This study examined both differential patterns and the stability of infants' (N = 70) distress reactivity across mother and stranger arm-restraint conditions when infants were 6 and 9 months of age. Reactivity measures included observational variables for the rise, intensity, and duration of infant distress as well as motor activities associated…

Forty-nine German 12-month-old infants and their mothers were videotaped in Ainsworth's Strange Situation; a measure of quality of attachment relationships. Forty-six of these infants were videotaped again at 18-months with their fathers. Results are compared to American samples and discussed in terms of parental attempts to cope with the demands…

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…

This study investigated at the age at which infants become able to discriminate between their mothers and females strangers, as measured by differential patterns of pauses during the infants' crying while being spoken to by their mothers and female strangers. The subjects, 14 infants ranging in age from 7 to 20 days, were fed, burped, and changed,…

A cross-national comparison of infant behavior in the Strange Situation was designed to determine whether preseparation episodes made any difference in attachment classifications and whether infant behavior before separation from mother was the same in different countries. Infants in different countries made similar primary appraisals of the…

This study investigated the response behavior of nine infants, aged 13-15 weeks, to a recurrent pattern of visual and verbal stimuli presented by their own mothers and by female strangers. The infants were presented with the following 2-minute sequence (repeated 3 times): (1) one-half minute of an unknown female leaning over the crib with a…

This paper describes the results of a longitudinal study which compared the effects of three types of home-based, parent-oriented, infant education curricula. One curriculum stressed language, another stressed play, and a third stressed social development. Mothers and children from 108 middle and working class families received home visits…

Customarily, several parent figures rear black infants. The effects of this practice on infant-parent attachments have not been studied even though they provide the chance to test the attachment theory contention that infants form a primary attachment when several attachment figures are available. To study this issue, 21 male and 16 female black…

Reports use of the strange situation procedure to explore the effects of Israeli kibbutz child-rearing practices on the development of infant-mother, infant-father, and infant-caretaker attachment. (Author/NH)

The relation between maternal alcohol consumption and infant attachment behavior at one year of age was investigated in this study. Alcohol consumption was estimated by self-report questionnaires filled out by mothers who were over 30 years of age. The questionnaire elicited information about the amount of alcohol mothers consumed prior to,…

This study compared the social behaviors of daycare-attending and home-reared children in a novel social setting with both an unfamiliar peer and adult. Subjects were 24 children 26 months of age, each accompanied by a familiar caretaker. Twelve children (5 girls and 7 boys) were a randomly drawn sample of the general population recruited from…

Presents a method of defining cooccurring constellations or "packages" of maternal facial-visual engagement and head or hand stimulation during face-to-face play with an infant. The functional relevance of these packages is documented in case studies of one four-month-old infant playing with his mother and a stranger. (Author/CB)