Parental sensitivity and nurturance are important mechanisms for establishing biological, emotional, and social functioning in childhood. Sensitive, nurturing care is most critical during the first three years of life, when attachment relationships form and parental care shapes foundational neural and physiological systems, with lifelong…

Most research exploring the interplay between context and adolescent separation and detachment has focused on the family; in contrast, this investigation directs its attention outside of the family to peers. Utilizing a latent variable approach for modeling interactions and incorporating reports of behavioral adjustment from 14-year-old…

Indices of physiological regulation (i.e., resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA] and RSA suppression) and observed fearfulness were tested as predictors of empathy-related reactions to an unfamiliar person's simulated distress within and across 18 (T1, N = 247) and 30 (T2, N = 216) months of age. Controlling for T1 helping, high RSA…

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…

Sixteen children at each of ages two, three, and four years were observed being approached by and interacting with a friendly stranger during their mothers' presence and absence. While analyses of discrete behaviors yielded results consistent with those of earlier studies, analyses based on a behavioral systems approach identified age and…

Reports results of 2 studies concerning mother-infant separation from the maternal perspective. In the first study, 620 mothers responded to questionnaires from which 3 subscales were labeled. In the second study, 36 women were assessed. Results supported the validity of the questionnaire and the construct. (RJC)

Attachment researchers claim that individual differences in how adults talk about their early memories reflect qualitatively distinct organizations of emotion regarding childhood experiences with caregivers. Testing this assumption, the present study examined the relationship between attachment dimensions and physiological, facial expressive, as…

To test hypotheses concerning interactional histories associated with variation in quality of infant-mother attachment, data were gathered during naturalistic home observations of 60 infants 1, 3, and 9 months of age. Responses were elicited on the Ainsworth and Wittig strange situations. Results concerned mothers' relatively greater influence in…

Examines ways in which individual differences in emotion regulation may be influenced by children's attachment experiences. It argues that individuals characterized by the flexible ability to accept and integrate both positive and negative emotions are generally securely attached, whereas individuals characterized by either limited or heightened…

This essay discusses the similarities between animal behavior and human attachment behavior demonstrated by infants and their mothers. The provision of warmth, the tactile and olfactory stimulation of the mother's physical interactions, and the oral sensory and absorptive consequences of nursing are found to provide specific and independent…

Despite the apparent universality of loneliness and its link to psychosocial maladjustment, research on loneliness has emerged rather recently in the history of psychology. This book brings together varied theories and lines of research on loneliness among children and adolescents to provide a source for future research. The chapters are: (1)…