A total of 39 children, classified in Ainsworth's Strange Situation at 12 and 18 months of age with their mothers and fathers, were observed in play groups and given a cartoon-based social perception test at 5 years of age. Children with anxious attachment histories (primarily avoidant in this sample) differed from those with secure histories on a number of single variables, and behavioural profiles based on combinations of variables showed strong significant differences in quality of play, conflict resolution, and problem behaviours. Measures of play competence, conflict resolution, and behaviour problems were significantly related to infant-mother attachment for girls, but not for boys. Overall competence, however, was significantly related to attachment to the mother for both boys and girls. Children with anxious attachment histories also showed misperceptions of cartoon stimuli, more often perceiving negative intentions than children with secure histories. Between-group differences were notably stronger using classifications with mothers than classifications with fathers. However, effects based on combined attachment information with both mother and father were more powerful for some variables.
A cross-cultural replication of concordance between attachment patterns to mother in infancy and pattems of reunion responses to mother at age 6 was tested for 40 children in Regensburg, South Germany. Goncordance between the 4 types of attachment status (A, B, G, D) in infancy and at age 6 was 82%. When observed in preschool at age 5, children classified securely attached (B) at age 6 were more competent in their play quality and conflict resolution, showed fewer behavior problems, and attributed less hostility in a social perception picture test compared to the insecurely attached (A, D) children. Ghildren classified disorganized (D) at age 6 were found almost as often in the incompetent preschool behavior groups as the avoidantly attached (A) children, independent of best-fitting alternative attachment pattem. Thus, disorganization at age 6 may be considered as an insecure attachment.
A cross-cultural replication of concordance between attachment patterns to mother in infancy and pattems of reunion responses to mother at age 6 was tested for 40 children in Regensburg, South Germany. Goncordance between the 4 types of attachment status (A, B, G, D) in infancy and at age 6 was 82%. When observed in preschool at age 5, children classified securely attached (B) at age 6 were more competent in their play quality and conflict resolution, showed fewer behavior problems, and attributed less hostility in a social perception picture test compared to the insecurely attached (A, D) children. Ghildren classified disorganized (D) at age 6 were found almost as often in the incompetent preschool behavior groups as the avoidantly attached (A) children, independent of best-fitting alternative attachment pattem. Thus, disorganization at age 6 may be considered as an insecure attachment.
The Minnesota longitudinal study of parents and children from birth to adulthood provides both a theoretical framework and a host of empirical findings that can serve to bridge the gap between research and clinical application. Key among these findings are: (a) the ongoing impact of early relationship experiences throughout the years, even with later experience and circumstances controlled; (b) the cumulative nature of experience and its continual impact with current context; (c) the important role of adult partner relationships; (d) the increasingly active role of the persons themselves in their own development; and (e) the interplay between experience, representation, and ongoing adaptation. These findings, and the theoretical structure underlying them, suggest the need for complex, comprehensive intervention that begins early, with a focus on altering the quality of parent - child relationships. At the same time, additional components, including couples therapy and efforts to alter the child's inner constructions of experience, are clearly suggested. One must attend to forces maintaining children on maladaptive developmental pathways once established, as well as understanding the factors that initiated such pathways.
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