scholarly journals Infant–mother attachment security, contextual risk, and early development: A moderational analysis

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAY BELSKY ◽  
R. M. PASCO FEARON
Keyword(s):  
School Readiness ◽  
Attachment Security ◽  
Cumulative Risk ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Socioemotional Development ◽  
Risk And Resilience ◽  
Contextual Risk ◽  
Early Attachment ◽  
Early Child Care ◽  
Mother Attachment

In light of evidence that the effects of attachment security on subsequent development may be contingent on the social context in which the child continues to develop, we examined the effect of attachment security at age 15 months, cumulative contextual risk from 1 to 36 months, and the interaction of attachment and cumulative risk to predict socioemotional and cognitive linguistic functioning at age 3 years, using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. Results indicated that early attachment predicts both socioemotional development and language skills, but not cognitive functioning as indexed by a measure of school readiness, and that the effect of attachment on socioemotional development and expressive language varied as a function of social-contextual risk. Insecure–avoidant infants proved most vulnerable to contextual risk, not children classified as secure or insecure more generally, although in one instance security did prove protective with respect to the adverse effects of cumulative contextual risk. Findings are discussed in terms of risk and resilience and in light of the probabilistic nature of the relation between early attachment and later development.

Mothers’ empathic understanding of their preschoolers’ internal experience: Relations with early attachment

2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Oppenheim ◽  
Nina Koren-Karie ◽  
Abraham Sagi
Keyword(s):  
Strange Situation ◽  
Early Attachment ◽  
Empathic Understanding ◽  
Early Infant ◽  
Mother Attachment ◽  
Composite Scores ◽  
Internal Experience

This study examined the links between mothers’ empathic understanding of their preschoolers’ internal experience and early infant-mother attachment. The empathic understanding of 118 mothers of 4.5-year-olds was assessed by showing them three videotaped segments of observations of their children and themselves and interviewing them regarding their children’s and their own thoughts and feelings. Interviews were rated and then classi” ed into one empathic and three nonempathic categories, and mothers’ misperceptions of the observations were coded as well. Infant-mother attachment classifications obtained using the Strange Situation when infants were 12 months old were also available. Results showed associations between mothers’ empathic understanding classifications and children’s attachment classifications as well as differences between mothers of secure and insecure children on one of the two interview composite scores. Also, mothers of insecurely attached children had more misperceptions than those of securely attached children. The contributions of this study to the work on mothers’ representations of their children are discussed.

scholarly journals Temperamental Constellations and School Readiness: A MultiVariate Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Andrew S. White ◽  
Kate M. Sirota ◽  
Scott R. Frohn ◽  
Sara E. Swenson ◽  
Kathleen Moritz Rudasill
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
High Activity ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Effortful Control ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Academic Readiness ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Early Child Care

This study uses canonical correlation analyses to explore the relationship between multiple predictors of school readiness (i.e., academic readiness, social readiness, and teacher-child relationship) and multiple temperamental traits using data from the second wave (age 54 months, n = 1226) of the longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD; NICHD ECCRN 1993). This longitudinal study collected data on a large cohort of children and their families from birth through age 15. For academic readiness, only one temperamental constellation emerged, representing the construct of effortful control (i.e., high attentional focusing, high inhibitory control). For peer interactions, two significant constellations emerged: “dysregulated” (low inhibitory control, low shyness, and high activity), and “withdrawn” (high shyness, low inhibitory control, low attentional focusing). Finally, the analyses exploring child-teacher relationships revealed two significant constellations: “highly surgent” (high activity, low inhibitory control, low shyness) and “emotionally controlled” (low anger/frustration and high inhibitory control). Results of this study form a more nuanced exploration of relationships between temperamental traits and indicators of school readiness than can be found in the extant literature, and will provide the groundwork for future research to test specific hypotheses related to the effect temperamental constellations have on children’s school readiness.

The Relation of Maternal Directiveness and Child Attachment Security to Social Competence in Preschoolers

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Rose-Krasnor ◽  
Kenneth H. Rubin ◽  
Cathryn L. Booth ◽  
Robert Coplan
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Attachment Security ◽  
Social Problem Solving ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Control Child ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Mother Attachment

The primary focus of this study was the assessment of children's social competence in relation to two aspects of the mother-child relationshipattachment security and maternal directiveness. Specifically, we expected concurrent child-mother attachment security to be positively correlated with children's positive social engagement and social problem-solving skills and negatively related to aggression, whereas maternal directiveness was predicted to show the opposite pattern of correlations. Subjects were 111 mothers and their 4-year-old target children, each paired with a same-sex, same-age unfamiliar control child. Maternal directiveness was assessed in co-operative task and free-play sessions involving the target child, target mother, and control child. The target child's social engagement and social problem-solving skills were measured during dyadic free play with the control child. Multiple regression analyses assessed relative contributions of maternal directiveness and attachment security to the prediction of child behaviour with the peer. Attachment security predicted positive social engagement. Maternal directiveness was associated only with aspects of the children's social problem-solving. These results support previous research linking child-mother attachment security, maternal control patterns and children's social competence, although our findings showed the importance of separating the influences of attachment quality and the socialisation aspects of parenting.

scholarly journals Children Coping, Contextual Risk and their Interplay during the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Spanish Case

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Domínguez-Álvarez ◽  
Laura López-Romero ◽  
Aimé Isdahl-Troye ◽  
José Antonio Gómez-Fraguela ◽  
Estrella Romero
Keyword(s):  
Psychosocial Adjustment ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Risk And Resilience ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Contextual Risk ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Child Coping ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of millions of people around the globe and some of the unprecedent emerged disruptions, are likely to have been particularly challenging for young children (e.g., school closures, social distancing measures, movement restrictions). Studying the impact of such extraordinary circumstances on their well-being is crucial to identify processes leading to risk and resilience. To better understand how Spanish children have adapted (or fail to) to the stressful disruptions resulting from the pandemic outbreak, we examined the effects of child coping and its interactions with contextual stressors (pandemic and family-related) on child adjustment, incorporating in our analysis a developmental perspective. Data was collected in April 2020, through parent-reports, during the acute phase of the pandemic and, temporarily coinciding with the mandatory national quarantine period imposed by the Spanish Government. A sample of 1,123 Spanish children (50% girls) aged three to 12 (Mage = 7.26; SD = 2.39) participated in the study. Results showed differences in the use of specific strategies by children in different age groups (i.e., 3-6, 7-9 and 10-12-year-olds). Despite the uncontrollable nature of the pandemic-related stressors, child disengagement coping was distinctively associated to negative outcomes (i.e., higher levels of behavioral and emotional difficulties), whereas engagement coping predicted psychosocial adjustment across all age groups. Moreover, interactively with child coping, parent fear of the future and parent dispositional resilience appear as relevant contextual factors to predict both negative and positive outcomes, but their effects seem to be age dependent, suggesting a higher contextual vulnerability for younger children. These findings might have implications for identifying individual and contextual risk and informing potential preventive interventions aimed to reduce the impact of future pandemic outbreaks on children of different ages.

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