Reviews evidence on the effects of maternal employment on young children and suggests that there is no damaging over-riding effect of day care per se on children. (CM)

Suggests that separated individuals not only want to rejoin their spouses but also want to express anger with them. They may manage the resulting ambivalence by partial suppression, by compartmentalization, or by alternating expression positive and negative feelings. (Author/AM)

The connection between drinking behavior and adolescent attitudes toward drinking was examined concerning Dutch adolescents' attachment to their parents. For 89 female and 72 male seventh, ninth, and eleventh graders, drinking to facilitate social contact was the most frequently mentioned reason for drinking by those anxiously attached to parents.…

Summarizes the debate over the work of Jay Belsky, who claims that nonparental day care increases the likelihood of socioemotional difficulties for infants less than one year old. Previews a special journal issue that contains an article by Belsky and four responses. Focuses on attachment theory, intervention programs, and research methodology.…

Reviews recent research showing that child and parent, or caregiver and care receiver in nonfamilial, group settings, need each other reciprocally and need to find mutual fit. Focuses on stress laid on importance of dependence support, attachment behavior, and mutuality of caregiver and care receiver. Discusses effect of day care and significance…

Argues that research does not warrant Belsky's position that infant child care for more than 20 hours per week is a risk factor for infants' insecure-avoidant attachment and children's maladaptive social behavior. Suggests that quality of care and family characteristics are major influences. (NH)

Four interrelated yet distinct variables, economic independence, separate residence, personal control, and emotional attachment to parents, were highly significant predictors of both ego identity and college adjustment. The results confirm earlier preliminary investigations and support a broader definition of leaving home than those typically…

Attempts to replicate Ainsworth's Baltimore study by conducting lengthy home observations of mother-infant interactions before observing the infants in the strange situation. (NH)

Tested two models of the relationship between a hypothetical attachment mechanism and an incompatible motivation (a tendency to explore) by pitting two levels of attachment motivation against two levels of exploratory motivation among 15- to 18-month-old infants, alternating freely between play with novel toys at one end of the room and visits…

Examines the effect of an unfamiliar peer in a situation requiring a subject's separation from mother in order to play with attractive toys. Observation of 20 children 18 months old and 20 children 30 months old revealed that peer presence facilitated initial separation for both ages, but that age differences in subsequent behaviors existed. (CB)

Compares 18 maltreated and 19 matched 19-month-old lower class infants in Ainsworth and Wittig's Strange Situation and in the standard mirror-and-rouge paradigm. Finds that a greater proportion of maltreated infants showed insecure attachments to their mothers and, when rouge-marked, responded negatively and did not recognize themselves. (CB)

Examines qualitative information from 15 mothers whose childen had died several years earlier from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Concludes that mothers who experience a muted but comfortable dynamic intrapsychic relationship to the memories and thoughts associated with their children have achieved resolution of the loss. (NRB)

Using data from a large sample of college freshmen, the associations between reported closeness to parents and siblings and perceived social competence were examined. Significant positive relationships were found between family bonds and social self-esteem, instrumentality, expressiveness, shyness, and degree of satisfaction and ease in peer…

Peer competence in preschool children in two classes was assessed via (a) teacher rankings of social competence, (b) peer sociometrics, and behavioral measures of (c) social participation, and others. Affective expression and social behavior were temporally stable and consistent across contexts for both classes; however, patterns of…

Attachment describes the unique human ability to form lasting relationships with others, and to maintain these relationships over time and distance. Research into attachment has shown that children have the potential to form many attachment relationships, and that each relationship can contribute to the child's growing sense of self. This booklet…