It was examined whether secure infant-mother attachment contributes to emotionally congruent and organized mother-child dialogues about emotions in later years. The attachment of 99 children was assessed using the Strange Situation at the age of 1 year and their emotion dialogues with their mothers were assessed at the ages of 4.5 and 7.5 years.…

This study examined the effect of a mother-baby intervention on the quality of mother-child interaction, infant-mother attachment security, and infant socioemotional functioning in a group of depressed mothers with infants aged 1-12 months. A randomized controlled trial compared an experimental group (n = 35) receiving the intervention (8-10 home…

Conclusions from research in the areas of maternal deprivation, institutionalization, and parent-child relations are used to conceptualize and hypothesize about dimensions of daily separation experiences relevant to attachment. (SS)

Examined the differential predictive power and effects of representations of child/mother and child/father attachment for children's representation of self and socioemotional competence. Found that the child's positiveness of self was better predicted by quality of child/mother attachment representation than child/father attachment representation.…

Examined infants' emotionality, inside and outside of the relationship with the mother, and mothers' responsiveness as predictors of reunion behaviors in the Strange Situation. Found that children's separation distress mediated influence of predictors and itself predicted reunion behaviors. When distress was controlled, some responses generally…

Initial research on maternal reminiscing style established clear and consistent individual differences that vary along a dimension of maternal elaboration and that are related to children's developing autobiographical skills. More recent research has linked maternal elaborative reminiscing to strategic memory development, language and literacy…

Using the Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure, a study examined the interrelations between dimensions of emotion and social interactive behaviors to explore the regulatory role of each in mother-infant interaction and how these roles may change in the second year. (HOD)

Examined the concurrent and cross-time relations of parents' warmth and positive expressivity to elementary school children's situational facial and self-reported empathic responding, social competence, and externalizing problems. Found that parents' positive expressivity mediated the relation between parental warmth and children's empathy, and…

Examined extent to which parent sensitivity, infant affect, and affect regulation at 4 months predicted mother- and father-infant attachment classifications at 1 year. Found that affect regulation and maternal sensitivity discriminated infant-mother attachment groups. The association between maternal sensitivity and infant-mother attachment was…

Highlights three longitudinal studies examining the hypothesis that attachment security during infancy influences individual differences and adult representations of attachment. Notes that attachment security was significantly stable in two studies, with discontinuity in all three studies related to negative life events and circumstances.…

Assessed attachment security in 60 white middle-class infants at 12 months and conducted Adult Attachment Interview 20 years later. Found that 72 percent of infants received same attachment classification in early adulthood. Forty-four percent of infants whose mothers reported negative life events changed attachment classifications by adulthood,…

Examined relations between infant security of attachment, negative life events, and adolescent attachment classification in sample from the Family Lifestyles Project. Found that stability of attachment classification was 77 percent. Infant attachment classification predicted adolescent attachment classification. Found no differences between…

Examined role of parent-child discourse within a supportive relationship in children's early conscience development. Found that children's attachment security predicted maternal and child references to feelings and moral evaluatives in narratives about previous behavior incidents. Attachment security, shared positive affect between mother and…

Examined continuity in parent-child relationships in a sample of German families. Traced connections between individual differences in a composite of markers of the parent-child attachment relationship system and later parent-child communications. Found that the composite modestly predicted variability in children's competence in forming…

Correlated teens' strategies for regulating their attachment to their mothers as measured by the Adult Attachment Interview, and emotion regulation during teen-mother problem solving. Teens with secure strategies engaged in problem-solving discussions characterized by less dysfunctional anger and less avoidance of problem solving than other teens.…