To assess the effect of early mother-infant proximity on later stress and behavior, two studies were made which involved a sample of mother-baby pairs that was larger than samples utilized in previous studies. In Study 1, involving 300 consecutive mother-baby couples at the Maternity Hospital in Plymouth, England clinical medical officers used a…

This paper presents results of the first part of a research program designed to test the hypothesis that an hour of extra contact between mother and infant beginning about one half hour after delivery would be associated with more secure attachment of an infant to its mother at one year. In the overall study extra contact infants were also…

This paper focuses on difficulties and possibilities of theory and research on emotional attachment in humans and problems associated with exclusive reliance on the Strange Situation procedure in cross cultural research. After specifying emotional consequences of qualitatively different attachment histories and appropriate ways of assessing their…

Data from the longitudinal Berkeley Becoming a Family Project were used to evaluate the possibility that husbands' and wives' working models of attachment are related to the quality of their marital relationship. The main issue investigated was that of whether there are connections between working models of childhood attachment relationships and…

This paper reports the effects of one hour of extra post-partum contact between mother and infant on the quality of the attachment observed when the infant was one year old. It was hypothesized that infants in the extra contact condition would be classified as securely attached while regular contact infants would be less frequently classified as…

A longitudinal study explored the effects of different aspects of child care on infants' attachment security. Child care variables examined included age of entry; the quality, amount, stability, and type of care; and mother's sensitivity to the child's needs. When the validity of the Strange Situation was tested by comparing children with low and…

This paper is a summary of results of two overlapping longitudinal studies tracing the development of mother-infant and father-infant attachments between 7 and 24 months of age. Interaction between 10 male and 10 female infants and their parents was observed in the subjects' homes. Interaction with parents was compared to interaction with an…

This study examined the associations between the early family environment, older siblings' early characteristics, and later sibling relationships. Participating were 37 families with infants and preschool-age older siblings who were observed in the laboratory at 3 time points and followed-up 3 years later. Findings indicated that parents' early…