Two studies using the Parent-Adult Attachment Style Questionnaire (P-AASQ) are described. In both, college students were classified into one of three parent-adult attachment style groups, and their scores on a common set of adjustment measures were examined. Results provide further support for the reliability and concurrent and predictive validity…

School completion and dropping out of school are developmental processes with strong social and emotional antecedents. The early development of attachment bonds, and subsequent positive and negative behaviors and relationships set an early path toward school completion or drop out. Discusses ways to enhance emotional bonds before and during the…

Examined relationship of maternal sensitivity and infant temperament to attachment security among Korean 1-year-olds. Found that securely attached infants showed more secure-base behaviors and compliance, enjoyed physical contact, and showed fewer fussy/difficult behaviors than did other infants. Infant gender, but not security status, related to…

We examined social participation in organized clubs and groups from childhood to adolescence in a sample of young people from Dunedin, New Zealand. Groups were broadly categorized as ''sports'' and ''cultural/youth'' groups. While the results indicated high levels of participation in childhood with a decline over the ensuing adolescent years, path…

Data from 918 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care were examined to test the interrelation of attachment and attentional performance and 2 known risks for poor attentional performance: male gender and social-contextual adversity. Attachment was measured using the Strange…

With the constant reminders of wars and other human degradation going on in the world, education for "caring" is more critically important than ever to our future (Noddings, 2002). Televised accounts of the war in Iraq leave most caring people devastated. Civilian and military deaths and casualties challenge people's faith in a peaceful and…

This study examined the linkages between identity formation and romantic attachment in an ethnically diverse sample of high school (n=189) and college students (n=324). Individuals in the foreclosed identity status group had significantly lower relationship avoidance scores than the diffused identity status group, and the foreclosed group had…

This study examined perceived discrimination as both a mediator and moderator between adult attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and levels of depression in a gay male sample. Survey data were collected from 234 self-identified gay males through the Internet and in person through community resources across several states. Results from structural…

The primary objective of this study was to examine unresolved trauma as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview and current psychiatric symptoms, focusing on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociation, in a group of adult female childhood abuse survivors. The authors examined psychiatric symptoms and attachment representations in a…

The purpose of this case study was to explore the synchronous behaviors enacted by mother and infant with blindness. In the study, a mother's less than optimal experience with the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) had a profound effect not only on her and her infant son, who was born 3 months prematurely and was visually impaired, but also on…

The power of the human-animal bond has been described in sources as diverse as ancient literature, modern fiction, and research reports in the professional literature (Chandler, 2001; Mallon, 1992; Parshall, 2003; Siegel, 1993). Educators have used classic examples, such as those found in the children's books Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern…

This study examined patterns of close relationships among school-age children with learning disabilities (LD) as manifested in their attachment style, their self-perceived loneliness, their sense of coherence, and teacher ratings of their academic functioning. In line with resilience theory, this study also aimed to further explore predictors of…

Background and method: The aim of this study was to examine whether a mother's sensitivity towards her one-year-old infant is related to the infant's propensity to engage in "triadic" relations--that is, to orientate to an adult's engagement with objects and events in the world, for example in sharing experiences with an adult. In order to…

Evolutionary developmental psychology is a discipline that has the potential to integrate conceptual approaches to the study of behavioral development derived from psychology and biology as well as empirical data from humans and animals. Comparative research with animals, and especially with nonhuman primates, can provide evidence of adaptation in…

The classical attachment theory holds to the notion of a monotropic model. Such a model leads to a view of the mother as first and most important figure in an infant's life. A polytropic view of attachment moves us toward a model of simultaneous and multiple attachment figures. In particular, it is argued that peer attachment is a separate but…