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Relations between attachment security and temperament were stud ied 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. These results may help clarify relations between the domains of attachment and temperament, rather than affirm distinctions between them.Within the Bowlby/Ainsworth framework (e.g., Ainsworth, 1982;Bowlby, 1982), patterns of attachment established early in life are expected to play roles in the expression and control of affect and in later personality organization (e.g.,

The evolutionary rationale offered by Bowlby implies that secure base relationships are common in child-caregiver dyads and thus, child secure behavior observable across diverse social contexts and cultures. This study offers a test of the universality hypothesis. Trained observers in nine countries used the Attachment Q-set to describe the organization of children's behavior in naturalistic settings. Children (N = 547) were 10-72 months old. Child development experts (N = 81) from all countries provided definitions of optimal child secure base use. Findings indicate that children from all countries use their mother as a secure base. Children's organization of secure base behavior was modestly related to each other both within and across countries. Experts' descriptions of the optimally attached child were highly similar across cultures.The secure base phenomenon is at the core of Bowlby and Ainsworth's analysis of the infant-mother relationship. Ainsworth coined the term "secure base behavior" based on her naturalistic observations of infant-mother interactions in rural Uganda. When reviewing her field notes, she noticed that infants "do not always stay close to the mothers but rather make little excursions away from her, exploring other objects and interacting with other people, but returning to the mother from time to time" (Ainsworth, 1967, p. 345). The hallmark of secure base behavior is the seemingly purposeful balance between excursions or explorations away from the

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A total of 101 mothers from two socio-cultural groups (55 French-speaking from Montreal and 46 English-speaking from Chicago) described their 2-or 3-year-old children using the Attachment Q-sort. The Q-sort descriptions from the two sites were compared at the level of criterion scores, at the level of derived scores for nine empirical scales, and at the level of individual Q-sort items. These analyses indicated only chance level differences between groups for analyses individual items. However, for the derived scales and for criterion scores, significant multivariate effects across samples were obtained. Additional analyses, covarying maternal age, education level, and social desirability response bias scores, indicated that only the criterion score for Attachment Security differed across the two socio-cultural groups. Subsequent correlational analyses relating empirical scale scores to the criterion scores for both samples yielded similar results. Only 3 of 27 separate pairs of correlations differed significantly across the two samples. The results suggest that the Attachment Q-sort is useful for evaluating differences among young children with respect to attachment security and related constructs in both sociocultural groups. However, the results also indicate that the scores derived from maternal Q-sort descriptions may be associated with demographic characteristics and culturally specific response biases that should be evaluated and controlled before interpreting the Q-sort scores with reference to universal, or species-specific, concepts of attachment security.

Résumé Le lien avec l’animal se construit précocement au cours du développement de l’enfant. Il présente certaines caractéristiques qui le différencient d’une relation avec un être humain. Ainsi si l’animal fait, également, preuve de contingence, son comportement est plus prévisible et moins complexe que celui d’un humain. L’enfant peut mettre en signification l’animal : lui donner du sens. D’autre part, la communication avec l’animal s’effectue, davantage, sur un mode non verbal et implique, de façon privilégiée, la modalité tactile. Ces spécificités en font un partenaire plus accessible pour l’enfant sans trouble de développement et constituent de réels atouts dans un travail de type thérapeutique auprès d’enfants atteints d’autisme. En effet, l’autisme se caractérise par des difficultés interactionnelles et communicatives qui pourraient être améliorées suite à un contact structuré avec l’animal. Cet article a donc pour objectif de faire le point sur les principaux arguments théoriques qui font de l’animal un partenaire singulier pour l’enfant en général et pour l’enfant avec un autisme en particulier.