Infant emotion regulation: Relations to bedtime emotional availability,attachment security,and temperament

The present study examines the influences of mothers’ emotional availability toward their infants during bedtime, infant attachment security, and interactions between bedtime parenting and attachment with infant temperamental negative affectivity, on infants’ emotion regulation strategy use at 12 and 18 months. Infants’ emotion regulation strategies were assessed during a frustration task that required infants to regulate their emotions in the absence of parental support. Whereas emotional availability was not directly related to infants’ emotion regulation strategies, infant attachment security had direct relations with infants’ orienting toward the environment and tension reduction behaviors. Both maternal emotional availability and security of the mother–infant attachment relationship interacted with infant temperamental negative affectivity to predict two strategies that were less adaptive in regulating frustration.     

At the intersection of social and cognitive development: internal working models of attachment in infancy

Three visual habituation studies using abstract animations tested the claim that infants' attachment behavior in the Strange Situation procedure corresponds to their expectations about caregiver-infant interactions. Three unique patterns of expectations were revealed. Securely attached infants expected infants to seek comfort from caregivers and expected caregivers to provide comfort. Insecure-resistant infants not only expected infants to seek comfort from caregivers but also expected caregivers to withhold comfort. Insecure-avoidant infants expected infants to avoid seeking comfort from caregivers and expected caregivers to withhold comfort. These data support Bowlby's (1958) original claims-that infants form internal working models of attachment that are expressed in infants' own behavior.     

Negative emotionality,attachment quality,and behavior problems in early childhood

Negative emotionality, as well as attachment security and disorganization, are seen as major contributors to social adjustment and maladjustment in childhood. However, relatively little is known about whether infant negative emotionality and attachment quality operate together to affect developing behavior problems. The present study thus aims to contribute to this question. Participants were 64 healthy firstborn children and their primary caregivers. Negative emotionality was assessed at the infant ages of 4, 8, and 12 months using laboratory routines. At 18 months, the Strange Situation procedure was conducted to assess infant attachment security and disorganization, and at 30 months, the child's behavior problems were assessed within a structured clinical interview. Attachment security and attachment disorganization were significantly associated with subsequent behavior problems. There was no significant relation between infant negative emotionality and behavior problems. However, there were indications of a stronger association between attachment disorganization and behavior problems in infants high in negative emotionality. The results underpin the importance of attachment quality as well as negative emotionality in social adjustment. Disorganized attachment precedes poor adjustment, especially in infants high in negative emotionality.     

Mothers' insightfulness regarding their infants' internal experience: relations with maternal sensitivity and infant attachment

This study examined the associations among mothers' insightfulness into their infants' internal experience, mothers' sensitivity to their infants' signals, and infants' security of attachment to their mothers. The insightfulness of 129 mothers of 12-month-old infants was assessed by showing mothers 3 videotaped segments of observations of their infants and themselves and interviewing them regarding their infants' and their own thoughts and feelings. Interviews were classified into 1 insightful and 3 noninsightful categories. Mothers' sensitivity was assessed during play sessions at home and at the laboratory, and infant-mother attachment was assessed with the Strange Situation. Mothers classified as positively insightful were rated as more sensitive and were more likely to have securely attached children than were mothers not classified as positively insightful. Insightfulness also accounted for variance in attachment beyond the variance explained by maternal sensitivity. These findings add an important dimension to research on caregiving, suggesting that mothers' seeking of explanations for the motives underlying their infants' behavior is related to both maternal sensitivity and infant attachment.     

Predicting infant attachment classification from multiple, contemporaneous measures of maternal care

This investigation was designed to test whether stylistic differences in maternal caregiving were associated with both secure and insecure mother-infant attachment classifications in a low-income sample. Multiple measures of maternal interactive behavior and care were collected from a sample of 95 urban, low-income mothers and their 12-month-old infants. Contemporaneous relations to attachment were found only at the broad level of composite scores of caregiving. Scores derived from different measures were aggregated to create composites reflecting three caregiver styles—sensitive, controlling, and unresponsive. Mothers of infants with secure attachment classifications showed greater sensitivity and less controlling behavior than mothers of infants with resistant and avoidant attachments, respectively. Mothers of infants with resistant attachments appeared less responsive to their infants' signals than those of infants with avoidant attachments. Group differences were significant, but modest. These results contribute to the growing body of studies relating parental care with infant attachment patterns and indirectly support the more recent conceptual work on intergenerational transmission of attachment. They also raise methodological issues that need to be considered in future work on caregiving and infant-mother attachment.     

A behavior-genetic study of parenting quality, infant attachment security, and their covariation in a nationally representative sample

A number of relatively small-sample, genetically sensitive studies of infant attachment security have been published in the past several years that challenge the view that all psychological phenotypes are heritable and that environmental influences on child development--to the extent that they can be detected--serve to make siblings dissimilar. Using the twin subsample (N = 485 same-sex pairs) of the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, the authors provide evidence that parenting quality and infant attachment security observed at 24 months, as well as their covariation, are a product of shared and nonshared environmental (but not genetic) variation among children. In contrast, genetic differences between infants played a prominent role in explaining observations of temperamental dependency.     

Patterns of mother-infant interaction and attachment: A cluster-analytic approach

This study examined stability and change in patterns of mother-infant interaction between 5 and 10 months and their relation to attachment security at 18 months. Cluster analysis was used to identify patterns of dyadic interaction. There was significant, but not substantial, stability in cluster membership from 5 to 10 months. For females, being in the most optimal cluster at 5 months related to subsequent attachment security, regardless of the 10-month pattern of interaction. For males, who were significantly more likely to be insecure than females, insecure attachment was predicted by negative change from 5 to 10 months (moving from a more optimal to a less optimal cluster).     

Transmission of attachment across three generations

A low-risk Finnish sample (N _total = 135) of parents expecting their first child and maternal grandmothers was followed from pregnancy until the child was 3 years old. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was used to assess attachment in mothers during the last trimester of pregnancy, and maternal grandmothers. The Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) was used to assess attachment in infants at 12 months, and the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA) at 3 years. Mothers' AAI classifications (3-category) during pregnancy predicted infants' SSP classifications (3-category) in 76% of cases, and the 3-year-old children's PAA classifications (3-category) in 58% of cases. Grandmothers' AAI classifications predicted infants' SSP classifications in 48% of cases, but the 3-year-old children's PAA classifications in 72% of cases. Using log-linear analysis, it was shown that a simple model accounted for transmission of attachment across three generations when the children were 3 years. Even though the results indicated continuity across generations, the correspondences were slightly weaker than those obtained by Benoit and Parker in their 3-generational study. The results are discussed in terms of the prototype view, the rapid contextual changes seen across 3 generations in Finland, the size of the sample, and the comparability of the DMM to other assessment methods of attachment.     

Observing mother-child relationships across generations: boundary patterns,attachment, and the transmission of caregiving

Grounded in both attachment and family systems theories, this study is one of the first to examine how relationship patterns observed in mothers' current relationships with their own mothers are recreated in their relationships with their infants. Mostly white, middle-class families (N = 55), including maternal grandmothers, mothers, and infants, were observed when infants were 6, 9, and 18 months old. At 6 months, mothers and grandmothers completed self-report assessments and worked together on discussion tasks. These interactions were coded using the Boundary Assessment Coding System, developed for the present study, which assessed three relational patterns: disengagement, balance, and entanglement. At 9 months, mothers were rated on sensitivity and intrusiveness while playing with and feeding their infants; and, at 18 months, infant-mother attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation. Multiple regression analyses revealed, as predicted, that mothers who remembered being accepted by their mothers as children and who were in highly balanced relationships with their own mothers currently were more sensitive and less intrusive with their 9-month-old infants. Further, discriminant function analyses indicated that memories of acceptance, high levels of balance, and low levels of disengagement differentiated secure from insecure attachment, whereas memories of overprotection and high levels of entanglement distinguished resistant from secure and avoidant attachment. Discussion focuses on the theoretical hypothesis that mothers internalize relationship strategies experienced with their own caregivers and recreate these patterns with their infants.     

Sex differences in infant-mother attachment

A sex difference in security of infant attachment was found in a sample of 52 infant-mother dyads. The infants were enrolled in early care and education programs within a predominantly small-town geographic area in the southwest. Security of attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation procedure. Male infants (76%) were significantly more likely to be securely attached than female infants (39%). No other variables related to the infants' early care and education experience or mothers' age, race, marital status, and education were significantly associated with infants' attachment status.     

Attachment in low‐SES rural Appalachian infants: Contextual,infant, and maternal interaction risk and protective factors

Attachment classifications were obtained for 95 low‐socioeconomic‐status (SES) rural Appalachian infants in the Strange Situation procedure at 15 months. The distribution of secure (B) and insecure (A, C, D) infants was similar to other low‐SES samples and significantly different from low‐risk samples. Levels of contextual and infant risk, together with maternal responsiveness to crying and pattern of sensitivity from 4 to 9 months, predicted attachment security. High social support, when examined as a protective factor, related to reduced contextual risk, but not to increased likelihood of security. Exploratory discriminant function analyses showed that infants in secure relationships differed in positive directions on contextual and maternal interactional factors. Insecure‐organized (A and C) infants experienced contextual and maternal interaction risks, while insecure‐disorganized (D) infants were best distinguished by infant characteristics, including greater likelihood of being male and low use of mother as a secure base at 9 months. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Perceived social support mediates between prior attachment and subsequent adjustment: a study of urban African American children.

The processes whereby attachment and other social and cognitive factors contribute to social and emotional adjustment were examined. Participants were 56 African American children from low-income urban families. Attachment and sociability were assessed in the strange situation when children were 4.5 years old. Two years later, children were interviewed regarding their perceptions of social support and their attributions about others' intentions. Also assessed at Time 2 were child verbal intelligence, defensive response style, children's self-reports, and parent reports of child adjustment. As expected, attachment uniquely predicted perceived social support. Insecure attachment predicted self-reports of behavior problems and parental report of internalizing problems. Perceived social support was associated positively and significantly with viewing ambiguously depicted actions as prosocial rather than aggressive. Perceived social support was found to mediate the relation between attachment and adjustment. Results suggest that behaviorally mediated strategies for relating to caregivers in early childhood predict generalized social perception, thought, and emotion at later ages.     

Emotional availability and attachment representations in kibbutz infants and their mothers.

Three components of the attachment transmission model were examined in 48 kibbutz dyads from 2 kibbutz sleeping arrangements: communal and home-based. Concurrent assessments used the Strange Situation procedure (M. D. Ainsworth, M. C. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978) for infants' attachment relations, the Adult Attachment Interview (C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985) for mothers' attachment representations, and the Emotional Availability Scales (Z. Biringen, J. L. Robinson, & R. N. Emde, 1993) for emotional availability in the dyads. Security of infants' attachment relations as well as autonomy of mothers' attachment representations were associated with higher emotional availability scores. In addition, significantly poorer emotional availability was found in dyads in which infants were insecurely attached and mothers were nonautonomous. Results also indicate that in the ecology of collective sleeping, the associations between the experience of emotional availability in the dyads and infants' and mothers' attachment may have been disrupted.     

Social and individual determinants of infant attachment security and disorganization

The aim of this study was to assess individual and social antecedents of attachment security and attachment disorganization of infants as assessed by the Strange Situation. Observations from two longitudinal studies, with a parallel assessment schedule yielding a total sample of 88 infant-mother pairs, formed the database of the study. Newborn behavioral organization, in terms of orienting ability and regulation of state, and maternal sensitivity assessed several times during the infant's first year were used to predict the security of infant-mother attachment and the status of disorganization of attachment behavior strategies at the age of 12 months. Whereas attachment security was significantly associated only with maternal sensitivity, the status of disorganization was only predicted by newborn behavioral organization. The findings are discussed with respect to specific assumptions about individual and social contribution to the development of infant-mother attachment on the background of maternal attachment representation.     

Feeding and attachment in infants with and without orofacial clefts

Do the many feeding problems associated with isolated cleft palate (CP) and cleft lip and palate (CLP) adversely affect the emotional bond between mother and infant? This question was addressed by observing the feeding interactions of 126 mother-infant pairs (57 infants with CLP or CP) at 3 and 12 months of age. Infants with CLP were found to be less communicative during feeding at 3 month than comparison group infants. However, by 12 months, the CLP group had improved to a level indistinguishable from the CP and comparison groups. This change was unrelated to the timing of cleft palate surgery. Although maternal sensitivity during feeding at 3 months did not predict the attachment quality of infants with clefts, maternal sensitivity at 12 months was concurrently related to attachment. Change in maternal sensitivity between 3 and 12 months was also predictive of attachment in the cleft groups, with mothers of avoidant infants showing greater attenuation in maternal sensitivity than the mothers of secure infants.     

Maternal depression, adult attachment, and children's emotional distress

INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to evaluate the impact of depressed mothers' marital intimacy and attachment security in romantic relationships on children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. METHOD: Forty-six clinically depressed mothers rated attachment security, marital intimacy, and symptoms shown by their children aged 8 to 12. RESULTS: Maternal avoidance of closeness predicted increases in children's internalizing symptoms over a 6-month period. DISCUSSION: Avoidance of closeness in depressed mothers may be implicated in the development of internalizing symptoms in their children, possibly because individuals who are avoidant of closeness are poor caregivers.     

Fear,attachment and affiliation: The interaction of functional systems in 8- and 12-month-old infants

In this research fear of strangers has been analysed as it interacts with attachment and affiliation, and in relation to developmental level, in conditions most similar to the natural situations where encounters with unfamiliar persons take place. A total of 30 infants and their mothers participated. The children were divided into two groups (8-9 and 11-12 months). Each infant was approached by two females, who, in turn, produced either of two natural sequences. Our results allowed us to confirm the universality of fear and its coexistence and interaction with attachment and affiliation. As far as the role that developmental level plays, it was noted that in the 12-month-old infants fear reactions were more intense than in the younger ones. Furthermore, the attachment system was more activated in the older group in the intrusive episodes, but when the threatening nature of the situation decreased, attachment was activated less in the 12-month-old group. Another difference was related to control resources. While in the younger infants we observed a tendency to control their own emotional state, the 12-month-old infants tried to gain control over the stranger. These results were interpreted by considering the adaptative value of an increase with age of the capacity to evaluate a situation's threat value, of attachment security, and of behavioural resources permitting some control over the stranger's behaviour.     

Attentional bias to negative information and 5-HTTLPR genotype interactively predict students' emotional reactivity to first university semester

People strongly differ in their emotional reactions to potentially stressing and challenging environmental circumstances. Two classes of individual differences have independently been reported to contribute to such emotional vulnerability: an attentional bias to negative information and a variation in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR). The present study was conducted to investigate the possibility that these cognitive and genetic markers interact in their prospective prediction of emotional reactivity to an extended and mild potential stressor. Changes in dysphoria and anxiety across their first university semester were measured in 120 students. Results indicate that attentional bias toward negative information on Week 1 of the semester significantly predicted cross-semester changes in both anxiety and dysphoria. For the latter, this predictive capacity depended on the 5-HTTLPR genotype. Specifically, only in homozygous carriers of the 5-HTTLPR short allele did attentional bias to negative information on Week 1 significantly predict cross-semester change in dysphoria. These results carry important theoretical and practical implications concerning the ability to identify individuals vulnerable to experiencing elevated emotional reactivity to potentially stressing life-events.     

Attachment behavior and its antecedents in offspring born to methadone-maintained women

Videotaped 35 full-term, African American infants exposed in utero to methadone and 46 comparison infants at 12 months participating in a separation-reunion procedure to assess aspects of the infant's attachment relationship to the mother. Mothers in the two groups were comparable on education, age (18-35 years), socioeconomic status, parity, IQ and marital status. Offspring born to methadone-maintained women did not differ from comparison infants in indexes of proximity-seeking at reunion but did display higher scores on indexes of disorganized and avoidant behavior and lower scores on indexes of contact-maintaining behavior. Mothers' perceptions during pregnancy of their future infants' degree of bothersomeness were also related to higher scores on contact-maintaining behavior and lower scores on avoidant behavior. Finally, antecedents of attachment behavior within the opioid group alone were considered. The implications of using dimensional attachment ratings for uncovering more subtle attachment antecedents are discussed.