Ora Aviezer

School competence in young adolescence: Links to early attachment relationships beyond concurrent self-perceived competence and representations of relationships

Predictive associations of infant attachment to mothers and fathers with later school functioning, beyond the contribution of contemporaneous representations of relationships and circumstances of caregiving, were examined in 66 young adolescents who were raised in infancy in Israeli kibbutzim with collective sleeping. The Strange Situation Procedure was used to evaluate early attachment to mother and father, the Separation Anxiety Test was used to assess contemporaneous representation of relationships, and teachers’ reports evaluated school functioning. Circumstances of caregiving included parental reports of quality of marital relations and a change from collective sleeping to home sleeping for children. Results showed that infant attachment to mother, but not to father, contributed significant additional variance to the prediction of children’s scholastic skills and emotional maturity beyond the contribution of concurrent representations of relationships and changes in circumstances of caregiving. The results support the secure base construct as an organising concept of longitudinal investigations of attachment.

Ecological Constraints for Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment

To determine whether the transmission of attachment across generations is free from contextual constraints, adult attachment representations were assessed in two kibbutz settings, home-based and communal sleeping. It was hypothesised that under extreme child-rearing circumstances, such as the communal sleeping arrangement, the transmission of attachment is not evident, whereas in the more regular home-based environment the expected transmission of attachment will be found. The participants were 45 mothers and 45 infants, about equal numbers of boys and girls, from 20 kibbutz infant houses with communal sleeping arrangements, and from 25 kibbutz infant houses with home-based sleeping arrangements. Mothers were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and infants were assessed through the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Among the home-based pairs, a correspondence of 76% was found between AAI and Strange Situation classifications, whereas the correspondence was only 40% in the communal sleeping group. It is argued that living in a communal sleeping arrangement reduces the expected transmission of attachment.

Ecological constraints on the formation of infant–mother attachment relations: When maternal sensitivity becomes ineffective

Abstract This study investigated in a sample of infants and mothers that represented the full SES spectrum in Israel ( n =704) the hypothesis that low quality non-maternal care imposes ecological constraints on infant–mother attachment formation by moderating the relations between maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security. Infant attachment to mother was assessed with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) [Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1978] and maternal sensitivity was assessed with the Emotional Availability Scales [The Emotional Availability Scales, Unpublished manuscript, University of Colorado, Health Science Center, Denver, 1993]. Results show that the expected links between maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security were found only for infants in individual care but not for infants in daycare centers, which were of low quality. The findings suggest that extensive exposure to difficult environments of non-maternal care constrains infants’ relations with their mothers by moderating the associations between maternal sensitive caregiving and infants’ attachment security.

Attachment in infancy and personal space regulation in early adolescence

This study longitudinally assessed associations between secure and ambivalent attachment with mothers, fathers and professional caregivers in infancy, and personal space regulation and perceived interpersonal competence in 64 early adolescents (31 boys, 33 girls). Children classified as ambivalently attached to their mothers and/or professional caregivers in infancy displayed significantly larger permeability of personal space as compared with children classified as securely attached. Attachment classifications with fathers were not associated with personal space behavior at 12 years of age. Children who had an insecure attachment relationship with both the mother and the professional caregiver in infancy displayed smaller personal space boundaries, and tolerated larger intrusions into their personal space as compared with children who had two secure attachments in infancy. Finally, perceived interpersonal competence was positively correlated with personal space permeability.

Bedtime Talk of Three-Year-Olds: Collaborative Repair of Miscommunication:

Recordings of spontaneous bedtime conversations in which adult involvement is minimal were conducted during naptime at kibbutz childrens houses. Participants were nine Hebrew-speaking children aged 2;8-3;6, who constituted three conversation groups. The study was designed to observe conversational processes in spontaneous interactions of young peers and it focused on their strategies of clarification in the face of miscommunication. Results show that all children participated in clarification sequences, although children younger than age three initiated significantly fewer clarifications. Children used various types of clarification requests, and 70% of their repair responses were appropriate. These findings suggest that young children are able to handle miscommunications and to succeed in conversational management without adult assistance.

Attachment and non-maternal care: towards contextualizing the quantity versus quality debate

In this commentary to Friedmans and Boyles review we focus on the context of early child care as it is reflected in the debate on the effects of quality of care versus amount of care and attachment relations. It is argued that cross-national research should be considered along with the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) in order to promote better understanding of the interface of attachment, child care, and context. In addition, some methodological issues are discussed including the status of the Strange Situation assessment, definition of non-maternal care, and longitudinal correlates of attachment.