Investigated (1) the relationship between the quality of attachment and the development of symbolic play, and (2) differences in the ways mothers of secure and anxious children involved themselves in play. Frequency, duration, and complexity of children's play, along with differences in maternal involvement, were assessed across bimonthly free…

Compares attachment relationships of infants at 12 months to their visual self-recognition at both 18 and 24 months. Individual differences in early attachment relations were related to later self-recognition. In particular, insecurely attached infants showed a trend toward earlier self-recognition than did securely attached infants. (Author/NH)

Examined relations among adrenocortical stress reactivity, infant emotional or proneness-to-distress temperament, and quality of attachment in 66 infants tested at 9 and 13 months. Adrenocortical activity was not associated with attachment classifications. Significant only at 9 months, elevations in cortisol were small. (RH)

Investigates the relationship between the infant's attachment to the mother and the mother's perception of support from the father. Mothers who receive positive support from fathers tend to have infants with secure attachment. (AS)

The study examined the classification scheme of the Ainsworth Strange Situation measure of attachment security with 44 insecurely attached 13-month olds from a high-social-risk sample. Results supported the existence of an additional category of infants whose attachment behavior was "avoidant/ambivalent" and whose families were…

A total of 43 mothers of 13-month-old infants were asked to position individuals who were close to them in a network diagram and to indicate which of those individuals provided support. Mothers reported extended networks. Results affirm the importance of spousal support for mothers of infants in intact families. (Author/RH)

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)

No differences were found in mother-infant attachment between nonadopted and intraracial adopted subjects or between intraracial and interracial adopted subjects. Suggests that the higher incidence of psychological problems found among adoptees in middle childhood and adolescence cannot be explained in terms of insecure attachment relationships…

Results suggest that various aspects of Strange Situation behavior are related to both maternal and infant temperament, and that maternal temperament is a predictor of attachment security, particularly for Type A mother-avoidant infants. (Author/RH)

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…

Tested the hypothesis that development of secure attachments is predictable from synchronous, and insecure attachments from asynchronous interactions across the first year. Findings from 30 dyads (10 secure, 10 avoidant, 10 resistant) supported the hypothesis at one and three months, with synchronous interaction observed at significantly,…

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)

Provides overview of attachment theory as parented by John Bowlby in "Attachment and Loss". Uses two major concepts from this work to interpret refinements and elaborations of attachment theory attibuted to Mary Ainsworth. Considers how recent insights into development of socioemotional understanding and development of event…

Investigates the possible relationships among the variables of infant's temperament, mother's mode of interaction, and the quality of the subsequent mother-infant attachment. (Author/NH)

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)