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To test the hypothesis that early attentional persistence will moderate the effect of infant negative emotionality on social competence, problem behavior, and school readiness at age 3, data collected as part of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care were subject to structural equation modeling analyses (N = 1,038). Consistent with Eisenberg et al.'s data on older children, high levels of negative emotionality were associated with low levels of social competence only when attentional persistence was poor. No such moderating effects of attentional persistence emerged in the case of behavior problems. And in the case of school readiness, findings indicated that high levels of negative emotionality predicted high levels of school readiness when attentional persistence was high, a result opposite to that found with respect to the prediction of social competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do siblings develop similar attachment relationships with their mother? Attachment theory suggests that brothers and sisters growing up in the same family are likely to relate in similar ways to their parents, at least when parental attachment representations and interactive styles remain stable across time. In the current study, sibling attachment data from three research groups (from Pennsylvania State University, Leiden University, and the University of Western Ontario) have been pooled to assemble a sufficiently large sample of observations (N = 138 sibling pairs) for a detailed comparison of sibling attachment relationships. Spacing between the births, differences in maternal sensitivity, and gender of siblings were examined as possible sources of concordance of nonconcordance. Attachment security (including disorganized attachment) of each sibling was assessed with the Strange Situation procedure between 12 and 14 months after birth. Maternal sensitivity was observed with the same rating scale in a laboratory play session in one of the studies and in home observations in the others. Sibling relationships were found to be significantly concordant when classified as secure/nonsecure (62% concordance, p < .01, 1-tailed, intraclass correlation = .23) but not when further subcategorized. Maternal insensitivity to both siblings (shared environment) was associated with concordance of sibling nonsecurity. Siblings of the same gender were more likely to form concordant relationships with their mother (68%; p < .01, 1-tailed, intraclass correlation = .37) than those of opposite gender. Same-sex sibling concordance was comparable to the concordance found for monozygotic twins in earlier studies. Genetic factors may, therefore, play a relatively small role in the development of attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tests predictions about psychosocial factors in the onset of menarche using data from a longitudinal study of 16-year-old girls. Proposals of Belsky, et al (1991) of a model that seeks to explain individual differences in maturation timing in terms of stressful childhood experiences; The effect of family stressors, such as family conflict or father absence, on menarche; Benefits of a genetic inheritance model; Method; Results; Discussion.

Evidence from 2 longitudinal studies of infant and family development was combined and examined in order to determine if experience of extensive nonmaternal care in the first year is associated with heightened risk of insecure infant-mother attachment and, in the case of sons, insecure infant-father attachment. Analysis of data obtained during Strange Situation assessments conducted when infants were 12 and 13 months of age revealed that infants exposed to 20 or more hours of care per week displayed more avoidance of mother on reunion and were more likely to be classified as insecurely attached to her than infants with less than 20 hours of care per week. Sons whose mothers were employed on a full-time basis (greater than 35 hours per week) were more likely to be classified as insecure in their attachments to their fathers than all other boys, and, as a result, sons with 20 or more hours of nonmaternal care per week were more likely to be insecurely attached to both parents and less likely to be securely attached to both parents than other boys. A secondary analysis of infants with extensive care experience who did and did not develop insecure attachment relationships with their mothers highlights several conditions under which the risk of insecurity is elevated or reduced. Both sets of findings are considered in terms of other research and the context in which infant day-care is currently experienced in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is based on the assumption that a long-neglected topic of socialization, the determinants of individual differences in parental functioning, is illuminated by research on the etiology of child maltreatment. Three domains of determinants are identified (personal psychological resources of parents, characteristics of the child, and contextual sources of stress and support), and a process model of competent parental functioning is offered on the basis of the analysis. The model presumes that parental functioning is multiply determined, that sources of contextual stress and support can directly affect parenting or indirectly affect parenting by first influencing individual psychological well-being, that personality influences contextual support/stress, which feeds back to shape parenting, and that, in order of importance, the personal psychological resources of the parent are more effective in buffering the parent-child relation from stress than are contextual sources of support, which are themselves more effective than characteristics of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether positive development (PD) in adolescence and young adulthood predicts offspring behavior in two Australasian intergenerational cohorts. The Australian Temperament Project Generation 3 Study assessed PD at age 19-28 (years 2002-2010) and behavior in 1165 infants (12-18 months; 608 girls) of 694 Australian-born parents (age 29-35; 2012-2019; 399 mothers). The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Parenting Study assessed PD at age 15-18 (years 1987-1991) and behavior in 695 preschoolers (3-5 years; 349 girls) and their New Zealand born parents (age 21-46; 1994-2018; 363 mothers; 89% European ethnicity). In both cohorts, PD before parenthood predicted more positive offspring behavior (β range  = .11-.16) and fewer behavior problems (β range  = -.09 to -.11). Promoting strengths may secure a healthy start to life., (© 2022 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.)

Electronic games are popular and many children spend much time on this activity. Here we investigate whether the quantity of time children spend on gaming is related to their social development, making this the first study to examine this relationship in children. We examine prospective relations between time spent gaming and social competence in a community sample of Norwegian 6 year olds (n = 873) followed up at ages 8, 10, and 12, controlling for socioeconomic status, body mass index, and time spent gaming together with friends. Results revealed that greater social competence at both 8 and 10 years predicted less gaming 2 years later and that more age-10 gaming predicted less social competence at age 12 but only among girls., (© 2019 Society for Research in Child Development.)

Peer problems are linked to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and the serotonin system is thought to be involved in ADHD-related behavior. Hence, from a Gene × Environment perspective, the serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR may play a moderating role. In two large community samples, the moderating role of 5-HTTLPR was examined related to more hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms (HI symptoms) predicted by more peer problems. In Study 1, involving 642 Norwegian children, results indicated that for s-allele carriers only, caregiver-reported peer problems at age 4 predicted more parent-reported HI symptoms at age 6. In Study 2, similar results emerged involving 482 American children. Discussion focuses on differential sensitivity to the adverse effects of poor peer relations., (© 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

This study investigated whether children scoring higher on a polygenic plasticity index based on five dopaminergic genes (DRD4, DRD2, DAT1, MAOA, and COMT) benefited the most from the Incredible Years (IY) parent program. Data were used from a randomized controlled trial including 341 Dutch families with 4- to 8-year-old children (55.7% boys) showing moderate to high levels of problem behavior. IY proved to be most effective in decreasing parent-reported (but not observed) externalizing behavior in boys (but not girls) carrying more rather than fewer dopaminergic plasticity alleles; this Gene × Intervention effect was most pronounced in the case of boys whose parents' manifested the most positive change in parenting in response to the intervention. These results proved robust across a variety of sampling specifications (e.g., intention to treat, ethnicity)., (© 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Parental feeding practices and children's eating behavior are consistently related to childhood obesity. However, it is not known whether parents' feeding practices predict obesogenic eating behavior or vice versa. In a Norwegian cohort (n = 797), it was found that greater parental use of food as a reward (instrumental feeding) when children were 6 predicted increased emotional overeating and food responsiveness, whereas greater parental encouragement to eat forecasted increased enjoyment of food 2 years later. No evidence of child effects emerged. Although children's eating behavior is relatively stable and established at an early age, findings suggest that parental feeding practices can serve as targets of intervention to prevent the development of obesogenic eating behavior., (© 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) predicts poor peer relationships. What remains unclear is whether poor peer relationships affect ADHD symptomatology. Hence, reciprocal effects of peer rejection and ADHD symptoms were examined in a community sample of 962 Norwegian children at ages 4, 6, and 8. Results showed that ADHD symptoms at age 4 predicted more peer rejection at age 6, and that peer rejection at age 4 predicted more symptoms at age 6. However, when conducting analyses on ADHD subtypes, hyperactivity-impulsivity and inattentiveness symptoms were adversely affected by peer rejection at ages 6 and 8, whereas peer rejection was unaffected by such symptoms, indicating that the effect of peer rejection on ADHD symptoms was most robust. Mediational relation were also identified., (© 2015 The Authors. Child Development © 2015 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

In this Norwegian study, bidirectional relations between children's behavior problems and child-teacher conflict and closeness were examined, and the possibility of moderation of these associations by child-care group size was tested. Eight hundred and nineteen 4-year-old children were followed up in first grade. Results revealed reciprocal effects linking child-teacher conflict and behavior problems. Effects of child-teacher closeness on later behavior problems were moderated by group size: For children in small groups only (i.e., ≤ 15 children), greater closeness predicted reduced behavior problems in first grade. In consequence, stability of behavior problems was greater in larger than in smaller groups. Results are discussed in light of regulatory mechanisms and social learning theory, with possible implications for organization of child care., (© 2015 The Authors. Child Development © 2015 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Although the impact of early adverse experience on neural processing of face familiarity has been studied, research has not taken into account disordered child behavior. This work compared the neural processing of familiar versus strangers' faces in 47 institutionalized children with a mean age of 54 months to determine the effects of (a) the presence versus absence of atypical social behavior and (b) inhibited versus indiscriminant atypical behavior. Results revealed a pattern of cortical hypoactivation in institutionalized children manifesting atypical social behavior and that inhibited children displayed larger neural response to a caregiver's face than to the stranger's, while indiscriminant children did not discriminate between stimuli. These findings suggest that neural correlates of face familiarity are associated with social functioning in institutionalized children., (© 2015 The Authors. Child Development © 2015 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

The hypothesis was tested that the new open-group Norwegian day-care centers would more than traditionally organized centers negatively affect (a) current and (b) future teacher-child relationships, and (c) the developmental legacy of preschool problem behavior. The focus was on eight hundred and fifty 4-year-olds from 153 centers who were followed up in first grade. Results of this natural quasi-experiment revealed that children from open-group centers (a) experienced less teacher-child closeness in preschool and (b) more teacher-child conflict in first grade, and (c) that high levels of preschool problem behavior forecast especially high levels of future teacher-child conflict, but only for children from open-group centers. Results highlight the importance of spatial and social organization of day care and their translational implications., (© 2015 The Authors. Child Development © 2015 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Extensive exposure to nonparental child care during the first 4.5 years of life has been demonstrated in some American studies to negatively affect children's socioemotional functioning. Data from 935 preschool children who averaged 54.9 (SD = 3.0) months of age, from Trondheim, Norway were used to examine whether such negative effects, would emerge in Norway, a country with a different child-care system. The children's externalizing problems and social competence were unrelated to their child-care experience. More time spent in child care during the first 4.5 years of life and experiencing peer groups of < 16 or > 18 children predicted greater caregiver-child conflict. The effect sizes were small. The results are discussed in terms of cross-national child-care differences., (© 2013 The Authors. Child Development © 2013 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Data from 508 Caucasian children in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development shows that the DRD4 (but not 5-HTTLPR) polymorphism moderates the effect of child-care quality (but not quantity or type) on caregiver-reported externalizing problems at 54 months and in kindergarten and teacher-reported social skills at kindergarten and first grade-but not thereafter. Only children carrying the 7-repeat allele proved susceptible to quality-of-care effects. The behavior-problem interactions proved more consistent with diathesis-stress than differential-susceptibility thinking, whereas the reverse was true of the social-skills' results. Finally, the discerned Gene × Environment interactions did not account for previously reported parallel ones involving difficult temperament in infancy., (© 2013 The Authors. Child Development © 2013 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Relations between nonrelative child care (birth to 4(1/2) years) and functioning at age 15 were examined (N = 1,364). Both quality and quantity of child care were linked to adolescent functioning. Effects were similar in size as those observed at younger ages. Higher quality care predicted higher cognitive-academic achievement at age 15, with escalating positive effects at higher levels of quality. The association between quality and achievement was mediated, in part, by earlier child-care effects on achievement. High-quality early child care also predicted youth reports of less externalizing behavior. More hours of nonrelative care predicted greater risk taking and impulsivity at age 15, relations that were partially mediated by earlier child-care effects on externalizing behaviors.

This study examined early observed parenting and child-care experiences in relation to functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis over the long term. Consistent with the attenuation hypothesis, individuals (n = 863) who experienced: (a) higher levels of maternal insensitivity and (b) more time in child-care centers in the first 3 years of life had lower awakening cortisol levels at age 15. Associations were small in magnitude. Nonetheless, results were (a) additive in that both higher levels of maternal insensitivity and more experience with center-based care uniquely (but not interactively) predicted lower awakening cortisol, (b) not accounted for by later caregiving experiences measured concurrently with awakening cortisol at age 15 or by early demographic variables, and (c) not moderated by sex or by difficult temperament.

Two general evolutionary hypotheses were tested on 756 White children (397 girls) studied longitudinally: (1) rearing experiences would predict pubertal timing; and (2) children would prove differentially susceptible to rearing. Analysis of pubertal measurements, including some based on repeated physical assessments, showed that mothering and fathering, earlier and later in childhood, predicted pubertal development, but only for girls, with negative parenting appearing most influential; maternal harsh control predicted earlier menarche. Rearing effects varied by infant negative emotionality, proving stronger (and opposite) for girls who in infancy were lower rather than higher in negativity. Maternal menarche, controlled in all analyses, was a stronger predictor than rearing. Findings are discussed in terms of theory development, genetic and nutritional influences, and sample restrictions.

Effects of early child care on children's functioning from 4(1/2) years through the end of 6th grade (M age=12.0 years) were examined in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n=1,364). The results indicated that although parenting was a stronger and more consistent predictor of children's development than early child-care experience, higher quality care predicted higher vocabulary scores and more exposure to center care predicted more teacher-reported externalizing problems. Discussion focuses on mechanisms responsible for these effects, the potential collective consequences of small child-care effects, and the importance of the ongoing follow-up at age 15.

More than 200 New Zealand men and women studied repeatedly since age 3 were videotaped interacting with their own 3-year-old children to determine (a) whether childrearing and family climate experienced in 3 distinct developmental periods while growing up (i.e., early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence) predicted parenting and (b) whether romantic relationship quality moderated the effect of childrearing history on observed parenting. Support for the first hypothesis emerged across all 3 developmental periods for mothers (only), with no evidence of moderating effects of romantic relationship quality for mothers or fathers. Results are discussed in terms of supportive versus harsh parenting, mother-father differences, and the characteristics of the sample.

Data from 918 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care were examined to test the interrelation of attachment and attentional performance and 2 known risks for poor attentional performance: male gender and social-contextual adversity. Attachment was measured using the Strange Situation at 15 months, attentional performance by a Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and maternal questionnaires at 54 months, and social-contextual adversity by a variety of measures from birth to 54 months. Findings indicated (a) that children with secure attachment were less susceptible to the effects of cumulative risk and gender on CPT attentional performance than their insecure counterparts and that (b) no such differential risk susceptibility was evident for maternal reports of attention-related behavior problems.

It is important to distinguish theory testing from effect-size evaluation when considering the impact of mothering on attachment security discerned in the De Wolff and van Ijzendoorn meta-analysis. Moreover, the possibility exists that this analysis both over- and underestimates mothering effects, as would be the case if infants vary in their susceptibility to rearing influence.

To examine individual differences in pride and shame reactions of 3-year-olds and their temperamental and parenting antecedents, 110 boys were studied at ages 36 and 37 months in a "rigged" achievement situation. After being trained to complete explicitly stipulated "easy" and "difficult" tasks before a buzzer sounded, success and failure were manipulated by artificially "rigging" how much time the child had to work on these tasks. Children's facial, verbal, and postural reactions to success and failure were composited to create pride scores following success and shame scores following failure. As expected, pride reactions were greater following success on the difficult than on the easy task, and shame reactions were greater following failure on the easy than on the difficult task. Early temperament (at 12/13 months) proved unrelated to pride and shame. With respect to parenting, measurements composited across 15, 21, 27, and 33 months showed that mothers and fathers who were more positive in their parenting had children who displayed less pride, and that children whose parents (especially mothers) were more negative in their parenting evinced less shame. These counterintuitive findings are discussed in terms of differences between assessments of parenting obtained in this investigation of parenting antecedents and those obtained in other studies of parental responses in the achievement situation itself. Directions for future research are outlined.

This cross-cultural study examined continuity in parent-child relationships from infancy to middle childhood in a sample of German families. Connections were traced between individual differences in a composite of markers of the parent-child attachment relationship system (including classification of the infant via the Strange Situation and parent via the Adult Attachment Interview and for mothers' ratings of sensitivity) and later parent-child communications. Findings within the mother-child relationship revealed modest links between the composite and communications and were taken to suggest that the divergent fields of attachment and family communication research are addressing similar underlying relationship processes involving the interplay between relatedness and autonomy. Further findings revealed that the composite modestly predicted variability in children's competence in forming friendships and that differences in concurrent child-mother communications significantly added to and possibly mediated these effects. Results were interpreted as supporting a process model of development, whereby adaptation is influenced by both current and past relationship status.

3 questions regarding family interaction in the second year of life are addressed in this report on 69 families rearing firstborn sons. Question 1 concerns the identification, via cluster analysis, of families having difficulty managing their child, using codings of narrative records of family interaction when children were 15 and 21 months of age. Parents in families identified as "troubled" at each age tried to control their toddlers most often, were least likely to rely upon control-plus-guidance management strategies, had children who defied them most frequently, and experienced the greatest escalation of negative affect in these control encounters. Families identified as "troubled" at both 15 and 21 months had children who received the highest "externalizing" problem scores at 18 months and mothers who experienced the most daily hassles during the second year. Question 2 concerns the antecedents of "trouble in the second year." Discriminant function analyses indicated that membership in the groups of families that appeared troubled at both ages of measurement (n = 15), at only one age (n = 28), or never (n = 26) could be reliably predicted (hit rate = 71%) using a set of 9 measurements of parent personality, child emotionality/temperament, marital quality, work-family relations, and social support, suggested by Belsky's model of the determinants of parenting, and social class. Question 3 concerns the proposition that extensive nonmaternal care in the first year is a risk factor for troubled family functioning in the second year. As hypothesized, prediction analysis showed that families at moderate and high contextual risk (based on 10 antecedent variables pertaining to Question 2), were significantly more likely to experience trouble in the second year when children experienced 20 or more hours per week of nonmaternal care in their first year, and these results could not be attributed to "selection effects."

In order to advance understanding of the phenomenon of coparenting, naturalistic observations of firstborn sons were undertaken when they were 15 months of age at a time when both parents were home and family life was demanding. Narrative records of coparenting events were scored to determine the frequency with which parents supported and undermined each other and to test two hypotheses pertaining to individual differences in coparenting: that greater differences between spouses in demographic factors, personality, styles of relatedness and child-rearing attitudes would forecast more unsupportive and less supportive coparenting; and that the adverse effects of such spousal differences would be amplified by high levels of family stress, as indexed by frequency and intensity of daily hassles. Both hypotheses received support and are discussed in turn.

Although several studies have now examined the relations between mother-child and sibling interaction, the role of fathers in the development of sibling relationships is noticeably absent. The present study included assessments of both mother-child and father-child interaction in order to examine the correlates of sibling conflict and cooperation. Home observations of parent-child and sibling interaction and reports of differential parental treatment were obtained for 30 families with 2 preschool children when the firstborns were approximately 6 years old. Earlier assessments of infant-mother and infant-father attachments when firstborns were 12 and 13 months old, respectively, were also available, as were prior laboratory assessments of mothering and fathering when the oldest child was 3 years of age. Results suggested that sibling conflict and aggression were related to high levels of conflict between the mother and the 2 children at 6 years, intrusive and overcontrolling mothering at 3 years, and an insecure infant-mother attachment. Facilitative and affectionate fathering, on the other hand, was associated with prosocial sibling interaction. Early relationship experiences between parents and their firstborn children had an enduring effect on the quality of sibling relationships and interacted with differential parental treatment in predicting sibling relationship outcomes.

This study investigated infant and caregiving-environment variables associated with continuity and discontinuity in infant negative emotionality between the newborn period and 5 months of age. Comparisons were made between groups of infants who evidenced similar levels of crying as neonates but differed by 5 months of age. For initially high-crying infants, mother personality traits, marital quality, and infant variables measured neonatally discriminated stable from changing infants. Ratings of mother sensitivity and infant responsiveness made at 5 months of age also related to continuity and discontinuity in negative emotionality over the first 5 months.

The concept of "reproductive strategy" drawn from the field of behavioral ecology is applied to the study of childhood experience and interpersonal development in order to develop an evolutionary theory of socialization. The theory is presented in terms of 2 divergent development pathways considered to promote reproductive success in the contexts in which they have arisen. One is characterized, in childhood, by a stressful rearing environment and the development of insecure attachments to parents and subsequent behavior problems; in adolescence by early pubertal development and precocious sexuality; and, in adulthood, by unstable pair bonds and limited investment in child rearing, whereas the other is characterized by the opposite. The relation between this theory and prevailing theories of socialization, specifically, attachment, social-learning, and discrete-emotions theory, is considered and research consistent with our evolutionary theory is reviewed. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.

In order to test the hypothesis that elevated ratings of avoidance and classifications of insecure-avoidant attachments of infants with extensive infant day-care histories may be the result of the fact that children with routine experiences of separation are less stressed by, and more independent in, the Strange Situation than more traditionally reared infants, 2 groups of 12-month-old infants with insecure-avoidant attachments were compared on 2 behavioral indices in each reunion-with-mother episode of the Strange Situation. 9 infants experienced less than 20 hours per week of nonparental care in their first year, and 11 infants experienced 20 or more hours of care. Contrary to propositions advanced by Clarke-Stewart, Thompson, and others, insecure-avoidant infants with extensive nonparental care experience whimpered, fussed, and cried more and engaged in object play less in each reunion episode than their insecure-avoidant counterparts with less nonparental care experience. These results are discussed in terms of the recent controversy surrounding infant day-care in the United States.

This study sought to replicate previous work in testing the hypothesis that interactions of dyads developing secure attachment relationships would be characterized by disproportionately synchronous and those of dyads developing insecure relationships by disproportionately asynchronous exchanges. Additionally, a priori hypotheses were tested regarding expected differences in the interactional histories of dyads developing insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments. Results supported the study's predictions in all cases. Dyads developing secure attachments were observed at 3 and 9 months to interact in a disproportionately well-timed, reciprocal, and mutually rewarding manner; dyads developing insecure relationships were disproportionately characterized by interactions in which mothers were minimally involved, unresponsive to infant signals, or intrusive. Within the insecure group, as predicted, 3- and 9-month interactions of avoidant dyads were characterized by maternal intrusiveness and overstimulation; resistant dyads were characterized at both ages by poorly coordinated interactions in which mothers were underinvolved and inconsistent. These findings are discussed as they lend to a growing body of evidence concerning associations between differential interactional histories and attachment quality.

In response to Worobey and Brazelton's thoughtful and welcome commentary on my assessment of the effectiveness of a Brazelton-based newborn intervention, 2 points are made. The first is that a healthy difference of opinion exists regarding the effectiveness of such interventions; I view the available evidence as less striking than they, but not as limited as they feel my initial study report implies. The second point of this essay is to provide empirical support for my critics' contention that how an intervention is delivered is as important as the fact that an intervention is delivered. By presenting data excised from my original submission to Child Development, it is shown that variation in parents' interest in, involvement with, and enjoyment of the Brazelton intervention was directly related to the intervention's outcome within the joint mother-father treatment condition--even often controlling for background factors related to engagement of the intervention. It is thus concluded that assessment of the process of intervention is critical to any complete evaluation of an intervention, regardless of the results of experimental-control group comparisons.

In order to explore the relationship between recollected experiences in one's family of origin and changes in marriage following the birth and rearing of a new baby, data collected as part of a larger and more extensive study of infant and family development were analyzed. Multiple regression analyses revealed that retrospective reports of how one was reared by parents and of how parents got along as husband and wife in one's family of origin reliably predicted changes in marriage from the last trimester of pregnancy through the time the baby was 9 months of age. Most significantly, results indicated that husband-wife differences in evaluations of marital adjustment increased over time when individuals recalled being reared in a cold-rejecting as opposed to warm-supportive manner, especially when individuals also recalled their own parents as not having an especially harmonious marital relationship. These findings are discussed in terms of potential processes by which experiences in one's family of origin may affect the way couples adjust to the birth and rearing of a new baby.

Families randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups that varied across 2 orthogonal dimensions were compared at 1, 3, and 9 months to examine the effects of a neonatal intervention. In half of the families mothers and fathers were the target of intervention, and in the remaining half of the families mother was the sole target of intervention. The intervention itself consisted of passive or active exposure to the Brazelton Neonatal Behavior Assessment; half of the parents in each target-of-intervention group (mother only, mother and father) actively elicited responses from their newborn under the direction of a facilitator (active exposure) and the other half of the parents listened to a detailed verbal description of their infant's performance on the exam. Assessments of mother-infant interaction in the dyad and mother-infant, father-infant, and husband-wife interaction in the triad revealed no effects of the experimental intervention across groups. Discussion emphasizes the need to be cautious about the effectiveness of minor interventions and the need to be critical about past reports of success.

In order to further understanding of the development of the father-infant relationship, patterns of mothering and fathering in 72 families were observed longitudinally (at 1, 3, and 9 months) and from the perspective of the family system. Analyses of variance revealed comparable developmental change in maternal and paternal behaviors, but striking differences between parents, with mothers engaging in far more interaction at all ages studied. Analyses of individual differences in maternal and paternal behavior revealed consistent stability over time, especially from 3 to 9 months, thereby highlighting points of similarity in mothering and fathering. Within-age correlational analyses revealed consistent positive associations between measures of father-infant and husband-wife interaction, yet little relationship between measures of mother-infant and spousal interaction. These findings and others are discussed in terms of similarities and differences in mothering and fathering.

In order to test 4 specific hypotheses regarding the interactional histories associated with variation in quality of infant-mother attachment, data gathered during naturalistic home observations at 1, 3, and 9 months on 60 babies seen in the Ainsworth and Wittig strange situation were examined. Planned comparisons revealed, as predicted, that securely attached infants had experienced intermediate levels of reciprocal interaction and maternal stimulation, considered to be reflective of sensitive care, and that resistant babies had experienced less responsive care than securely attached infants. No support was provided for the hypothesis that avoidant babies had experienced less physical contact with mothers than securely attached infants. Insecurely attached infants were observed to cry significantly more than securely attached infants at 3 and 9 months. A cross-lag panel analysis, designed to assess longitudinal processes of influence, revealed that fussiness was caused by mothering and did not serve to influence mothering. These results are discussed in terms of mothers' relatively greater influence in determining individual differences in attachment, with overstimulation leading to avoidance, understimulation leading to resistance, and intermediate levels of stimulation leading to security.

In order to assess stability and change in mother-infant interaction, 74 mother-infant dyads were observed at home under naturalistic conditions when infants were 1, 3, and 9 months. Both conceptually and empirically guided data-reduction procedures indicated that 4 summary constructs underlie 15 behavioral categories coded: reciprocal interaction, noninvolvement, distress, and basic care. Mean levels of reciprocal interaction remained unchanged over time, with individual differences being stable. Mean levels of noninvolvement increased from 1 to 3 months only, and remained stable across all time periods, while mean levels of distress and basic care declined linearly across the 9-month periods, with individual dyads displaying little stability. A final analysis assessed stability and change in the 9 component variables comprising the reciprocal interaction construct. Significant change was discerned with respect to several of these components, as well as a good deal of instability. These findings led to the conclusion that, in the face of sameness in mother-infant interaction across the first 9 months, there is also much change.

In response to Frodi and Thompson's recent demonstration that infants classified A1-B2 in the Strange Situation differ significantly in emotional expression from infants classified B3-C2, several longitudinal data sets were examined to determine whether these group differences might be a function of infant temperament. Data from 3 separate samples revealed significant concordance between infant-mother and infant-father Strange Situation classifications when scored in terms of A1-B2 versus B3-C2, but not when scored in terms of the traditional A-B-C system. In addition, in 2 samples on which newborn behavioral data were available, A1-B2 infants displayed more autonomic stability than B3-C2 infants, and in one of the samples the former infants were more alert and positively responsive as newborns (with means in the same direction in Sample 2). Moreover, mothers of A1-B2 infants described their babies as less difficult to care for at 3 months of age. Considered together, these findings suggest that infant temperament affects the manner in which security or insecurity is expressed rather than whether or not the infant develops a secure or insecure attachment. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the study of the interactional antecedents and the developmental consequences of attachment security.

Research on maternal influence on infant development is criticized on the basis of its limited ability to make strong causal claims. 2 observational studies are then presented; 1 details, cross-sectionally, developmental changes in strategies of maternal stimulation and infant exploration and the interrelationship of these domains of parent and child behavior; the other tests, experimentally, the hypothesis that maternal stimulation fosters infant exploratory competence. Results of the first study reveal: (1) a linear increase in mother's verbal attention-focusing behavior and a curvilinear trend in physical attention-focusing strategies between 9 and 18 months; (2) linear increases in a variety of measures of infant exploration; and (3) positive associations between naturalistically observed maternal stimulation and infant exploratory competence. The experimental study demonstrates that infant exploratory skill, as measured both naturalistically and during a semistructured, free-play assessment, is positively influenced by the enhancement of maternal stimulation. These latter results are discussed in terms of infant stimulation programs.