The facial expressions of twenty-eight 13-month-old middle-class children were videotaped during the 3-minute separation episode of the Ainsworth strange-situation procedure. Anger was the dominant negative emotion expressed by the majority of children; patterns of emotion expression varied with type of attachment; and the proportion of time anger…

Reports two studies conducted at an infants' residential center. Study 1 assesses whether infants already attached to a favorite nurse could transfer allegiance to an adoptive mother within a two-week adaptation period and evaluates growing attachment to the new mother; Study 2 explores infant fear of a strange infant, and infant attachment to a…

Findings suggest that infant temperament affects the manner in which security or insecurity is expressed, but does not determine whether an infant develops a secure or insecure attachment to parent. (PCB)

Two studies were conducted to (1) develop measure of infants' executive capacity, defined as difference between infants' most sophisticated level of functioning displayed first in free and then in elicited play and (2) to test several hypotheses regarding relationship between these performance and competence measures of child functioning and home…

Results from this study of 110 low-risk, middle-class infants showed that a significantly greater proportion of infants whose mothers worked full-time outside the home were assigned to the category "insecure-avoidant" than infants whose mothers remained in the home throughout their children's first year of life. (PCB)

Multiple discriminant function analysis was conducted with data from Strange Situations. Results enable researchers to obtain attachment classifications directly from scores on interactive behavior and crying during reunion episodes. (PCB)

Previously published data on infants aged 12 and 13 months who were observed in the Strange Situation with their mothers and fathers were reanalyzed using a component process approach. (PCB)

The relation between resumption of full-time employment by mothers of infants, and subsequent infant-mother and infant-father attachments, was examined. No relation emerged between maternal work status and the quality of infants' attachments to their mothers. (PCB)

Infants whose mothers were supportive of their autonomy displayed greater task-oriented persistence and competence during play than did infants of more controlling mothers; securely attached and avoidant infants tended to exhibit greater persistence at tasks than anxious-ambivalent babies, and ambivalent babies were the most negative in affect.…

Discusses ways in which Myron Hofer's work (1987), which draws on studies of rodents and primates, alters the traditional perspective on human attachment. Emphasizes the importance of the component of attachment that does not develop in explaining attachment in the first six months of life. (PCB)

The behaviors of 57 mothers, their preschool-age children, and their infants were observed using a modified "strange situation" to explore the older siblings' potential to act as subsidiary attachment figures. Gamelike tasks were used to assess the conceptual perspective-taking abilities of the older children. (Author/RH)

Using the Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure, a study examined the interrelations between dimensions of emotion and social interactive behaviors to explore the regulatory role of each in mother-infant interaction and how these roles may change in the second year. (HOD)

In his article "The 'Effects' of Infant Day Care Reconsidered," Jay Belsky (see PS 017 108) concludes that maternal employment puts infants at risk for developing emotional insecurity and social maladjustment. After a review of Belsky's and other research, a different conclusion is offered in this paper. It is agreed that infants whose…

To test hypotheses concerning interactional histories associated with variation in quality of infant-mother attachment, data were gathered during naturalistic home observations of 60 infants 1, 3, and 9 months of age. Responses were elicited on the Ainsworth and Wittig strange situations. Results concerned mothers' relatively greater influence in…

Reviews the major transitional object (TO) theories in terms of origin, development, and psychological meaning. Examines the validity of TO (intense, persistent attachments young children develop for blankets, soft toys, and bits of cloth) theory in light of current empirical knowledge of TO behavior. (HOD)