This meta-analysis included 66 studies (N = 4,176) on parental antecedents of attachment security. The question addressed was whether maternal sensitivity is associated with infant attachment security, and what the strength of this relation is. It was hypothesized that studies more similar to Ainsworth's Baltimore study (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) would show stronger associations than studies diverging from this pioneering study. To create conceptually homogeneous sets of studies, experts divided the studies into 9 groups with similar constructs and measures of parenting. For each domain, a meta-analysis was performed to describe the central tendency, variability, and relevant moderators. After correction for attenuation, the 21 studies (N = 1,099) in which the Strange Situation procedure in nonclinical samples was used, as well as preceding or concurrent observational sensitivity measures, showed a combined effect size of r(1,097) = .24. According to Cohen's (1988) conventional criteria, the association is moderately strong. It is concluded that in normal settings sensitivity is an important but not exclusive condition of attachment security. Several other dimensions of parenting are identified as playing an equally important role. In attachment theory, a move to the contextual level is required to interpret the complex transactions between context and sensitivity in less stable and more stressful settings, and to pay more attention to nonshared environmental influences.

http://www.marinusvanijzendoorn.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/De-Wolff-Van-IJzendoorn-1997.-Child-Development.-Sensitivity-Attachment-meta-analysis-parental-antecedents.pdf

Sensitivity and Attachment: A Meta-Analysis on Parental Antecedents of Infant Attachment

About a decade ago, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985) was developed to explore parents' mental representations of attachment as manifested in language during discourse of childhood experiences. The AAI was intended to predict the quality of the infant-parent attachment relationship, as observed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation, and to predict parents' responsiveness to their infants' attachment signals. The current meta-analysis examined the available evidence with respect to these predictive validity issues. In regard to the 1st issue, the 18 available samples (N = 854) showed a combined effect size of 1.06 in the expected direction for the secure vs. insecure split. For a portion of the studies, the percentage of correspondence between parents' mental representation of attachment and infants' attachment security could be computed (the resulting percentage was 75%; kappa = .49, n = 661). Concerning the 2nd issue, the 10 samples (N = 389) that were retrieved showed a combined effect size of .72 in the expected direction. According to conventional criteria, the effect sizes are large. It was concluded that although the predictive validity of the AAI is a replicated fact, there is only partial knowledge of how attachment representations are transmitted (the transmission gap).

/pdf/adult-attachment-representations-parental-responsiveness-and-t3aco02gsl.pdf

Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: a meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview

Is early preventive intervention effective in enhancing parental sensitivity and infant attachment security, and if so, what type of intervention is most successful? Seventy studies were traced, producing 88 intervention effects on sensitivity (n = 7,636) and/or attachment (n = 1,503). Randomized interventions appeared rather effective in changing insensitive parenting (d = 0.33) and infant attachment insecurity (d = 0.20). The most effective interventions used a moderate number of sessions and a clear-cut behavioral focus in families with, as well as without, multiple problems. Interventions that were more effective in enhancing parental sensitivity were also more effective in enhancing attachment security, which supports the notion of a causal role of sensitivity in shaping attachment.

Less is more: Meta-analyses of sensitivity and attachment interventions in early childhood.

This study addresses the extent to which insecure and disorganized attachments increase risk for externalizing problems using meta-analysis. From 69 samples (N = 5,947), the association between insecurity and externalizing problems was significant, d = 0.31 (95% CI: 0.23, 0.40). Larger effects were found for boys (d = 0.35), clinical samples (d = 0.49), and from observation-based outcome assessments (d = 0.58). Larger effects were found for attachment assessments other than the Strange Situation. Overall, disorganized children appeared at elevated risk (d = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.18, 0.50), with weaker effects for avoidance (d = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.21) and resistance (d = 0.11, 95% CI: −0.04, 0.26). The results are discussed in terms of the potential significance of attachment for mental health.

/pdf/the-significance-of-insecure-attachment-and-disorganization-7k5kqyuzyn.pdf

The significance of insecure attachment and disorganization in the development of children's externalizing behavior: a meta-analytic study.

Teacher reports of children's competence and problem behaviors are an important source of information on psychopathology. The school context is also an agent of developmental change. This study examines teacherchild relationships and deflections in child adjustment over the school-entry to grade 2 period in 436 children. The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) was related to two indices of deflections in predicted child adjustment: (a) residual scores obtained from regressing teacher reports from grade 1 on kindergarten teacher reports, and (b) false positive predictions of retention or referral for special education in the K-l period.Children with whom kindergarten teachers reported a positive relationship were rated in spring of grade I as better adjusted than was predicted on the basis of identical ratings from the fall of the kindergarten year; the converse was also true. False-positive retention/referral predictions had more positive relationships with kindergarten teachers than did true positives. A second set of analyses examined second grade teacher ratings of child adjustment and child-teacher relationships in two groups of children with different child-teacher relationship histories in kindergarten. Children with warm, close, communicative relationships with kindergarten teachers were better adjusted and had more positive child-teacher relationships in second grade than those with angry, dependent child-teacher relationships in kindergarten. Results supported the view that children's relationships with teachers are an important component of adaptation in school, and that they can play a role in deflecting the course of development in the school context.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954579400006519

The first two years of school: Teacher-child relationships and deflections in children's classroom adjustment

In a multiple caretaker environment, nonparental caregivers can be important attachment figures with considerable impact on children's later socioemotional development.

/pdf/the-multiple-caretaker-paradox-data-from-holland-and-israel-396qtxx503.pdf

The multiple caretaker paradox: Data from Holland and Israel

In this study, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was applied in The Netherlands, to test certain aspects of its validity, and to provide information about its relation to toddlers' socio-emotion...

/pdf/parental-attachment-and-children-s-socio-emotional-p7a6cdi36v.pdf

Parental Attachment and Children's Socio-emotional Development: Some Findings on the Validity of the Adult Attachment Interview in The Netherlands:

https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2901257/view

Influencing Mother-Infant Interaction through Videotaped or Written Instruction: Evaluation of a Parent Education Program.

/pdf/het-gehechtheidsbiografisch-interview-nederlandse-vertaling-2fnfvtiwv0.pdf

Het gehechtheidsbiografisch Interview : Nederlandse vertaling en bewerking van het Adult Attachment Interview

/pdf/de-effecten-van-voorlichting-over-vroeg-kinderlijke-4i46fln868.pdf

M.W.E. Lambermon

Papers

The multiple caretaker paradox: Data from Holland and Israel

Parental Attachment and Children's Socio-emotional Development: Some Findings on the Validity of the Adult Attachment Interview in The Netherlands:

Influencing Mother-Infant Interaction through Videotaped or Written Instruction: Evaluation of a Parent Education Program.

Het gehechtheidsbiografisch Interview : Nederlandse vertaling en bewerking van het Adult Attachment Interview

De effecten van voorlichting over vroeg-kinderlijke opvoeding met video of folder