title: Are infant attachment patterns continuously or categorically distributed? A taxometric analysis of strange situation behavior.
abstract: Contemporary attachment research is based on the assumption that at least three types of infant attachment patterns exist: secure, avoidant, and resistant. It is not known, however, whether individual differences in attachment organization are more consistent with a continuous or a categorical model. The authors addressed this issue by applying P. E. Meehl's (1973, 1992) taxometric techniques for distinguishing latent types (i.e., classes, natural kinds) from latent continua (i.e., dimensions) to Strange Situation data on 1,139 fifteen-month-old children from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. The results indicate that variation in attachment patterns is largely continuous, not categorical. The discussion focuses on the implications of dimensional models of individual differences for attachment theory and research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 60607-7137, USA. fraley@uic.edu
authors.forename: R Chris
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Fraley
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Spieker
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000145:classification; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009769:Object Attachment; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011582:Psychological Theory; D002666:Psychology, Child / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012931:Social Environment