ABSTRACT Decades have passed since the controversy regarding the putative risks of childcare for mother–child attachment broke out. Yet, some uncertainty remains, as relevant studies have produced inconsistent evidence. Some have proposed that those conflicting findings may be due to the fact that the effects of childcare are conditioned on parenting. Accordingly, this study examined whether relations between childcare participation and mother–child attachment vary according to maternal sensitivity and autonomy support. In this sample of 236 mother–child dyads, there was no indication of main effects of childcare participation on attachment. There were, however, some interactive effects, such that the children who showed the least secure attachment behaviors were those who did not attend childcare and had either less sensitive or less autonomy-supportive mothers. The findings suggest that the effects of childcare on mother–child attachment are best understood in light of the parenting children receive at home.

ABSTRACT Caregivers’ mental representations of their children can be assessed prenatally and are prospectively associated with later caregiving quality and caregiver–child attachment. Compared to balanced, distorted or disengaged representations are linked to insecure caregiver–child attachments. The present study explored factors (i.e. stressful life experiences and positive experiences) that may be linked to risk for distorted and disengaged representations. We used a brief version of the Prenatal Working Model of the Child Interview in a sample of 298 pregnant people (ages 19 to 45 years; M = 30.83, SD = 5.00) between gestational age 11–38 weeks (M = 23.49, SD = 5.70). A greater number of stressful events across three developmental periods (i.e., lifespan, childhood, and pregnancy) were related to increased odds of distorted, compared to balanced classification. Pregnancy stress had the largest association. Positive experiences from childhood did not buffer the association between stress and representations. Findings highlight the importance of stress on prenatal representations of one’s child.

ABSTRACT This study examines the stability of child attachment to mothers and fathers separately, and to both parents as a network between the infancy and preschool periods using a sample of 143 biparental families and their children (73 boys) recruited from the general population. Attachment was assessed at 15 months with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) and at 45 months with the Preschool Attachment Classification Coding System (PACS). First, results show no stability in attachment to mothers, to fathers, or to both parents as a network. Second, parents’ mental health, life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and child externalizing behavior are associated with attachment stability. Taken altogether, group comparisons reveal that children with a stable secure attachment to both parents as a network have parents with higher levels of well-being and exhibit less problem behaviors than children with 1) a stable secure attachment to one parent and an unstable attachment to the other parent (from secure to insecure or from insecure to secure), or 2) who never had a stable secure attachment to either parent. This study highlights the significance of attachment to both parents as a network over time as it is associated with developmental outcomes.

ABSTRACT Although there is a consensus that harsh, hostile, abusive discipline has uniformly adverse effects on children, scholars continue to debate implications of varying degrees of power assertion commonly used by most parents in daily interactions with young children. Attachment theory can inform this debate, as early attachment organization can serve as a catalyst, or moderator, of future socialization trajectories. Specifically, insecure attachment can amplify, whereas secure attachment can attenuate, detrimental effects of parental power-assertive control. In two community studies of mothers, fathers, and infants, Family Study (FS, N = 102), and Children and Parents Study (CAPS, N = 200), we assessed attachment security in infancy, parental power-assertive control at 4.5 years in FS and at 16 months in CAPS, and child positive orientation to the parent at 10 years in FS and at 3 years in CAPS. In both studies, fathers’ power-assertive control undermined children’s positive orientation toward the fathers, but only for children with less secure attachment histories in infancy (Attachment Q-Set in FS and Strange Situation Paradigm in CAPS), and not for those with more secure histories. The findings highlight indirect yet powerful, long-term effects of the early parent-child security, and suggest distinct processes in mother- and father-child dyads.

ABSTRACT The goal of the two studies reported here was to examine the contribution of adolescents’ attachment orientations (anxiety, avoidance) and their perception of teacher’s responsiveness to persistence in academic tasks. In Study 1 (N = 160), we assessed self-reports of persistence in schoolwork. In Study 2 (N = 240), we manipulated the symbolic presence of participants’ teacher (teacher priming) and assessed their actual persistence in a cognitive task. Across the two studies, attachment anxiety was associated with decreased persistence, and the perception of teacher as a responsive figure contributed to heightened persistence and buffered the detrimental effects of attachment anxiety. Study 2’s findings also showed that the beneficial effects of perceived teacher’s responsiveness on actual task persistence were found only when the teacher was made contextually salient but not when the teacher was not salient. We discussed the dispositional and contextual sources of attachment security that contribute to task persistence.

ABSTRACT This integrative discussion of the special issue on video observations of sensitive caregiving in different cultural communities provides a reflection on the seven empirical studies that comprise this special issue. The two main aims of this special issue are highlighted in terms of their overall conclusions: (1) video observations can be useful and reliable tools to assess sensitivity in non-Western cultural contexts; (2) caregiver sensitivity can be observed across very different cultural contexts and can be expressed in various culture-specific ways; (3) the Ainsworth sensitivity scale is particularly useful for capturing sensitivity regardless of modality. Further, the limitations of the set of studies as well as opportunities for future research are discussed.

ABSTRACT The Gusii in rural Kenya represent a particularly interesting community for the study of sensitivity, as they have previously been described as not showing sensitive care. This study focuses on the observation of sensitivity in seven families with a 7-to 23-month-old infant, with extensive naturalistic video observations (ca. 2–4 hours per infant) described qualitatively and quantitatively. Sensitivity ratings showed substantial individual variation, ranging from low (2) to high (8). Sensitivity was mostly expressed non-verbally in the form of (subtle) physical responsiveness by a variety of caregivers, and seen to a high extent during infant feeding. Insensitivity was seen when caregivers were occupied with chores, and during infant bathing. Both warmth and harshness were observed, but infrequently. Results are discussed in terms of the nature of sensitive caregiving among the Gusii, and factors that might explain within-group differences.

ABSTRACT Disparities in childhood obesity highlight the need for research to identify its early predictors in high-risk populations, such as low-income, Latino families. In the current study, the first of its kind in a low-income Latino sample (N = 55; M child age = 12.74 months, SD = 3.96), we investigated whether mothers’ self-reported attachment style predicted their infants’ weight-for-length (WFL; an early indicator of childhood obesity). We also explored whether observed maternal sensitivity, coded from a video-recorded semi-structured play assessment, mediated this association. We found a significant direct effect of maternal attachment style on infants’ WFL z-scores (c’ = −0.68, SE = 0.22, p = .004). Infants of mothers who classified themselves as secure had lower WFL z-scores than infants of insecure mothers (avoidant or anxious). Maternal sensitivity did not mediate this association, but was positively associated with infant WFL z-scores. We discuss implications of these findings for future research.

ABSTRACT We examined whether disrupted maternal communication, which is associated with disorganized attachment in typically developing children, is also associated with disorganized attachment in children with ASD. The attachments of 45 boys with ASD and maternal disruption were assessed in the Strange Situation Procedure. Analyses revealed a link between low cognitive functioning and resistant/ambivalent and disorganized attachment, and children’s functioning was therefore controlled. Contrary to expectations, mothers of children with disorganized attachments did not show more disrupted communication than mothers of children with organized attachments. However, the 4-way attachment breakdown showed that the mothers of disorganized and ambivalent/resistant children had higher disruption scores than mothers of secure and avoidant children. The findings suggest that the expected associations between maternal disruption and attachment disorganization apply to children with ASD as well, but raise questions whether disrupted behavior is a unique antecedent of disorganized attachment or also of resistant/ambivalent attachment.

This article refers to:Video observations of sensitive caregiving “off the beaten track”: introduction to the special issueSensitive infant caregiving among the rural Gusii in KenyaMaternal sensitivity in rural Andean and Amazonian PeruComparing two measures of maternal sensitivity: goodness of fit with a South African cultural contextVideo observations of maternal sensitivity in urban and rural IranObserving sensitivity in slums in Yemen: the veiled challengeMaternal sensitivity in mother-infant interactions in Rio de Janeiro – BrazilPredictors of sensitive parenting in urban slums in Makassar, IndonesiaVideo observations of sensitivity in context: integrating insights from seven cultural communities