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Origins of Attachment: Maternal Interactive Behavior across the First Year
Author(s) -
Isabella Russell A.
Publication year - 1993
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.1467-8624.1993.tb02931.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , maternal sensitivity , insecure attachment , strange situation , naturalistic observation , attachment measures , attachment theory , social psychology
This study built on attachment theory and previous research in examining the interactional origins of the secure, insecure‐resistant, and insecureavoidant patterns of attachment. Maternal sensitive responsivity, rejection, and activity were the focus of repeated naturalistic observations when infants were 1, 4, and 9 months of age; quality of attachment was assessed at 1 year. Mothers of secure 1‐year‐olds were observed to be more sensitively responsive at 1 and 4 months and less rejecting at 1 and 9 months than mothers of insecure infants. Mothers of insecure‐avoidant infants were more rejecting at 9 months, whereas mothers of insecure‐resistant infants were least sensitively responsive and most rejecting at 1 month; the insecure groups were also differentiated on the basis of patterns of change from 1 to 9 months, with mothers of resistant infants becoming less rejecting and mothers of avoidant infants becoming more rejecting relative to other mothers.