Background: There is a high prevalence of challenging behaviors (CB) in adults with intellectual disability (ID), which lead to negative personal outcomes and diminished quality of life. Emerging evidence suggest attachment theory could be useful to address CB in adults with ID and lower the negative impact on their social environment. Methods: A…

Relations between infant-mother attachment security at 15 months and infants' (N = 206) joint attention behaviors (a) with an experimenter at 8 and 15 months, and (b) with their mothers at 15 months were investigated. No concurrent or longitudinal relations were observed between attachment security and infants' tendency to respond to an…

Previous work has shown that students who have troublesome relationships with their parents show higher risk factors for poorer college adjustment. In the present study, we focused on the balance between two key aspects of parenting style, parental care and overprotection, as they affect the transition to college life. Eighty-three undergraduate…

The role of attachment style in relation to forgiveness was investigated in 2 betrayal interviews. Blood pressure and heart rate were assessed, along with attachment style, forgiveness, empathy, and emotional expressiveness. Securely attached individuals were more forgiving of the specific offense, had higher levels of trait forgiveness, and…

Used standardized mood-induction procedures to examine the relation between attachment security and representational-defensive processes. Subjects were 32 preschoolers ranked most secure and least secure using Attachment Q-Set. Found secure subjects were no more responsive to positive mood inductions, and no less responsive to negative ones, than…

Used Adult Attachment Interview to examine relationship between mothers' level of security and children's attachment behavior. Found that except for children of preoccupied mothers, children of mothers classified as secure scored higher on the (Attachment Q-Set) AQS-derived security dimension than children whose mothers were classified as insecure…

This study designed and tested the Relationship Self Inventory (RSI) intended to measure the self-descriptive value of Gilligan's "connected self-in-relation-to-others" model. Gilligan's research indicates that the formation of self based on connection with others and an orientation to care (connected self) is associated primarily with…

This study compared three ways of analyzing individual mother-infant attachment behaviors in order to test the hypothesis that success in the search for stable individual differences in attachment behavior is in part a function of the level at which behavior individuality is assessed. Fifty infants were videotaped in the Ainsworth and Wittig…

Assessed maternal sensitivity and infants' attachment behavior to test validity of a system of classifying attachment relationships at home. Subjects were 47 mothers of preterm and 42 mothers of full-term infants. Results reaffirm Ainsworth's conceptualization of distinct attachment relationships. (HTH)

Describes the core constructs of attachment theory, namely, the attachment system and secure-base behavior. Discusses contextual factors thought to be crucial in development of individual differences in attachment, especially maternal sensitivity, and considers child characteristics, especially temperament, that may contribute to the attachment…

This study of 105 12-month olds replicated 4 similar studies that showed that infants in day care are at risk for insecure attachment. Failure to reproduce significant results suggests that the research literature on infant day care and attachment may be biased by the unavailability of "file drawer" studies--unpublished data showing no…

This research examined the degree of correspondence between children's perceptions of their parents' caregiving behavior, those parents' self-perceptions, and the parents' inferences about how their behavior would be perceived by their child. Eighty child (seven-year-olds) parent pairs completed modified Bronfenbrenner Parent Behavior…

Investigates the belief that caregivers' sensitive and contingent behavior is closely related to children's perceived control by analyzing the interactions between mothers and their 3 1/2- to 4 1/2-year-old children during a problem-solving task. (HOD)

Investigated the universality of children's use of their mothers as a secure base. Found that, on average, children in all seven of the countries and contexts studied were characterized as using their mothers as a secure base, but that they differed across cultures in the degree to which their behavior conformed to the definition of a securely…

Observed the social behavior of 27 preschoolers in the in parent-cooperative preschools. Found that when, their parents were working in the preschool, children engaged in less high-level peer play, initiated play with peers less often and expressed more negative emotion and spent much less time in proximity to adults than when their parents were…