Shedding further light on the effects of various types and quality of early child care on infant-mother attachment relationship: the Haifa Study of Early Child Care.
The Haifa Study of Early Child Care recruited a large-scale sample (N = 758) that represented the full SES spectrum in Israel, to examine the unique contribution of various child-care-related correlates to infant attachment. After controlling for other potential contributing variables--including mother characteristics, mother-child interaction, mother-father relationship, infant characteristics and development, and the environment--this study found that center-care, in and of itself, adversely increased the likelihood of infants developing insecure attachment to their mothers as compared with infants who were either in maternal care, individual nonparental care with a relative, individual nonparental care with a paid caregiver, or family day-care. The results suggest that it is the poor quality of center-care and the high infant-caregiver ratio that accounted for this increased level of attachment insecurity among center-care infants.
Sagi
Abraham
A
Center for the Study of Child Development, University of Haifa, Israel. sagi@psy.haifa.ac.il
Koren-Karie
Nina
N
Gini
Motti
M
Ziv
Yair
Y
Joels
Tirtsa
T
D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007224:Infant Care / Q000523:psychology*; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D002666:Psychology, Child; D019962:Reactive Attachment Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012931:Social Environment