Nonmaternal care hours and temperament predict infants’ proximity-seeking behavior and attachment subgroups

Using the NICHD Early Childcare dataset (N = 1281), this study examined whether infant temperament and the amount of time infants spend in nonmaternal care independently predict (1) the likelihood that they seek comfort from their mother when needed and (2) placement in a particular subgroup of infant-mother attachment patterns. Mothers reported the number of hours their infant spent in nonmaternal care each month and their infant's difficulty adapting to novel stimuli at 6 months. The degree to which 15-month-old infants seek comfort from their mother during reunion episodes in the Strange Situation was observed using two behavioral scales (“proximity seeking” and “contact maintaining”). Their average score forms the outcome variable of “proximity-seeking behavior.” The other outcome variables were the subgroups of infant-mother attachment patterns: two subgroups for insecure babies (resistant and avoidant) and four subgroups for secure babies (B1, B2, B3, and B4). Easy adaptability to novel stimuli and long hours of nonmaternal care independently predicted a low level of proximity-seeking behavior. These predictors also increased the likelihood of an insecure infant being classified as avoidant (vs. resistant). A secure infant with these same predictors was most likely to be classified as B1, followed by B2, and then B3, with B4 being the least likely classification. Although previous studies using the NICHD dataset found that hours of nonmaternal care had no main effect on infants’ attachment security (vs. insecurity), this study demonstrates that hours of nonmaternal care predict the subcategories of infant-mother attachment.     

Infant attachment in the Czech Republic: Categorical and dimensional findings from a post-communist country

Infant attachment remains virtually unexplored in former Eastern Bloc countries. The dimensional approach to infant attachment, which could ease common obstacles in cross-cultural attachment research, necessitates more empirical support. This study explores infant attachment in the Czech Republic, a post-communist country with a unique family policy, using both the categorical and the dimensional models. It also compares the Czech infant attachment distribution to infant attachment distributions in other countries and compares infant attachment distributions in European countries to the Baltimore study sample. In the Strange Situation Procedure, forty-nine (74 %) out of sixty-six mother-infant dyads (35 boys, M = 13.8, SD = 0.9) received the B classification. Despite the generous family policy and cultural emphasis on close mother-infant relationships, the Czech distribution of insecure categories did not differ from the Baltimore study sample. Out of other post-communist countries, only the infant attachment distribution in former East Germany differed from the Czech and the Baltimore study samples due to a lower proportion of type B and a higher proportion of type A infants. There were also more type A infants in the Italian sample. Interactive behavior scales accurately predicted attachment categories in 91 % of cases. Contact-maintenance and proximity-seeking scales substantially improve the assessment of insecure resistant behavior. Our findings support the universality and normativity of attachment and the utility of the dimensional approach.     

Cross-cultural consistency of coding the strange situation

This study tested whether or not cross-cultural differences in attachment classification distributions result from systematic differences in coding practices. First, we investigated whether or not the interactive scales have been scored consistently in several different cross-cultural samples. Second, the Richters, Waters, and Vaughn (1988) functions were applied to address the question of whether or not attachment classifications were consistently based upon the same pattern of interactive behaviors. Third, cross-cultural coding differences were described from a multivariate perspective. Data sets from seven investigators in six countries were available for analysis. Analyses on this “multinational data set” revealed that except for distance interaction, the interactive scales in the two reunion episodes were scored in accordance with the original coding rules. Furthermore, a good to reasonable agreement appeared to exist between the original classifications and those computed by the functions, except for infants older than 20 months of age. The multivariate principal component analysis showed that classification groups across cultures were more alike than cultures across classification groups. Our data showed, therefore, that attachment classifications have been consistently coded across cultures.     

齐鲁文化的影响与青刻本《聊斋志异》的出版

历史上齐鲁文化曾孕育了无数杰出的人物和作品,蒲松龄的《聊斋志异》就带有鲜明的齐鲁文化特色。青柯亭本《聊斋志异》是《聊斋志异》的原始木刻本,在《聊斋志异》的传播史上有着重要的地位,它是由同为齐鲁人的赵起果主持刻印出版的,其面世过程及背后的成因反映了齐鲁文化所蕴含的丰富内涵和深刻影响。     

Hidden meaning of an early loss. The common ground of attachment and social character assessments and their clinical applications

All contemporary psychoanalytical theorists are concerned with the common problem of how to account for the preeminent importance of relations. John Bowlby, the founder of attachment theory, suggests that “instinctive” behavioral systems underlie much of the emotional life of man and have developed because they were necessary for survival. The system with which he was almost exclusively concerned was the multitude of behaviors and experiences constituting the child's “attachment” to the mother. This “strikingly strong tie, evident particularly when disrupted”, has systematically been observed by attachment researchers, through the development of a series of instruments that gauge interpersonal communication. These interpersonal communications have on their part been found to “contain traces of developmental history”.

Bowlby's theory is based on clinical accounts of cases of important loss experiences. A transcendental role is given in Bowlby's theory to the experiences of loss. It stresses that the construction of mourning processes can be seen as a manifestation of search and as a general gradual mental reorientation. The paper introduces the methodological perspectives, which are observable derivations of Bowlby's psycho‐ethological ideas. We will argue that becoming acquainted with these attachment‐research tools and with socio‐psychoanalytic assessment can enhance the development of the clinicians' observational skills, their insight and their scientific research practices. A clinical vignette seen through the lenses of the attachment assessment of loss is presented. It points in addition to the socio‐cultural‐ethnical basis that serves as an underlying structure for the development of meaning.     

Maternal sensitivity assessed during the strange situation procedure predicts child's attachment quality and reunion behaviors

The 72-item version maternal behavior Q-set (MBQS; Pederson & Moran, 1995) was used to assess maternal behaviors (N = 74) during the Strange Situation Procedure. Results indicated that the MBQS scores significantly differentiated infant attachment categories and were significantly associated with a series of infants’ reunion behaviors.     

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.     

Consistency and inconsistency in infant emotional and social interactive behavior across contexts and caregivers

This study examined consistency in infant emotional and social interactive behavior in stressful and nonstressful situations with mothers and fathers. Infants were seen at 12 and 13 months, once with each parent. Emotion was assessed during free play and the Strange Situation. Strange Situation social interactive behaviors were also examined. Results demonstrated that (a) proximity seeking and contact maintaining are consistent cross-parent, (b) emotion is more consistent from free play to the Strange Situation with the father than with the mother, and (c) emotion is primarily consistent cross-parent within the Strange Situation, not in free play. These results suggest both infant- and relationship-based determinants of behavior within the Strange Situation. The greater cross-context consistency in infant emotion with the father is interpreted as supportive of the view that infant—father interactions reflect primarily affiliative, rather than attachment, relationships.     

The relationship between perception and production of /w/, /r/, and /l/ by three-year-old children

Twenty-one normally developing 3-year-old children were tested on two approximant consonant contrasts, rake-lake and wake-rake, and a control contrast, wake-bake. Perception was assessed in a two-choice picture identification paradigm; stimuli were (1) natural and computer synthesized “clear cases” of the minimal pairs, and (2) synthetic stimulus series which interpolated on acoustic dimensions that differentiate the minimal pairs. As a group, the children showed very accurate perception of the minimal pairs. Performance on the synthetic series yielded consistent identification of the endpoint stimuli and monotonic functions with abrupt crossovers at the phoneme boundary. Children who did not yet articulate /r/ and /l/ appropriately showed somewhat less consistent perception than children who produced all phonemes correctly.     

依恋研究方法述评

依恋研究内容的丰富和发展是以其研究方法的发展为基础的.本文概述了依恋研究领域中与不同年龄阶段相对应的三种影响较大的研究方法,即陌生情境法、依恋Q-set以及成人依恋访谈,并对这些依恋研究方法的优缺点、及其方法之间的关系进行了评述.