A third-year follow-up investigation of socioemotional behaviors of preterm and full-term infants videotaped mother-child and child-peer play sessions. Contributions of gender, birth status, attachment classification, and maternal contingency behavior to children's expressive development were examined. Results suggest that children learn greater…

Children who had been classified at 12 and 18 months of age according to their attachment to mother and father were observed in play groups and given a social perception test at 5 years. Findings suggest that infant-mother attachment is a more powerful predictor of social competence in preschool than is father attachment or combined mother and…