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Quality of Infants' Attachments to Professional Caregivers: Relation to Infant‐Parent Attachment and Day‐Care Characteristics
Author(s) -
Goossens Frits A.,
Ijzendoorn Marinus H.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02825.x
Subject(s) - strange situation , psychology , developmental psychology , infant development , child care , maternal sensitivity , attachment theory , medicine , pediatrics
75 infants (mean age 15 months) were observed 3 times in the Strange Situation with their professional caregivers, mothers, and fathers. Sensitivity of these attachment figures to the infant's signals during free play, as well as a number of day‐care characteristics, were assessed. Attachment classification distribution of infant‐caregiver dyads did not differ significantly from infant‐mother or infant‐father attachment classification distributions. The quality of infant‐caregiver attachment was independent of both infant‐mother and infant‐father attachments. About 10% of the infants had 3 insecure attachments. Professional caregivers observed with more than 1 infant did not have similar types of attachment classifications to all infants with whom they were observed. Infants who were securely attached to their professional caregivers spent more hours per week in day‐care, and came from a middle‐class background. Their caregivers appeared to be younger and more sensitive during free play than caregivers with whom the infants developed an insecure relationship.