Some studies of the relationship between continuing bonds and grief intensity have claimed that continuing bonds lead to poor adaptation to bereavement. However, operationalizations of continuing bonds and grief intensity appear to overlap conceptually. Thus, it is still unclear what character the connection between continuing bonds and grief…

Behavioral outcomes in mother-infant interaction in the first month of life after contact in the recovery room are described. In the first postpartum hour, personnel presented 62 infants to their mothers. Personnel crossed two modes (skin-to-skin versus cradling) and two durations (15 versus 60 minutes) of contact. Instances of maternal and infant…

The link between the quality of attachment in infancy and the quality of play and problem-solving behavior at age two years was examined in 48 infants. (Author/JMB)

Twenty infants were observed interacting with their mothers and fathers at home when they were 7, 8, 12, and 13 months of age. No parental preference was found in the infants' attachment behaviors. Differences were found in the infants' affiliative behaviors, in their responses to parental play, and in situations in which they were held by…

The study examined the classification scheme of the Ainsworth Strange Situation measure of attachment security with 44 insecurely attached 13-month olds from a high-social-risk sample. Results supported the existence of an additional category of infants whose attachment behavior was "avoidant/ambivalent" and whose families were…

Used maternal-infant bonding as theoretical framework to examine grief and elective abortion in 80 women who terminated their pregnancies either by vacuum aspiration, dilitation and evacuation, or intrauterine induction. Found grief associated with elective abortion to be symptomatically similar to grief experienced following involuntary…

Discusses the deep attachment the widowed elderly often maintain for the deceased spouse, based on naturalistic observations and interviews with six widow(er)s. Five themes of the marital tie continue throughout widowhood, including caring, family feeling, commitment, and reciprocal identity support. (JAC)

Attachment behavior, toy preference, style of play, and activity level were recorded in 17 sets of opposite sex twins observed in a playrrom setting with their mothers. (ST)

Responses of 80 10-month-old infants to brief maternal separation were observed in home and laboratory settings and in two conditions of maternal accessibility: mothers' exit door closed or open. Results show the importance of situational determinants in the investigation of infant attachment behavior. (Author/RH)

Reviews evidence for assertions related to the monotropism hypothesis and examines causal factors that might constrain the number of satisfactory caretaker relationships provided for young children. Two models of constraint derived from the earlier work of Bowlby and others are rejected; two models based on more recent theory are considered worth…

Results showed no evidence that intercorrelations of patterns of attachment behavior were influenced by methodological considerations such as length of observation, setting of observation, or the number of behaviors monitored. Further, there was no evidence of sex differences in the pattern of correlations. (JMB)

Several advantages and disadvantages of a life-span concept are reviewed. The particular life-span concept of attachment is examined with respect to theory and methodology. (MS)

This study attempted to identify characteristics that distinguish approach as an attachment behavior from approach serving other behavioral systems. Locomotor approaches of 16 male and 10 female white middle-class infants to an attachment figure (mother) and to a nonattachment figure (visitor-observer) were examined under naturalistic conditions…