Attachment and temperament
An important aspect of children’s early development is the quality of their attachment to their caregiver. A widely-used, standardised way of assessing this is a laboratory procedure called the ‘Strange Situation Test’ (SST; Ainsworth et al., 1978), consisting of a series of separations and reunions of child, caregiver and a stranger. Depending on how children behave during these episodes, their attachment is classified as either ‘secure’ or ‘insecure’. Insecure classifications are further subdivided into ‘avoidant’ or ‘ambivalent’ categories.
These different attachment styles are seen as important because they are associated with variations in children’s subsequent development; secure attachment is generally associated with more positive outcomes. Since the formation of attachment is bound up with how an infant behaves towards the caregiver during the first year of life it would seem likely that infant temperament is a significant element. It is surprising, then, that although some research has found that infant irritability and negative emotionality are linked with the avoidant type of insecure attachment, numerous studies have found no evidence that infant temperamental differences are associated directly with secure versus insecure attachment classifications in typical development (Goldsmith and Alansky, 1987).
One feature of caregiver behaviour during child’s first year that has been widely found to influence attachment quality is ‘sensitivity’ (De Wolff and Van IJzendoorn, 1997), namely, the extent to which the caregiver is attentive to the infant’s state, behaviour and communication, and responds appropriately. It might be expected that caregiver personality differences would thus be found to be associated with infant attachment security, but here again few direct effects have been found (Egeland and Farber, 1984).
What has been found, however, is that the combination of child and caregiver individual characteristics does predict attachment security (Belsky and Isabella, 1988; Notaro and Volling, 1999) lending support to a transactional model of the process.
Research Summary
Mangelsdorf et al. (2000) studied 102 mother-infant dyads in Michigan, U.S.A., to examine the contributions of maternal and infant characteristics to infant attachment. When the infants were 8 months old, their temperaments were assessed in a laboratory-based set of tasks, their mothers completed personality questionnaires (MPQ) for themselves and IBQ questionnaires on their infants, and then completed a brief teaching task with their infants. At twelve months of age, each infant’s attachment security was assessed with the SST.
Neither mothers’ nor infants’ characteristics, taken alone, were good predictors of infants’ attachment classification. However, when the joint effects of both mother and infant factors were examined, it was found that infants were classed as securely attached if they showed more positive emotions and fewer fearful reactions in the temperament assessments, but only if their mothers also showed more positive emotionality. These secure infants were also rated low in the IBQ on activity level and the amount of distress they showed to novelty but, again, only if their mothers also rated high on Constraint (self-control, conventionality) in the MPQ.
The researchers comment on these findings that:
The results of this investigation suggest that any individual characteristic of either child or mother may be less important than the relationship context within which that characteristic occurs. Mangelsdorf et al. (2000) p. 188.
Summary
An important aspect of children’s early development is the quality of their attachment to their caregiver. A widely-used, standardised way of assessing this is a laboratory procedure called the ‘Strange Situation Test’ (SST; Ainsworth et al., 1978), consisting of a series of separations and reunions of child, caregiver and a stranger. Depending on how children behave during these episodes, their attachment is classified as either ‘secure’ or ‘insecure’. Insecure classifications are further subdivided into ‘avoidant’ or ‘ambivalent’ categories.
These different attachment styles are seen as important because they are associated with variations in children’s subsequent development; secure attachment is generally associated with more positive outcomes. Since the formation of attachment is bound up with how an infant behaves towards the caregiver during the first year of life it would seem likely that infant temperament is a significant element. It is surprising, then, that although some research has found that infant irritability and negative emotionality are linked with the avoidant type of insecure attachment, numerous studies have found no evidence that infant temperamental differences are associated directly with secure versus insecure attachment classifications in typical development (Goldsmith and Alansky, 1987).
One feature of caregiver behaviour during child’s first year that has been widely found to influence attachment quality is ‘sensitivity’ (De Wolff and Van IJzendoorn, 1997), namely, the extent to which the caregiver is attentive to the infant’s state, behaviour and communication, and responds appropriately. It might be expected that caregiver personality differences would thus be found to be associated with infant attachment security, but here again few direct effects have been found (Egeland and Farber, 1984).
What has been found, however, is that the combination of child and caregiver individual characteristics does predict attachment security (Belsky and Isabella, 1988; Notaro and Volling, 1999) lending support to a transactional model of the process.
Research Summary
Mangelsdorf et al. (2000) studied 102 mother-infant dyads in Michigan, U.S.A., to examine the contributions of maternal and infant characteristics to infant attachment. When the infants were 8 months old, their temperaments were assessed in a laboratory-based set of tasks, their mothers completed personality questionnaires (MPQ) for themselves and IBQ questionnaires on their infants, and then completed a brief teaching task with their infants. At twelve months of age, each infant’s attachment security was assessed with the SST.
Neither mothers’ nor infants’ characteristics, taken alone, were good predictors of infants’ attachment classification. However, when the joint effects of both mother and infant factors were examined, it was found that infants were classed as securely attached if they showed more positive emotions and fewer fearful reactions in the temperament assessments, but only if their mothers also showed more positive emotionality. These secure infants were also rated low in the IBQ on activity level and the amount of distress they showed to novelty but, again, only if their mothers also rated high on Constraint (self-control, conventionality) in the MPQ.
The researchers comment on these findings that:
The results of this investigation suggest that any individual characteristic of either child or mother may be less important than the relationship context within which that characteristic occurs. Mangelsdorf et al. (2000) p. 188.
Summary
- Temperament can directly influence other aspects of development, for example, attentional variation has an impact on cognitive development.
- Temperamental variation influences the parent’s response to the child.
- The goodness of fit between a child’s temperament and parental style can have an impact on the child’s attachment and long-term social adjustment.
- Temperament can influence a child’s vulnerability to the adverse effects of life events.
- Temperament can have a marked effect on the type and range of experiences to which the child is exposed.
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