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.

Attachment theory proposes that early care plays a key role in the emergence and organization of secure-base behavior across a wide range of cultures and contexts. Most studies on the topic have been conducted with Caucasian North American and European samples. Research needs to address questions concerning the cross-cultural generality of the sensitivity-security link, the appropriateness of the conceptualization of caregiving offered by attachment theory in other cultures, and the identification of caregiving domains other than those proposed by the theory. The authors address these issues in a study of maternal care and infant security in 2 different countries. Q descriptions of maternal behavior were obtained from observations at home. Infant security was assessed in a laboratory environment in Denver, Colorado and in the home environment in Bogota, Colombia. Findings are discussed in terms of the generality of the sensitivity-security link, the appropriateness of the model of caregiving suggested by attachment theory in both countries, and the relevance of other domains of caregiving to security.

According to attachment theory, the quality of care plays a key role in the organization of infants' secure base behavior across contexts and cultures. Yet information about attachment relationships in a variety of cultures is scarce, and questions remain as to whether Ainsworth's conceptualization of early care quality (sensitivity; M. D. S. Ainsworth, M. C. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978) is appropriate for characterizing caregiving behavior in different groups and whether culturally specific descriptions of early care are related to conventional measures of maternal sensitivity and to infants' security. In this naturalistic study of mother-infant interactions in Colombia, scores on different domains of maternal care were obtained through ethnographic methodology, and conventional Q-sort scores for maternal and infant behavior were obtained. Findings are discussed in terms of the cross-cultural generality of the sensitivity construct and the sensitivity-security link and of the relevance of naturalistic open-ended studies in different contexts.

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