Masha Schiller

Attachment, Maternal Sensitivity, and Infant Temperament during the First Year of Life.

Families were examined at 6, 9, and 12 months in an intensive longitudinal study that included Home Behavior Attachment Q-sorts, laboratory Strange Situation assessment, home observations of infant temperament behavior on 24 occasions, observations of maternal parenting sensitivity on 12 occasions, and maternal reports of infant temperament. Maternal sensitivity was modestly related to Q-sort security and unrelated to Strange Situation classification. In contrast, observed infant temperament was more strongly related to both maternal sensitivity and Q-sort security. The relation between home and laboratory assessment of attachment security, which was at the level found in prior work (e.g., B. E. Vaughn & E. Waters, 1990), remained after the effects of observed and mother-reported infant temperament were partialed. Our data highlight the need to consider other factors besides maternal sensitivity in the explanation of variability in the attachment status of 1-year-olds.

Levels of family assessment: II. Impact of maternal psychopathology on family functioning.

The association of maternal and contextual risk factors with whole-family, marital, and parent-child levels of family functioning was examined. Matemal mental illness and multiple contextual risk best predicted whole-family functioning, but each was related to marital and parent-child levels as well. Nonspecific indicators of maternal illness, rather than diagnostic category, were the better predictors of family functioning. The multiple contextual risk index was the variable most associated with all levels of family functioning, more so than any indicator of maternal illness. These results indicate (a) that maternal mental illness and family functioning are strongly associated and (b) that variation in the conceptualization and measurement strategy for risk and family functioning affects the conclusions of research. The importance of clear conceptualization of family levels and psychopathology risk in families of young children is discussed.

Mothers’ appraisal of goodness of fit and children’s social development

Goodness of fit has been a key theoretical construct for understanding caregiver–child relationships. We developed an interview method to assess goodness of fit as a relationship construct, and employed this method in a longitudinal study of child temperament, family context, and attachment relationship formation. Goodness of fit at 4 and 8 months of age predicted secure attachment at 15 months, after accounting for variance associated with SES, maternal depression, child temperament, parenting quality, and family functioning. Structural models indicated that prediction of security by goodness of fit and parenting quality was relatively independent. The goodness-of-fit pathway was most associated with maternal depression, whereas the parenting sensitivity pathway was most associated with child temperament, family functioning, and SES.

Stability of child behavioral style in the first 30 months of life Single timepoint and aggregated measures

The current study examined the stability of temperament over time. Observers and mothers rated child behavior at eight timepoints across three assessment waves (8, 15, and 30 months of age). Internal consistency reliability of aggregates of the eight observer reports and eight mother reports were high. When considering single timepoint assessments, stability of temperament between assessment waves was generally low to moderate in magnitude. When the eight observations were aggregated, rather than when single timepoints were considered, between-wave stability of temperament increased. Mother reports of temperament were generally more stable than observer reports. Results have important methodological implications and suggest multiple observations of child behavior within a single developmental period are necessary to evaluate the stability of temperament over time.