Attachment in the making: mother and father sensitivity and infants' responses during the Still-Face Paradigm.
This study examined the extent to which infant and parent response trajectories during the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) in early infancy predicted later infant-mother and infant-father attachment. Families (N=135) participated in the SFP when infants were 3, 5, and 7 months of age and participated in the Strange Situation procedure when infants were 12 months of age (mothers) and 14 months of age (fathers). Multilevel models showed that parent sensitivity assessed during the SFP was related to infants' affective and behavioral response trajectories during the SFP and that sensitivity and infant response trajectories predicted attachment. Results from the current study support the notion that parent and infant responses in the SFP with mothers and fathers during Bowlby's attachment in the making phase provide insight into the developing parent-child attachment relationship.
Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. Electronic address: jbraunga@nd.edu.
Julia M
JM
Braungart-Rieker
School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
Shannon
S
Zentall
Department of Psychological Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA.
Diane M
DM
Lickenbrock
Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA.
Naomi V
NV
Ekas
Department of Education, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT 06117, USA.
Toko
T
Oshio
Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Elizabeth
E
Planalp
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000367:Age Factors; D005145:Face; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D055815:Young Adult
Affect; Attachment; Fathers; Infancy; Parent sensitivity; Regulation