Poster group
Details of individual items:
poster
Open communication between mothers and their children has been theoretically related to security of attachment as both an antecedent and an outcome. Until recently there has been little empirical support for this claim, particularly regarding the years beyond infancy. In one of the first studies showing such support we found associations between infant-mother attachment classifications and mother-child communication patterns during a reunion observation at age four and a half years. Children who were classified as securely attached in infancy were more likely to have open, fluent and coherent communication with their mothers at age four and a half. Children who were classified as insecurely attached in infancy were more likely to have a non-open communication with their mothers, characterized by lack of coherence, poor timing, hostility, boredom or role-reversal. The current investigation involves a follow-up of this sample at age seven and was designed to address two issues: continuity from secure attachment in infancy to open communication at seven years, and continuity in mother-child communication between ages four and a half and seven. In addition, issues of discontinuities across the study's three time points will also be explored. Initially, 130 infants were observed with their mothers in Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure when they were one year old. At age four and a half, mother-child communication patterns were examined during a reunion episode following a one-hour separation. The communication between mothers and children was classified into one of four 'Open Communication' categories or one of six 'Non-Open Communication' categories. This classification was based on dyads' mutual interest, timing, positive affect, coherence, fluency, and the focus of the dialogue. As mentioned above, links were found between Secure/Insecure attachment in infancy and Open/Non-Open communication at four and a half years, respectively. In the present study the communication between mothers and their children was assessed again when the children were seven years old. Our first hypothesis stated that children who were classified as having an 'Open' or 'Non-open' communication with their mothers at the age of four and a half would have the same classification at the age of seven. Our second hypothesis was that children who were classified as 'Secure' or 'Insecure' in infancy, will be classified as having an 'Open' or 'Non-open' communication pattern at the age of seven years, respectively. Thus far, 25 age-seven reunions were coded, and preliminary results are encouraging. Eighty four percent concordance was found between mother-child communication at the age of four and a half and at the age of seven. The picture regarding relations with attachment in infancy is more complex and awaits examination using the entire data set, which will be coded in the next few months.Results of this study will contribute to our understanding of the transformation of the attachment relationship following the infancy years. In particular, the role of language and verbal communication in contributing to both continuities and discontinuities will be highlighted.
poster
The purpose of this study is to examine 7-year-olds' social information processing in relation to their attachment security as infants. To achieve this goal, this study is comparing for the first time two well known methodologies: the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure (SSP; Ainsworth et al. 1978) for the measurement of attachment security in infancy, and the social information processing approach of Dodge and his colleagues (SIP; Dodge & Crick, 1994) for measuring social information processing in middle childhood. Dodge's SIP approach seems particularly appropriate for examining children's attachment representations. First, as Belsky and Cassidy (1994) have recently pointed out, in order to advance our understanding of children's attachment representations, it is necessary to 'unpack' the concept of 'representations' into its components and to examine in details the hypothesized processes or steps it involves. Dodge's approach pertains to specific steps in the information processing sequence (i.e. encoding, interpretation, response generation, and response evaluation) and therefore seems to be applicable for this purpose. Second, recent attachment research suggest that individual differences in security at the representational level are particularly evident in information processing strategies with regard to attachment themes (Main, 1991). For example, it was suggested that security is reflected in open, flexible, non-defensive information processing whereas insecurity is reflected in non-open, distorted, rigid, and defensive information processing (Bretherton, 1991). This suggestion has received most of its support from work with adults, and there is very little support to it's validity with children. The present study offers therefore, to shed some more light in this direction. The present study is part of a large-scale project, addressing issues of early childcare. The sample (N3D118) was constructed of 46 (23 boys and 23 girls) children classified in infancy as securely attached (B). 50 (23 boys and 27 girls) children classified in infancy as insecurely- ambivalently attached (C), and 22 (9 boys, 13 girls) children classified in infancy as disorganized (D). The children had visited the research center at age 7.5, and were presented with a set of video vignettes in two steps. In step one, children were introduced with three basic scripts describing different peer group entry situations - hostile, non-hostile, and ambiguous. They were then asked to describe the situations in their own words and to recognize the peers' attitude. In step two, the children were introduces to three different types of responses of the films' protagonist - aggressive, inept, and competent. Children were then asked to identify the adequacy of the protagonists' response to the social situation presented. Data coding and analysis are still underway, but preliminary findings show an association between attachment classification and children's' social information process capabilities. Specifically, securely attached infants were found more capable to correctly identify adequate social response to social situations at middle childhood as compared to insecurely attached infants. A full description of the results will be presented in ICIS.
poster
The main objective of this study was to examine the associationsbetween parent-infant relationships and the quality of childrenssubsequent friendships during the preschool period. Attachment theoryproposes that in the context of the parent-infant attachment relationship,children form cognitive schemes about close relationships which are thencarried forward into their later relationships (Bowlby, 1969/82; Sroufe &Fleeson, 1986). Social learning theory suggests that it is in the contextof parent-child interaction in which children learn and practice thesocial skills used in interactions with peers (Bandura, 1971; Parke,Carson, Burks, & Bhavnagri 1989). Incorporating these two theoreticalperspectives, the second objective of this study was to examine emotionregulation, understanding of emotions, and understanding of false beliefsas mediators through which the parent-infant relationship was associatedwith childrens friendships at age four. Thirty children, their parents, and their friends participated.At 12 months of age, parent-infant attachment and parental sensitivity andintrusiveness were assessed. When children turned four years of age,child-friend dyads were invited to the laboratory playroom and werevideotaped in a 20-minute free play session and a 5-minute sharing task.Child-friend observations were coded for individual behaviors and dyadicinteraction. Child interviews were conducted to assess understanding ofemotions (Denham, 1986) and false beliefs (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith,1985). Finally, childrens ability to regulate emotion-related behaviorwas assessed in the Disappointment Paradigm (Cole, 1986, Saarni, 1984). Correlational analyses revealed that infants who were higher on acontinuum of attachment security with fathers tended to be moreresponsiveness toward friends. In addition, higher levels of attachmentsecurity with mothers and fathers were associated with childrensunderstanding of false beliefs. With respect to parenting behavior,mothers sensitivity was related to childrens responsiveness towardfriends, higher levels of dyadic friendship quality, and greater abilityto regulate emotions in a disappointing situation. Fathers sensitivitywas associated with childrens more responsive and less controllingbehavior with friends, as well as with more conflict with friends and moreconfrontation during the Disappointment Paradigm. Fathers intrusivenesswas associated with less managing behavior toward friends, and marginallyrelated to childrens lower levels of responsiveness, control, andconflict, and greater emotion understanding. Multiple regression analyseswere conducted to determine whether childrens emotion regulation, emotionunderstanding, or false belief understanding mediated associations betweenthe parent-infant relationship and childrens friendship relations. Oneinstance of mediation was found: paternal intrusiveness was related tochildrens greater understanding of emotion, which in turn was associatedwith less controlling behavior toward friends. Consistent findings across mother-infant and father-infantrelationships suggest that children tend to demonstrate a responsive styleof interaction with friends when they experience parental sensitivity. Inaddition, children may begin to form an understanding of others minds(i.e., false beliefs) in the context of secure attachment relationships.Certain results also suggest, however, that mothers and fathers contributeto different facets of children's friendship relations and emotionregulation. Possible interpretations for these different patterns ofassociations will be discussed.
poster
In this analysis we explored whether emotion dysregulation (DR) was related to the quality of early and concurrent attachment to mother and teacher, peer interaction, and gender. We identified children who were low in ER (using the Shields & Cicchetti ER Q-Scale, 1997) to create four groups (DR girls, DR boys, and regulated girls and boys). We observed 35 girls and 42 boys at 12 mos. and at 4-yrs. in a laboratory and in child care. We used direct observational measures as well as teacher-ratings.We calculated a series of discriminant function analyses using maternal attachment, teacher-child attachment, teacher socialization of peer interaction, and peer interactions (peer entry, emotion displayed, hostility, instrumental aggression, prosocial behavior, withdrawal, and teacher-rated aggression) as predictors. Initial analyses indicated that regulated girls and boys could not be reliably discriminated and that several predictors were only weakly related to the analysis, therefore we continued the analyses with three groups (DR girls, DR boys, regulated children) and a sub-set of predictors (See Table 1). The groups could be discriminated by early attachment relationships and concurrent peer interactions (p < .01; See Figure 1 for a plot of group centroids), but they could not be reliably distinguished based on concurrent teacher-child or mother-child attachment. Interpretation of the loading matrix of correlations between predictors and discriminant functions (See Table 1) indicates that the function that best discriminated regulated children from dysregulated children (function 1) was most closely related to the our prosocial behavior composite while the function that best discriminated dysregulated girls and boys (function 2) was related to several peer interaction measures and the quality of maternal attachment at 12 mos. Examining group mean differences (Table 2) indicated that regulated children were more prosocial than dysregulated children. Dysregulated children could be further differentiated: dysregulated girls were more withdrawn, more rebuffed by peers, more hostile toward unfamiliar peers, and more likely to have had an avoidant attachment with their mother at 12 mos. while dysregulated boys were more likely to be rated by their teachers as aggressive and more likely to have had a resistant attachment with their mother at 12 mos.Clearly, grouping the children according to their emotion regulation ability was meaningful for these children and examining gender differences in emotion regulation was essential in understanding the ways that emotion regulation is related to peer interaction and adult-child relationships. Figure 1. Plot of group centroids from 3-group analysis with peer interaction and early adult relationship variables as predictors. Table 1. Correlations between peer interaction predictors and discriminant functions final three-group analysis including both peer interaction and adult relationship predictors. Correlations of predictor variables with discriminant functions Univariate FPredictor Variable 1 2 (2,74)Peer Interaction Predictors Ratio of easy to total entries (single) -.38 -.57 6.13**Hostility (playgroup) .22 .29 1.64Instrumental aggression (playgroup) .11 .31 1.30Prosocial behavior -.61 .16 9.56**Withdrawn .23 .62 5.41**Aggressive .44 -.47 4.43*Early Attachment Maternal attachment (12 mos.) -.27 .39 3.57*Teacher attachment (first) .10 .25 1.20** p < .01Note: Function 1 best discriminates between regulated children and both groups of dysregulated children while function 2 best discriminates between dysregulated girls and boys (also discriminating each group from regulated children). Table 2. Group mean differences in predictors from discriminant function analysis Dysregulated Girls Dysregulated Boys Regulated Children Mean SD Mean SD Mean SDPeer Interaction Prosocial -0.69 -1.94 0.39 Withdrawal 2.99 -0.53 -0.35 Teacher-rated aggression 3.23 7.00 3.56 Ratio of easy to total entry attempts 0.63 0.85 0.87 Observed aggression (playgroup) 0.71 -0.13 -0.01 Hostility (playgroup) 1.32 0.02 -0.07 Early attachment To mother 0.13 -0.50 0.00 To teacher .52 .40 .42
poster
Findings regarding stability of attachment within the infancy period are mixed and may beaffected by sample characteristics such as socioeconomic status and the inclusion of thedisorganized classification (Belsky, Campbell, Cohn, & Moore, 1996). Few studies haveexamined the stability of attachment from infancy to the preschool period. The goals of thisinvestigation were: 1) to determine stability in child-mother attachment from 15 months to 4 yearsin a low SES rural sample, and 2) to explore factors associated with stability and change. Participants were 82 children with both 15-month and 4-year attachment classificationsand their mothers who were taking part in a longitudinal study of socioemotional and cognitivedevelopment in low SES rural children. Measures included: attachment classifications (A, B, C,D) by independent expert coders from Strange Situations at 15 months and 4 years; prenatalmother personality and social support; mothers' relationship stability; neonates' reactivity topacifier withdrawal and application of a cold disk; infant positive and negative temperament andmother sensitivity rated from videotaped mother-infant interactions at 4 and 9 months; andchildren's language abilities assessed with standardized instruments at 15 months and 4 years. Allmeasures demonstrated adequate reliability. The analysis strategy used was to categorize children as stable or changing, based on attachment security, and to compare stable and changing children with the same initial security. Thus, following overall ANOVA or Chi Square tests, two planned comparisons on infant andmother characteristics were made: 1) children who were secure at both times were compared tothose who were secure in infancy, but insecure as preschoolers, and 2) children who wereinsecurely attached at both times were compared to those who changed from insecure at 15months to secure at 4 years. Significant ( 2 4.70) but fairly low (62%) stability in attachment security was foundfrom infancy to preschool in this sample. Group comparisons indicated that infant temperament,language ability, and sex, and mother sensitivity, social support, and relationship stability relatedin largely expected ways to stability and change in attachment security. Specifically, stable securechildren, compared to those secure as infants but insecure at 4 years, were more reactive asneonates and had larger passive vocabularies at 15 months, while their mothers were moresensitive at 9 months and tended to be more likely to have a stable partner relationship from 15months to 4 years. Stable insecure children, compared to children insecure at 15 months butsecure as preschoolers, tended to be less reactive as neonates, were more likely to be female, hadhigher negative emotionality at 9 months and were less likely to decrease in negative emotionalityfrom 4 to 9 months, while their mothers reported less social support and were less likely to be instable relationships from 15 months to 4 years. Stability and change will be discussed in terms of'lawful' continuity and discontinuity, based on risk and protective factors associated with thispopulation.
poster
Common clinical wisdom and research on early attachmentsuggests that Foster Children (i.e., children who have beentaken into custody by juvenile courts for their own well-being and protection) are at a very high risk for repeatedlybroken attachments from significant care-givers; the numberand unpredictability of severed attachments may be causingsignificant harm to the emotional development of thesechildren. Research suggests that early attachmentrelationships serve as a prototype for later relationships.Children who experience significant disruption in attachmentrelationships in the first three years of life will havegreater difficulty navigating social environments andestablishing and maintaining healthy relationships withothers in subsequent years. Indeed, they are at risk forestablishing poor attachment relationships with their ownchildren. This pattern predisposes the family to furtherintervention by authorities, in the worst cases we havegenerations of the same family under the purview of ourjuvenile courts for redundant care problems.By changing the foster care system in ways suggested byattachment theory and research, we may be able to interruptthis cycle. For example, evidence indicates that childrenare able to establish healthy attachments with individualsoutside of the biological family (e.g., the Israelikibbutzim) and that these attachment relationships arepredictive of later functioning. By establishing immediate,stable, long-term care situations for children when theyfirst enter the foster care system, we may be able toprovide the sorts of attachment experiences that will allowthem to develop optimally.One-hundred cases will be subjected to a retrospectivearchival review and content analysis. Information fromchildren twelve years old and younger will be used to assessthe relationships, and subsequent predictive value, amongvariables that index stability and intensity of the out-of-home placement. The analyses of 'older' children will beused to track and evaluate placement changes and theireffects so that we can generate working models with strongpredictive value for 'younger' children. Target variableswill include, but not be limited to, placement history andintensity, encounters with law enforcement, legaldesignations and demographics.The conclusions of the current study will providefundamental direction to social policy makers in order tohelp them address the issues that surround the special needsof infants and toddlers. Based on current theory andresearch, a case is made to provide optimal front-endservice to infants and toddlers to ensure proper developmentof the basics of human relationships and break the cycle ofredundant care problems.
poster
no abstract