The Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, a 45-year study of children born into poverty, offers a number of lessons for practitioners. Among these are the potency of early relationship experiences for predicting developmental outcomes and the fate of early experience following developmental change. This article describes the…

Investigated the representational model of self and attachment figures in family drawings of 8- to 9-year-olds in a high-risk, racially mixed sample. Found that specific signs and global rating scales were related to early relationship history. Even after contemporary influences of child intelligence, stress, and emotional functioning were…

Attachment outcomes of 31 maltreatment cases (involving extreme neglect or abuse), selected from a total poverty sample of 267 high-risk mothers and their children, were compared to those of a subsample of 33 cases with a history of excellent care. Attachment was assessed when infants were 12 and 18 months old. (Author/MP)

Distinguishes between attachment (the relationship between infant and caregiver) and dependency (the reliance of the child on adults for nurturance, attention, or assistance). Assesses preschool children with varying attachment histories and suggests that the roots of overdependency lie in the quality of the early infant-caregiver relationship.…

This 23-year longitudinal study examined the attachment history of earned-secure young adults who coherently describe negative childhood experiences. Findings indicated that retrospective earned-secures were not more likely than continuous-secures to have been anxiously attached in infancy, and were observed in childhood and adolescence to have…

Describes research with 12- to 18-month-old infants (N=108) determining whether the quality of an infant's attachment to his/her primary caregiver could predict the nature of his/her emerging personality. (CS)

Based on research on patterns of infant-caregiver attachment, a theory of individual development is proposed. Principles of the theory include a focus on adaptation, a view of the person as a coherent whole, a central role for affective constructs and emotion, and a focus on individual differences. (GC)

Ainsworth's system of classifying attachment patterns will not be easily displaced primarily because of difficulties involved in a dimensional approach. Problems include the number of dimensions involved, need to develop reliable scales, and need to describe how behavior changes across age and in the Strange Situation. Only when an alternative…

Explored the stability of attachment security and representations from infancy to early adulthood in a high risk sample. Found no evidence for significant continuity between infant and adult attachment, but rather a lawful discontinuity, with many participants transitioning to insecurity. Continuous and discontinuous groups were differentiated on…