Brian E. Vaughn

The emergence and consolidation of self-control from eighteen to thirty months of age: normative trends and individual differences.

This study is a descriptive report of the capability to exercise self-control in very young children. 2 aspects of self-control were assessed (delay/response inhibition in the presence of an attractive stimulus and compliance with maternal directives in a cleanup task) for 72 children between the ages of 18 and 30 months. The results indicated that both aspects of self-control show age-related increases. However, a factor analysis of the behaviors observed in the cleanup task suggested that compliance could not be adequately described with a unitary, bipolar dimension (noncompliance vs. compliance). 2 patterns of non-compliance were observed, and 1 of these also increased with age. Cross-task consistency for the delay measures) and coherence across the 2 aspects of self-control showed a positive relationship with increasing age. Finally, correlational analyses of the self-control measures and developmental test data showed that individual differences in self-control were associated with differences in cognitive-developmental status (DA). The results are interpreted as evidence that the achievement of self-control can be considered as a major developmental accomplishment and as evidence that individual differences in self-control emerge and are consolidated during the second and third years of life.

The Early Development of Inferences about the Visual Percepts of Others.

MASANGKAY, ZENAIDA S.; McCLUSKEY, KATHLEEN A.; MCINTYRE, CURTIS W.; SIMS-KNIGHT, JUDITH; VAUGHN, BRIAN E.; and FLAVELL, JOHN H. The Early Development of Inferences about the Visual Percepts of Others. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 357-366. 3 experiments assessed the ability of 2-5-year-old children to infer, under very simple task conditions, what another person sees when viewing something from a position other than the childrens own. Some ability of this genre appears to exist by 2-3 years of age, at least. The data suggest a distinction between an earlier (Level 1) and a later (Level 2) developmental form of visual percept inference. At Level 1, S is capable of nonegocentrically inferring that O sees an object presently nonvisible to S himself. At Level 2, S is also capable of nonegocentrically inferring how an object that both currently see appears to O, that is, how it looks from his particular spatial perspective.

The Relationship between Out-of-Home Care and the Quality of Infant-Mother Attachment in an Economically Disadvantaged Population.

The effects of routine daily separations occasioned by out-of-home care on the formation and maintenance of infant-mother attachment relationships were examined in a population of economically disadvantaged mothers. 3 groups were constituted on the basis of the time in the infants life when out-of-home care began: (1) before 12 months; (2) between 12 and 18 months; (3) home-care controls. The infant-mother pairs were observed in the Ainsworth strange situation at both 12 and 18 months, and were classified as secure, anxious-avoidant, or anxious-resistant. Because previous research has implicated the psychological accessibility of the mother to the infant in the development of anxious-avoidant attachments during the first year of life, the hypothesis that physical inaccessibility due to out-of-home care would also be associated with anxious-avoidant attachments was tested. The data support this hypothesis. At 12 months 47% of the infants whose mothers had returned to work/school were classified in the anxious-avoidant group, while the other 2 groups did not differ significantly in the proportions of infants assigned to the 3 attachment classifications. At 18 months, differences among the 3 work status groups also showed a large portion of anxious-avoidant infants (41%) in this early working group. However, infants whose out-of-home care began after 12 months did not show an increase in the proportion of anxious attachments. Additional analyses of variables related to mothers return to work indicated that single mothers were more likely to return to work/school, that mothers who worked reported higher levels of life stress than mothers who stayed home with the infants, and that, by 18 months, both anxious-avoidant and anxious-resistant attachments were also associated with non-intact families.

Individual Differences in Infant-Mother Attachment Relationships at Age One: Antecedents in Neonatal Behavior in an Urban, Economically Disadvantaged Sample.

Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scales (NBAS) were administered to 100 neonates at 7 and 10 days after birth. The infants and their mothers were subsequently observed in the Ainsworth and Wittig strange-situation procedure at age 1. Infants were classified as secure, anxious/avoidant, or anxious/resistant. When compared with the secure attachment group, anxious/resistant infants scored lower on orientation, motor maturity, and regulation items at day 7. The secure and anxious/avoidant subjects did not differ at day 7. The anxious/resistant group improved from day 7 to day 10, and neither anxious group differed from the secure group on the second examination. The results suggest that early neonatal difficulties may reflect probelms in integrative and adaptive mechanisms which continue to influence behavior, interaction, and eventually attachment relationships, despite the tendency of all normal infants eventually to meet the demands of the neonatal period. In view of the resiliency of neonatal behavior, it is assumed that neonatal difficulties must interact with difficult environments to produce anxious attachments.

Negative Interactions and Social Competence for Preschool Children in Two Samples: Reconsidering the Interpretation of Aggressive Behavior for Young Children

Two samples of preschool children (471 attending Head Start, 472 in a community sample) were observed with regard to their initiations of negative interactions. Scores for three dimensions of aggression viewed as salient by preschool teachers were also derived from observational data. Observation and sociometric assessments were used to characterize childrens social competence. Normative declines in negative behavior and aggression scales were observed for some measures. Children attending Head Start programs tended to have higher scores for negative initiations and for one aggression scale, but these results are qualified by significant gender by sample interactions. Further analyses revealed coherence among the negative behavior and aggression variables; however, for the most part, aggression and negative behavior measures were positive predictors of social competence in both samples. We conclude that aggression and negative interactions per se need not be construed as evidence of low social competence for preschool children and that, to the extent that conflicts among preschoolers may be a source of social cognitive growth, such behaviors may have a positive impact on social development at these ages.

Empirical Classification of Infant-Mother Relationships from Interactive Behavior and Crying during Reunion.

Multiple discriminant function analysis (MDFA) was conducted with data from 255 Strange Situations conducted and scored by Ainsworth and her colleagues. Cross-validated discriminant functions and classification weights were obtained, allowing attachment classifications (A, B, C) to be assigned directly from scores on interactive behavior and crying during reunion episodes. In the past, classification agreement within laboratories has often been used as a training criterion. Unfortunately, this does not insure that classification criteria agreed upon within a laboratory are comparable across laboratories, nor does it insure that agreed upon criteria will yield the same classifications that would have been assigned by the researchers who developed the scoring system. The present results enable researchers who have mastered the scoring systems for reunion behavior and crying to obtain attachment classifications directly from scores on these variables. Alternatively, this procedure may be used to guide the training of, and validate classification decisions by, local judges.

Attachment Security and Temperament in Infancy and Early Childhood: Some Conceptual Clarifications

Relations between attachment security and temperament were studied in 6 samples. Ages at temperament assessments ranged from 5 to 42 months and attachment security was assessed between 12 and 45 months. Attachment security was assessed using the Waters and Deane Attachment Behavior Q-set. Principal component analyses were used with the temperament data, and scores for the first component (Emotional Reactivity) served as correlates of attachment security. Analyses revealed significant associations between temperament and attachment at all ages when mothers completed both instruments, and when Q-sorts were independent from maternal temperament perceptions, temperament and attachment security correlations reached significance for older children

Maternal secure base scripts, children's attachment security, and mother-child narrative styles.

Abstract This paper reports the results of a study examining links between maternal representations of attachment, child attachment security, and mother and child narrative styles assessed in the context of reminiscences about shared experiences. Participants were 90 mother – child dyads. Child attachment security was assessed using the attachment Q-set and maternal attachment representations were measured using a recently designed instrument that assesses the script-like qualities of those representations. Analyses examined dependencies in the mother – child memory talk data and then assessed the overlap between both mother and child reminiscing styles and the attachment variables. Narrative styles of both the mothers and their children were coherent and consistent for each dyad member. Furthermore, maternal narrative style (e.g., specific and elaborative questions, using confirming evaluation comments) was significantly related to child participation in the narrative. Maternal and child attachment variables were positively and significantly correlated, and child security was positively associated with maternal narrative style. Maternal secure base scripts were also found to be significantly related to the number of references to emotions in both mother and child narratives as well as to childrens overall participation in the memory talk. The pattern of results suggests that attachment representations serve as one influence on the manner(s) in which mother – child dyads think about and discuss emotion-laden content relevant to the childs personal autobiography. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the notion that the manner in which children organize their thoughts about emotion are (at least potentially) shaped by the narrative styles of their parents.

The attachment script representation procedure in an Italian sample : Associations with Adult Attachment Interview scales and with maternal sensitivity

Abstract This study provides data supporting the reliability and validity of an Italian version of the adult attachment script representation task, designed by Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh (2004). Specifically, we tested hypotheses concerning positive relations between attachment scriptedness scores and two other representational measures, derived from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). In addition, we tested the hypothesis that secure base script scores should predict maternal sensitivity in the context of mother – infant interaction. Thirty-one mothers completed narrative protocols and received scriptedness scores using the Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh (2004) criteria. Prior to the attachment script assessment, mothers had been assessed using the AAI and had been observed in the context of infant – mother interactions to assess maternal sensitivity. Assessment of instrument reliability was satisfactory (Cronbachs α >.70) and both hypotheses were supported; the attachment scriptedness score (based on 4 attachment narratives) was positively and significantly associated with the AAI coherence score, the continuous security score derived from the AAI State of Mind scales, and with maternal sensitivity. These data extend to another socio-cultural milieu, previous findings supporting reliability, convergent, and predictive validity of the attachment script representation task as a measure of adult attachment.

Chapter III. Maternal Sensitivity, Child Functional Level, and Attachment in Down Syndrome

A principal hypothesis of attachment theory is that parental sensitivity influences the quality of parent-child attachment (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Bowlby, 1969). This association has been verified metaanalytically (de Wolfe & van IJzendoorn, 1997). By demonstrating that intervention aimed at maternal sensitivity may increase the probability of secure attachment, van IJzendoorn, Juffer, and Duyvesteyn (1995) showed that the link between these two constructs might be a causal one. Nevertheless, in a review of the sensitivity-attachment literature, Schneider-Rosen and Rothbaum (1993) pointed out that there remains relatively little research addressing maternal precursors of security, considering the detail with which theorists have described the experiential origins of attachment relationships. The dearth of predictive research with atypical samples confirms this observation (van IJzendoorn, Goldberg, Kroonenberg, & Frenkel, 1992). This paucity handicaps theorizing in so far as atypical samples provide the greatest yield of atypically attached individuals (e.g., Crittenden, 1985; Radke-Yarrow, Cummings, Kuczynski, & Chapman, 1985; Vaughn et al., 1994). Only through the longitudinal study of atypical attachment can we fully encompass the human attachment experience. Furthermore, Schneider-Rosen and Rothbaum (1993) argued that the modest association between parental sensitivity and attachment security indicates the need for an interactional approach to attachment security; we must move beyond main effects to investigate both parental and child contributions to the relationship. In assessing interactional hypotheses, the use of atypical samples