than parental attachment in predicting conflict…

Compared visual self-recognition in toddlers of depressed (DM) and nondepressed mothers (NDM). Found that DM toddlers showing self-recognition were more likely than NDM toddlers to display nonpositive affect. DM toddlers not showing self-recognition and who shifted affect in the postrouge condition were less securely attached to mothers with less…

Examined differences in self-reported psychiatric symptomatology on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 according to the Adult Attachment Interview in first-time mothers from a high-risk poverty sample. Different symptom patterns were consistent with adult attachment status as an index of self-representation and as a set of…

This paper describes the program of a special school in British Columbia for youth with behavior disorders and either learning disabilities or intellectual impairments. Program components (behavior therapy, activity-based learning, and attachment development) and program sequence (assessment, formulation and implementation of a Growth and…