A study of 805 4th through 7th graders used a model of motivational development to guide the investigation of the internal dynamics of 4 indicators of behavioral and emotional engagement and disaffection and the facilitative effects of teacher support and 3 student self-perceptions (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) on changes in these indicators over the school year. In terms of internal dynamics, emotional components of engagement contributed significantly to changes in their behavioral counterparts; feedback from behavior to changes in emotion were not as consistent. Teacher support and students' self-perceptions (especially autonomy) contributed to changes in behavioral components: Each predicted increases in engagement and decreases in disaffection. Tests of process models revealed that the effects of teacher context were mediated by children's self-perceptions. Taken together, these findings suggest a clear distinction between indicators and facilitators of engagement and begin to articulate the dynamics between emotion and behavior that take place inside engagement and the motivational dynamics that take place outside of engagement, involving the social context, self-systems, and engagement itself.

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Engagement and Disaffection in the Classroom: Part of a Larger Motivational Dynamic?

and distant from their actions. Children will not only match or imitate the pretend acts of other children but also attempt to recruit the partner to join their pretend play. These efforts are not routinely successful, but it is clear that children are beginning to understand that nonliteral meanings can be shared by partners. From 21 to 24 months, children engage in similar pretend actions in the context of broader joint activity. Attempts to recruit others into pretense are more frequent and more successful. Although children organize materials for sociodramatic play, there is little or no joint organization of the pretend play itself. Scripted joint play emerges from 25 to 30 months, and the assignment of social roles in play (e.g., doctor, mother, father, police officer) emerges shortly thereafter, from 31 to 36 months. At this point, children understand that nonliteral meaning can be shared and they can communicate these meanings effectively during pretense with partners.

Peer Relationships, Child Development, and Adjustment: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective

More than 200 adult attachment representation studies, presenting more than 10,500 Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985) classifications, have been conducted in the past 25 years. In a series of analyses on the distributions of the AAI classifications in various cultural and age groups, fathers, and high-risk and clinical samples, we used the distribution of the combined samples of North American non-clinical mothers (23% dismissing, 58% secure, 19% preoccupied attachment representations, and 18% additionally coded for unresolved loss or other trauma) to examine deviations from this normative pattern, through multinomial tests and analyses of correspondence. The analyses were restricted to AAI classifications coded according to the Main, Goldwyn, and Hesse (2003) system. We did not find gender differences in the use of dismissing versus preoccupied attachment strategies, and the AAI distributions were largely independent of language and country of origin. Clinical subjects showed more insecure and unresolved attachment representations than the norm groups. Disorders with an internalizing dimension (e.g., borderline personality disorders) were associated with more preoccupied and unresolved attachments, whereas disorders with an externalizing dimension (e.g., antisocial personality disorders) displayed more dismissing as well as preoccupied attachments. Depressive symptomatology was associated with insecurity but not with unresolved loss or trauma, whereas adults with abuse experiences or PTSD were mostly unresolved. In order to find more reliable associations with clinical symptoms and disorders, future AAI studies may make more fruitful use of continuous AAI scales in addition to the conventionally used categorical classifications.

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The first 10,000 Adult Attachment Interviews: distributions of adult attachment representations in clinical and non-clinical groups.

Epigenetic mechanisms and the transgenerational effects of maternal care.

Attachment influences students’ school success. This is true of students’ attachment to their parents, as well as to their teachers. Secure attachment is associated with higher grades and standardized test scores compared to insecure attachment. Secure attachment is also associated with greater emotional regulation, social competence, and willingness to take on challenges, and with lower levels of ADHD and delinquency, each of which in turn is associated with higher achievement. These effects tend to be stronger for high-risk students. In this era of accountability, enhancing teacher–student relationships is not merely an add-on, but rather is fundamental to raising achievement. Understanding the role of attachment in the classroom will help educators be more effective, particularly with challenging students. Twelve suggestions to improve teacher–student relationships and school bonding are provided.

Phil Rich

Papers

Patterns of Attachment