Researchers have used J. Bowlby's (1969/1982, 1973, 1980, 1988) attachment theory frequently as a basis for examining whether experiences in close personal relationships relate to the processing of social information across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We present an integrative life-span-encompassing theoretical model to explain the…

This longitudinal investigation of 84 infants examined whether the effect of 12-month attachment on 18- and 24-month exploration and sociability with unfamiliar adults varied as a function of newborn irritability. As expected, results revealed an interaction between attachment (secure vs. insecure) and irritability (highly irritable vs. moderately…

The present study examined whether adolescent attachment security and attachment-related representations moderate and mediate, respectively, the link between parent symptoms (depressive and anxiety) and adolescent depressive symptoms. Participants were 189 (118 girls) eleventh graders and their parents in a community sample. Results showed that…

This study examined whether 17-year-old adolescents (n = 189) and their parents reconstructed their memory for an adolescent-parent laboratory conflict over a 6-week period as a function of adolescent attachment organization. It also compared participants' perceptions of conflict over time to observational ratings of the conflict to further…

Home visiting programs for at-risk mothers and their infants have proliferated nationally in recent years, yet experimental studies of home visiting have yielded mixed findings. One promising strategy for explicating the effects of early home visiting is to examine moderators of program impacts. This study assessed the roles of maternal depression…

A key proposition of attachment theory is that experience-based cognitive representations of attachment, often referred to as internal working models of attachment, influence the manner in which individuals process attachment-relevant social information (Bowlby, 1969/1982, 1973, 1980; Bretherton & Munholland, 1999; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985).…

Three studies explored the connection between attachment and peer-related representations among children from preschool age through grade five. Found that children secure in their attachment to their parents had more positive peer feelings than did insecure children, and greater perceived rejection by both mothers and fathers was associated with…

Reviews research on infants classified by Ainsworth's "Strange Situation" assessment as insecure/ambivalent, and examines studies exploring attachment theory beyond infancy. Presents a theoretical discussion of the ways in which patterns of mother and child behaviors associated with the insecure/ambivalent pattern may work together to…

Highlights usefulness of the categorical approach to measuring infant attachment by reviewing some major advances in the field that have been fostered by that approach. Advances include identification of the disorganized attachment group, development of the concept of conditional behavior strategies, creation of systems for coding attachment…