Parent attachment, childrearing behavior, and child attachment: Mediated effects predicting preschoolers' externalizing behavior

Attachment theory provides an interesting background for thinking about externalizing behavior (EB) in early childhood and for understanding how parenting influences the child's outcomes. The study examined how attachment and parenting could be combined to explain preschoolers' EB. Data were collected from 117 preschoolers aged from 4 to 6 clinically referred for EB and their parents from a middle-high income population. Child attachment was measured with the Attachment Q-set; parent's remembered attachment in the family of origin with the CaMir. Child attachment played a crucial role in mediating the link between parent attachment and EB as well as the link between parenting and EB. Paternal attachment displayed a direct and an indirect effect through controlling parenting and child attachment on child EB. Maternal attachment was a distal predictor associated with EB through child attachment, and independent of controlling parenting. These results are discussed with their applied and scientific implications.     

Dimensions of behavior of toddlers entering early intervention: child and family correlates

This study examined the nature and correlates of the behavioral characteristics of a nationally representative sample of 1612 toddlers 18-31 months of age entering Part C early intervention services in the U.S. Factor analysis of 15 items describing child behavior collected as part of an extensive telephone interview of parents yielded four dimensions of behavior: difficult behaviors, lack of persistence, distractible, and withdrawn. Demographic and personal characteristics of the child and family were found to be related to the four behavioral dimensions. Parent reports of behavior of toddlers with fair or poor health or those with communication difficulties were less positive for all behavioral dimensions, suggesting the development of toddler behavioral characteristics is influencing or being influenced by other facets of development.     

Coping behavior: Implications for disabled infants and toddlers

This article discusses the coping process and examines issues concerning the influence of a handicapping condition on the development of coping competence in young children. A preliminary study is reported that investigated the differences between the coping behavior of 25 developmentally disabled and 25 nondisabled children who were 4 to 34 months of age. The Early Coping Inventory was used to assess three categories of behavior related to adaptive coping efforts (sensorimotor organization, reactive behavior, and self-initiated behavior). Results indicated that the nondisabled children, as a group, demonstrated more effective coping-related behavior than did their disabled peers. The disabled children were situationally effective, in that behavior used effectively in one type of situation was not generalized to other types of situations. Their coping behavior tended to be erratic, inflexible, or limited in the range of available management strategies. The greatest discrepancy between the two groups was in their self-initiated behavior. The findings suggest the need for intervention services to address the enhancement of coping behavior of infants and toddlers with disabilities.     

Sibling attachment: The development of a new infant-based measure (SPPIR)

This paper describes a new infant-based measure for assessing infant attachment to a sibling during a modified strange situation procedure. Research has demonstrated that young siblings often form a special relationship and that they prefer to interact with one another rather than with an unfamiliar peer. Also it has been shown that older siblings can respond appropriately to the distress of an infant. Research on relationships has moved from frequency counts of discrete behaviours towards more global measures of the ways in which behaviour is organized. These have tended to focus upon the older child as caregiver or the influence of the mother-child relationship on child-child interaction during the strange situation. The main findings of previous studies are presented. This paper describes a new method for measuring sibling attachment. Advantages of the new scoring system over previous procedures are that it utilizes ethological attachment theory, it is infant-based, it allows for a variety of infant reactions to reunion with the older sibling, and it focuses on overall patterns of behaviour rather than tallies of frequences.     

A new measure for an important construct: the attachment and object relations inventory

This article describes the development of the Attachment and Object Relations Inventory (AORI). The AORI, a dimensional measure based on factor structure, was developed in response to the psychometric problems typical to attachment style measures that are categorical in nature. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were high. A factor analysis of the 75 AORI items confirmed the existence of at least 6 factors and explained approximately 50% of the item variance. Convergent and discriminant validity of the AORI was supported through appropriate relationships with measures of depression, anxiety, and personality, and other measures of attachment and object relations.     

Dogmatic behavior among students: testing a new measure of dogmatism

The study tested the validity of a new measure of dogmatism by examining university students' evaluations of the Bible. Those who believed that every word in the Bible came directly from God and that the Bible is free of any error, contradiction, or inconsistency scored much higher on this dogmatism measure than students who thought otherwise. Such "true believers" then read the 4 highly varying Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. The most dogmatic of them still insisted there were no contradictions or inconsistencies in the Bible. The less dogmatic acknowledged that contradictions and inconsistencies exist. These results reinforce those of 4 earlier studies that indicated that the new measure of dogmatism has empirical validity.     

Infants in group care: their interactions with professional caregivers and parents across the second year of life

Seventy children were observed during structured play with their primary professional caregivers and three peers in the child care center and with their primary caregiving parents at home at 15 and 23 months of age. The same structured play tasks were used in the two settings and the quality of the children's interactions with caregivers and parents was rated using the same 7-point scales. As expected, the quality of caregiver–child interactions significantly increased between 15 and 23 months. At 15 months, the quality of caregiver–child interactions was significantly lower than the quality of parent–child interactions, particularly with regard to caregiver supportive presence and respect for the child's autonomy. At 23 months, however, the quality of caregiver–child interactions was no longer lower and in some respects even higher than the quality of parent–child interactions. At both ages, the children expressed more negativity towards their parents than towards their professional caregivers.     

Megatrends in personality assessment: toward a human science professional psychology

Societal megatrends have assessment counterparts--superempiricism, biopsychosocial perspective, person-centering, population-specificity, self-assessment--which are used to examine the contemporary status of professional psychology. A human science approach to research, training, and practice can exemplify a profession that acknowledges these megatrends. The nurture of competent professional psychologists requires a reinvestment in Boulder Model ideology, a human science that is shared with consumers on the basis of values which communicate caring and understanding.     

Personal, practical, and professional issues in providing managed mental health care: a discussion for new psychotherapists

Written by a former corporate manager pursuing counseling as a 2nd career, this article offers pointed views on managed mental health. Values of practitioners that are a mismatch for managed care are noted, and more specific disadvantages and advantages are examined. Loss of client confidentiality is addressed and procedures and technologies for its reclamation are noted. Negative effects on therapy are acknowledged and potential for better accountability and research are pointed out. Economic disadvantages of a small provider's practice as well as opportunities for creating new value and additional income are reviewed. The relatively sudden emergence of managed care is credited with a natural time lag preceding regulatory responses. Acknowledging that most new practitioners have little choice about the clients they serve, the article concludes that it would be shortsighted to rule managed care out of one's practice.     

The impact of depression on caregivers and other family members: Implications for professional support

Inspired by clinical contacts with a number of clients with a depressed relative, this research focuses upon how a person in such circumstances is affected. Based upon a self-selected sample of members of the Depression Alliance a postal questionnaire and detailed interviews were conducted. The authors propose a four-phase model of the caregiving experience and consider the following questions: how do families account for depression? How is a family's emotional life affected? What have been caregivers' experiences with mental health professionals? What are the factors which assist or hinder their search for help? Is there a role for counselling and if so, is there a best time for it? Findings support the notion that family caregivers are a group at risk and that their need to talk about their mutative experiences is optimally met through supportive and exploratory counselling once patient-state is stable.     

The moral justification scale: reliability and validity of a new measure of care and justice orientations

Research increasingly suggests that there are limitations to Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Gilligan in particular has observed that Kohlberg's theory considers abstract principled reasoning as the highest level of moral judgment, and penalizes those who focus on the interpersonal ramifications of a moral decision. Gilligan calls these justice and care orientations. The present paper describes the development of the Moral Justification Scale, an objective measure of the two orientations. The scale consists of six vignettes, of which two are justice oriented, two are care oriented, and two are mixed, incorporating both orientations. Construct validity was evaluated by expert judges and, overall, was high. Cronbach's alpha was .75 for the Care subscale and .64 for the Justice subscale, indicating adequate internal consistency. Split-half reliabilities were as follows: Care, r = .72, p < .01, and Justice, r = .60, p < .05. Regarding test-retest reliability (approximately two weeks), r = .61, p < .05, for Care; r = .69, p < .05, for Justice. Neither subscale correlated significantly with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Thus, the Moral Justification Scale shows promise as an easily administered, objectively scored measure of Gilligan's constructs of care and justice.     

Parents' gender-based attitudes toward marital roles and child rearing: Development and validation of new measures

Factor analysis of 18 Likert-type items dealing with gender stereotypes about family roles was conducted and yielded two measures: one focused on marital roles and one focussed on child rearing. Respondents were parents of children in the third and fourth grades of a large industrialized city in the Midwest. The sample included 364 families equally divided between middle and lower class with 23% African American and 77% European American. For both scales, more stereotyped scores were obtained by parents who were lower in social status, less educated, full-time homemakers, African Americans, and fathers. Parents' scores related to a separate measure of children's stereotypes and the marital-role attitudes related to actual roles reported by family members. Daughters whose parents obtained less stereotyped scores had a more internal locus of control, showed a trend toward more independent coping skills, and—in the middle class—obtained higher scores on achievement tests.This research was supported by Grant No. 91-1437-91 from the William T. Grant Foundation.     

The Color Object Association Test (COAT): the development of a new measure of declarative memory for 18- to 36-month-old toddlers.

Few methods exist to measure declarative (explicit) memory in children during the toddler and preschool stages of development. We report the development and psychometric properties of a new measure of declarative memory for this age group, the Color Object Association Test (COAT). In pilot testing and large scale application of the test, the COAT was demonstrated to be a reliable and a valid measure of declarative memory for healthy children ages 18-36 months, living in a disadvantaged community. The test shows a linear developmental trajectory, which allows longitudinal examination of the development of declarative memory in children.     

Infants' interactions with professional caregivers at 3 and 6 months of age: a longitudinal study

This study longitudinally investigated the quality and stability of 64 infants’ interactions with their professional caregivers in child care centers at 3 and 6 months of age, i.e., across the first 3 months after they entered child care. It was also examined whether the infants’ negative emotionality (as rated by the mother) predicted the quality of the caregiver–infant interaction. The interactive behavior of the professional caregivers (sensitivity, cooperation) and the infants (responsiveness, involvement) was rated from videotapes recorded in three different caregiving situations, lasting about 25 min in total. In contrast to our expectation, the quality of the caregiver–infant interaction did not significantly increase across the first 3 months in child care. As expected, significant rank order stability was found for the quality of the caregivers’ behavior over time. Also in accordance with our expectations, infants with higher negative emotionality scores experienced less sensitivity and cooperation in interactions with their primary professional caregivers at both ages.