Maternal care and attachment security in ordinary and emergency contexts
Abstract
One of the foundations of attachment theory is the notion that early care plays a key role in determining the quality of child-caregiver attachment relationships. Studies have consistently shown relations between maternal sensitivity and infant security. Further research is required to resolve issues arising from modest correlations, focus on research in stressful as opposed to ordinary contexts, and questions about the generality of results across cultures and social contexts and about the context specificity of caregiving behavior. This article addressed these issues in 2 studies of child care in home and hospital contexts. Q-sort scores derived from extended naturalistic observations were used. Results are discussed in terms of links between methodology and effect sizes, the generality of links between maternal care and child security, the need for further research on caregiving in ordinary and emergency situations, and the context sensitivity of maternal behavior.
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To date only a few longitudinal studies explicitly considered early child influences on maternal sensitivity and later attachment classification.
“to date only a few longitudinal studies explicitly considered early child influences on maternal sensitivity and later attachment classification (Braungart-Reiker, Garwood, Powers, & Wang, 2001;Posada et al., 1999).”
From Infant and parent factors associated with early maternal sensitivity: A caregiver-attachment systems approach (2007) · cites this paper as Posada et al., 1999
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- Authors
- Posada, G., Jacobs, A., Carbonell, O. A., Alzate, G., Bustamante, M. R., & Arenas, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Denver (US)
- ORCID
- Carbonell, Olga A.
- Venue
- Developmental Psychology
- Published
- 1999
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1379-1388
- ISSN
- 0012-1649 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-0599
- OpenAlex
- W1983234309
- Cited by
- 88
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 8
- FWCI
- 5.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Developmental Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- maternal care, attachment security, maternal sensitivity, emergency situations, hospital care, home care, naturalistic observation, Q-sort
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Emergency Medical Services, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Maternal Behavior, Middle Aged, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Object Attachment, Psychological Theory
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