Hierarchical linear modelling was used to explore the effect of changes in maternal sensitivity on attachment over time. Child characteristics of gender, temperament, and developmental status were used as moderating factors. Data from 1,249 mothers and their children from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development when the children…

Parent-child attachment is robustly associated with typical patterns of emotion regulation but rarely examined in relation to changes in emotion in response to events. We studied how attachment is related to emotion reactivity to positive and negative events and to immediate and delayed emotion recovery from social exclusion. The sample (78%…

The goal of this study was to expand current attachment models by validating a three-component model of the supervision partnership conceptualization of attachment (accessibility and availability of attachment figures, willingness to communicate, and mutual recognition of other's rights in decision-making). The model was tested by examining…

Prior studies of mother-infant interaction have generally used a variable-centered approach to associate face-to-face communication with psychosocial outcomes. Herein, we use a person-centered approach to identify clusters of infants who exhibit similar behavioral profiles during face-to-face communication with their mothers. Four infant…

This study explored variation in affective and behavioral components of infants' jealousy protests during an eliciting condition in which mother and an experimenter directed differential attention exclusively toward a rival. Variation was examined in relation to child temperamental emotionality, maternal interaction style, and attachment security.…

The current study examined context, attachment, temperament, and gender as predictors of conflict frequency between mothers and their young children. Conflict between 40 mothers and their 36-month-old children was observed during multiple laboratory tasks with varying levels of structure, and the number of dyadic conflict episodes was totaled for…

To date, much of the research investigating maternal-child discourse has focused on the preschool period of children's development, with little attention paid to how these styles develop. The current study aimed to assess whether maternal elaborative discourse elements seen in preschool are also evident during the toddler years, and whether the…

People's response to stress depends to a large extent on their sense of perceived control over the situations they encounter. This longitudinal study of 136 children (70 girls) examined associations between attachment patterns and maternal sensitivity at 12 months of age, and perceived primary and secondary control at 11 years of age. Compared…

This research examines the relationship between behavioural inhibition (BI), family environment (overinvolved and negative parenting, parental anxiety and parent-child attachment) and anxiety in a sample of 202 preschool children. Participants were aged between 3 years 2 months and 4 years 5 months, 101 were male. A thorough methodology was used…

Nighttime sleep awakenings and infant and family characteristics were measured longitudinally in more than 1,200 infants when the infants were 6, 15, 24, and 36 months old. By 6 months of age, the majority of children slept through the night, awakening their mothers only about once or twice per week. However, not all children followed this…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of parenting and adolescent fearfulness on adolescents' pro-social values and pro-social and antisocial behaviour. A total of 134 adolescents (M age = 16.22, 72 girls, 62 boys) responded to questions regarding their own fearfulness, pro-social values and pro-social and antisocial behaviour, as…

Secure mother-child attachment has been found to be an important factor in the healthy emotional development of children and has been shown to have effects on child, adolescent, and adult behavior. Previous research has primarily focused on attachment in children who are typically developing. However, little research has been conducted in…

Background: Empirical studies demonstrate that maternal sensitivity is associated with attachment security in infancy, while maternal frightening/frightened behavior is related to attachment disorganization. However, attachment disorganization is also predicted by individual dispositions in infancy. Indeed, recent studies indicate a link between…

The goal of this study was to examine the links among attachment, child temperament, and the quality and frequency of mother-toddler conflict. Sixty-four mothers and children took part in a series of laboratory tasks when the child was 30 months of age and an audio-recorded home observation when the child was 36 months of age. All episodes of…

A study of 37 middle-class families examined infant temperament in terms of stability over time, agreement between parents, and relations to mother-infant attachment. Results showed stability of activity level, orienting, and smiling from 6 weeks to 4 months of age, and a trend toward stability of soothability during this period. Stability was…