Disoriented, punitive, and caregiving/role-confused attachment behaviors are associated with psychopathology in childhood, but have not been assessed in adolescence. A total of 120 low-income late adolescents (aged 18-23 years) and parents were assessed in a conflict-resolution paradigm. Their interactions were coded with the Goal-Corrected…

Studied mothers' behavior toward their infants with disorganized (type D) attachment strategies. Found that mothers whose infants are classified disorganized exhibit an elevated level of atypical maternal behaviors in the Strange Situation test. Mothers of type D Forced Insecure infants showed more negative-intrusive behaviors and role confusion…

Fifty-six 12-month-old infants, (10 maltreated infants; 18 nonmaltreated, high-risk infants; and 28 matched low-income controls) were videotaped at home with their mothers for 40 minutes and were observed two weeks later in the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Maltreating mothers could be discriminated by uninformed coders from nonmaltreating mothers.…

Examined the relationship between maternal and infant measures of interaction, maternal psychosocial problems, infant cognitive development, and infant attachment security at 18 months of age and child behavior problems at age 5. Disorganized-disorientated attachment status and maternal psychosocial problems were the strongest predictors of…

Study findings indicate that maternal depression is prevalent among low-income mothers with infants. Depressed mothers are more likely than nondepressed mothers to show hostile and intrusive behavior toward their infants, and infants of depressed mothers are more likely to exhibit slowed development and unstable avoidance attachment behaviors.…

Reviews recent attachment-related studies of early aggression. Longitudinal attachment studies indicate that risk factors identified in cross-sectional studies of aggressive school-age children, such as family adversity, parental hostility, parental depression, and child cognitive deficits, are already evident in infancy and predictive of later…