Prosocial and health protective behaviors are critical to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, yet adolescents have been difficult to engage. Attachment security promotes adolescents' capacities to navigate stress, and influences prosocial and health behaviors. Drawing on a diverse sample of 202 adolescents (48% female; 47.5% Latinx) this study…

This multimethod study of 101 mothers, fathers, and children elucidates poorly understood role of children's attachment security as "moderating" a common maladaptive trajectory: from parental power assertion, to child resentful opposition, to child antisocial conduct. Children's security was assessed at 15 months, parents' power assertion observed…

It was examined whether secure infant-mother attachment contributes to emotionally congruent and organized mother-child dialogues about emotions in later years. The attachment of 99 children was assessed using the Strange Situation at the age of 1 year and their emotion dialogues with their mothers were assessed at the ages of 4.5 and 7.5 years.…

Examined attachment's relation to multiple domains of psychosocial functioning in 131 moderately at-risk adolescents. Found that security displayed in adolescents' organization of discourse about attachment experiences was related to competence with peers, lower levels of internalizing behaviors, and lower levels of deviant behaviors.…

Tested 90 infants in the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) with both parents. Found that mothers' Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) scores predicted infant-mother SSPs and fathers' AAIs predicted infant-father SSPs. Counter to expectation, infant-father SSPs were associated with infant-mother SSPs, which might be explained by the influence of…

Examined the differential predictive power and effects of representations of child/mother and child/father attachment for children's representation of self and socioemotional competence. Found that the child's positiveness of self was better predicted by quality of child/mother attachment representation than child/father attachment representation.…

A total of 113 children were seen at one and six years of age in order to examine the relationship between the quality of the early attachment relationship and later psychopathology. Results from the Achenbach and Edelbrock Child Behavior Profile (a measure of psychopathology at six years) indicated different outcomes for male and female children.…

Conducted meta-analysis of 66 studies on parental antecedents of attachment security. Found that maternal sensitivity was an important but not exclusive condition of attachment security in normal settings. Mutuality, Synchrony, Stimulation, Positive Attitude, and Emotional Support were associated with security. Advocated a contextual level to…

Examined extent to which parent sensitivity, infant affect, and affect regulation at 4 months predicted mother- and father-infant attachment classifications at 1 year. Found that affect regulation and maternal sensitivity discriminated infant-mother attachment groups. The association between maternal sensitivity and infant-mother attachment was…

Data from 918 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care were examined to test the interrelation of attachment and attentional performance and 2 known risks for poor attentional performance: male gender and social-contextual adversity. Attachment was measured using the Strange…

Examined contributions of attachment, maternal-reported stress, and mother-child interaction to the prediction of teacher-reported behavior problems in 121 French-Canadian children. Security of attachment significantly predicted likelihood of behavior problems: insecure children labeled controlling or other were most at risk for…

Results indicate that (1) social support is the best predictor of secure attachment and is most important for mothers with irritable babies, (2) maternal unresponsiveness is associated with resistance during reunion episodes and appears to be a mechanism through which anxious attachment develops, and (3) social support may mitigate the effects of…

Examined relations between infant security of attachment, negative life events, and adolescent attachment classification in sample from the Family Lifestyles Project. Found that stability of attachment classification was 77 percent. Infant attachment classification predicted adolescent attachment classification. Found no differences between…

Examined role of parent-child discourse within a supportive relationship in children's early conscience development. Found that children's attachment security predicted maternal and child references to feelings and moral evaluatives in narratives about previous behavior incidents. Attachment security, shared positive affect between mother and…

A sample of 147 mother-infant dyads was recruited from a peri-urban settlement outside Cape Town and seen at 2- and 18-months postpartum. At 18 months, 61.9% of the infants were rated as securely attached (B); 4.1% as avoidant (A); 8.2% as resistant (C); and 25.8% disorganized (D). Postpartum depression at 2 months, and indices of poor parenting…