CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 335Attachment and Relationship DynamicsChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentEarly Childhood Education and Development

Infant-mother attachment security, contextual risk, and early development: A moderational analysis

Open access
BELSKY, JAY, FEARON, R. M. PASCO·2002·Development and Psychopathology
DOI 10.1017/s0954579402002067
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

In light of evidence that the effects of attachment security on subsequent development may be contingent on the social context in which the child continues to develop, we examined the effect of attachment security at age 15 months, cumulative contextual risk from 1 to 36 months, and the interaction of attachment and cumulative risk to predict socioemotional and cognitive linguistic functioning at age 3 years, using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. Results indicated that early attachment predicts both socioemotional development and language skills, but not cognitive functioning as indexed by a measure of school readiness, and that the effect of attachment on socioemotional development and expressive language varied as a function of social-contextual risk. Insecure–avoidant infants proved most vulnerable to contextual risk, not children classified as secure or insecure more generally, although in one instance security did prove protective with respect to the adverse effects of cumulative contextual risk. Findings are discussed in terms of risk and resilience and in light of the probabilistic nature of the relation between early attachment and later development.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s0954579402002067

Cites

12 of 12 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Belsky and Fearon's (2002) analysis of the NICHD data at age 1-3 years suggested that the effects of attachment tended to persist primarily when there was continuity in the quality of maternal care.

    “It is notable that Belsky and Fearon's (2002) analysis of the NICHD data at age 1-3 years suggested that the effects of attachment tended to persist primarily when there was continuity in the quality of maternal care.”

    From The Significance of Insecure Attachment and Disorganization in the Development of Children’s Externalizing Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Study (2010) · cites this paper as Belsky and Fearon's (2002)

    The Results section reports that attachment security at 15 months predicted some developmental outcomes at 3 years in the NICHD data. But the analysis examines cumulative contextual risk, not whether attachment effects persisted primarily when the quality of maternal care remained consistent; that condition is unsupported by our copy. Page numbers are unavailable. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The effects represent an average across a potentially large number of moderating relationships that could amplify or attenuate the association between attachment and externalizing problems.

    “Furthermore, the effects represent an average across a potentially large number of moderating relationships that could amplify or attenuate the association between attachment and externalizing problems (e.g.Belsky & Fearon, 2002;NICHD ECCRN, 2006).”

    From The Significance of Insecure Attachment and Disorganization in the Development of Children’s Externalizing Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Study (2010) · cites this paper as Belsky & Fearon, 2002

    The Results (page unavailable) show that contextual risk moderated the relationship between attachment and behavior problems: attachment-group differences appeared at some risk levels but not others. This supports the possibility that an overall association can mask moderation. The paper examines contextual risk as a moderator, however, and does not establish a potentially large number of moderating relationships; it also measures total behavior problems rather than externalizing problems specifically. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. [3]3. Bates, J., Maslin, C., & Frankel, K. (1985). Attachment security, mother-child interaction, and temperament Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 629-650. as predictors of behavior-problem ratings at age 3 Infant-mother attachment and behavior problems in years. In I.
  2. [4]4. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing healthy and chronically ill preschoolers. Development points of attachment theory and research. Mono- and Psychopathology, 7, 267-282. graphs of the Society for Research in Child Develop- Greenberg, M. T. (1999). Attachment and psychopathol- ment, 50(1-2, Serial No. 209, pp. 167-193). ogy in childhood. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Belsky, J. (1996). Parent, infant and social-contextual Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clini- antecedents of father-son attachment security. Devel- cal applications (pp. 469-496). New York: Guilford opmental Psychology, 32, 905-914.
  3. [5]5. Belsky, J., & Cassidy, J. (1994). Attachment: Theory and Hamilton, C. (2000). Continuity and discontinuity of at- evidence. In M. Rutter & D. Hay (Eds.), Development tachment from infancy through adolescence. Child through life: A handbook for clinicians (pp. 373- Development, 71, 690-694. 402). Oxford: Blackwell.
  4. [6]6. Hogan, A. E., Scott, K. G., & Bauer, C. R. (1992). The Belsky, J., Fish, M., & Isabella, R. (1991). Continuity Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory (ASBI): A new and discontinuity in infant negative and positive emo- assessment of social competence in high risk three- tionality: Family antecedents and attachment conse- year-olds. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, quences. Developmental Psychology, 27, 421-431. 10, 230-239.
  5. [8]8. Liaw, F., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1994). Cumulative familial Belsky, J., & Nezworski, T. (Eds.). (1988). Clinical im- risks and low-birthweight children's cognitive and be- plications of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. havioral development. Journal of Clinical Child Psy-
  6. [9]9. Belsky, J., & Isabella, R. (1988). Maternal, infant, and chology, 23, 360-372. social-contextual determinants of infant-mother at- Luster, T., & McAdoo, H. (1994). Factors related to the tachment. In J. Belsky & T. Nezworski (Eds.), Clini- achievement and adjustment of young African-Amer- cal implications of attachment (pp. 41-94). Hillsdale, ican children. Child Development, 66, 1080-1094.
  7. [18]18. logical research and practice. Psychological Bulletin, NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (1998). 69, 161-182. Early child care and self-control, compliance, and
  8. [20]20. Pungello, E., Kupersmidt, J., Burchinal, M., & Patterson, Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of at- C. (1996). Environmental risk factors and children's tachment theory and research. Monographs of the So- achievement from middle childhood to early adoles- ciety for Research in Child Development, 50(1-2, Se- cence. Developmental Psychology, 32, 755-767. rial No. 209, pp. 147-166).
  9. [24]24. Reynell, J. (1991). Reynell Developmental Language Scales (U.S. edition). Los Angeles: Western Psycho- problems. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 679-699.
  10. [25]25. Rutter, M. (1979). Protective factors in children's re- Shaw, D., & Vondra, J. (1995). Infant attachment security and maternal predictors of early behavior problems: sponses to stress and disadvantage. In M. W. Kent & J. E. Rolf (Eds.), Primary prevention of psychopathol- A longitudinal study of low-income families. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 23, 335-357. ogy (Vol. 3, pp. 49-74). Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
  11. [28]28. Rutter, M., Cox, A., Tupling, C., Berger, M., & Yule, W. (1975). Attainment and adjustment in two geographi- Troy, M., & Sroufe, L. A. (1987). Victimization among preschoolers: Role of attachment relationship history. cal areas: 1. The prevalence of psychiatric disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 493-509. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Ado- lescent Psychiatry, 26, 166-172.
  12. [34]34. Sameroff, A. J., Seifer, R., Zax, M., & Barocas, R. (1987). Early indicators of developmental risk: Rochester longi-Waters, E., Merrick, S., Treboux, D., Crowell, J., & Al- bersheim, L. (2000). Attachment security in infancy tudinal study. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 383-394.
  13. [36]36. The PAIR inventory. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 7, 640-653.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
BELSKY, J., & FEARON, R. M. P.
Affiliations
Birkbeck, University of London (GB)
ORCID
BELSKY, JAY
Venue
Development and Psychopathology
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2002-05-15
Volume
14
Issue
2
Pages
293-310
ISSN
  • 0954-5794 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-2198
DOI
10.1017/s0954579402002067
OpenAlex
W2027588078
Semantic Scholar
e5823ff0cc83a8eb50b6f905173dab68cbdaa634
Cited by
335
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 22
FWCI
9.20
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified)
Locations
  • Development and Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U10-HD25420, U10HD025420)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
Keywords
infant-mother attachment, attachment security, insecure-avoidant attachment, contextual risk, cumulative risk, early childhood development, social-emotional development, expressive language, school readiness, cognitive development, risk and resilience, moderating effect, NICHD Study of Early Child Care
MeSH terms
Affective Symptoms, Child Behavior Disorders, Developmental Disabilities, Child, Preschool, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Language Development Disorders, Male, Mother-Child Relations, Object Attachment, Risk Factors, Social Adjustment, Social Environment, Socioeconomic Factors, Reactive Attachment Disorder

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review