Premium
Children's Attachment Relationships with Day Care Caregivers: Associations with Positive Caregiving and the Child's Temperament
Author(s) -
De Schipper J. Clasien,
Tavecchio Louis W. C.,
Van IJzendoorn Marinus H.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00448.x
Subject(s) - temperament , moderation , psychology , developmental psychology , observational study , attachment theory , insecure attachment , association (psychology) , strange situation , clinical psychology , prosocial behavior , personality , social psychology , medicine , psychotherapist , pathology
In this study, children's attachment relationships with their professional caregivers in center day care were observed for 48 children. We explored whether more positive caregiving was associated with a more secure attachment relationship and whether this association was stronger for more temperamentally irritable children compared to less irritable children. Trained observers coded the attachment relationship in the day care setting using the attachment Q‐sort. The observational record of the caregiving environment was used to assess children's individual experience of positive caregiver–child interaction in the classroom. When caregivers showed more frequent positive caregiving behavior, children showed more secure attachment behavior toward their primary professional caregiver. Temperament was not related to attachment security, nor did it serve as a moderator. Consequently, no support for Belsky's susceptibility hypothesis was found.