title: Infant-mother attachment and the growth of externalizing problems across the primary-school years.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Some contend that attachment insecurity increases risk for the development of externalizing behavior problems in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Latent-growth curve analyses were applied to data on 1,364 children from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care to evaluate the association between early attachment and teacher-rated externalizing problems across the primary-school years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Findings indicate that (a) both avoidant and disorganized attachment predict higher levels of externalizing problems but (b) that effects of disorganized attachment are moderated by family cumulative contextual risk, child gender and child age, with disorganized boys from risky social contexts manifesting increases in behavior problems over time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings highlight the potentially conditional role of early attachment in children's externalizing behavior problems and the need for further research evaluating causation and mediating mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, UK. p.fearon@reading.ac.uk
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Pasco Fearon
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Belsky
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D019962:Reactive Attachment Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D020954:Single-Parent Family / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors