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Across two studies, we examined the extent to which adults' caregiving responses reflect the quality of care received from their attachment figures. Study 1 showed that romantic caregiving reflected the quality of perceived parental and partner care. Moreover, perceived partner care mediated the link between parental care and romantic caregiving, suggesting that one's parental care affects the type of care one seeks or receives from partners, which in turn affects one's romantic caregiving. This describes a possible process for the intergenerational transmission of caregiving styles. Romantic attachment anxiety was associated with compulsive caregiving to partners. Study 2 examined causal mechanisms by priming a representation of perceived peer care and examining its effect on caregiving responses. As hypothesized, caregiving responses reflected the quality of primed peer care and were associated with attachment orientation. Findings provide evidence that individuals mentally represent the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of the care‐seeker and the caregiver during interactions and both influence one's caregiving to partners and friends. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Some students taking infant development classes have limited, direct experience of interacting with infants. This paper reports on a pilot of an innovative, research-informed workshop that provides hands-on experience through the use of infant simulators. The workshop adapted the Leiden Infant Sensitivity Simulator Assessment, which uses the RealCare Baby ß infant simulator, to examine attachment theory's sensitivity hypothesis. Students' ratings indicated that an infant simulator activity was helpful in understanding the research and encouraged critical thinking about the research, hypothesis, and attachment theory in general. Moreover, the infant simulator activity was as helpful as a multiplechoice question activity for promoting understanding of the research. The workshop encouraged higher level thinking about the research, hypothesis, and theory in general, and there was no difference in the extent to which the infant simulator activity and a plan-a-study activity encouraged critical thinking. The findings of this pilot suggest that infant simulators can be successfully embedded into and serve as an effective tool for teaching about theoretical concepts surrounding infant-caregiver interaction.

Using a bull's-eye hierarchical mapping technique (HMT), the present study examined placement of parents in adults' attachment networks over time. We hypothesised that attachment style would predict distance at which network members (mother, father, romantic partner) would be placed from the core-self over time. Participants completed the HMT on two occasions, 12-months apart. Attachment style explained unique variance, beyond that accounted for by individual and relationship characteristics, in distance of mother, father, and partner concurrently and for mother over time. Unsatisfactory attachment relationships with father and partner and those marked by higher attachment insecurity were more likely to be excluded from attachment networks over time. Findings suggest that attachment style, relationship quality, romantic relationship status, and parents' marital status determine the placement of parents in adults' attachment networks.Keywords: attachment; attachment networks; parents; attachment style; longitudinal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 Attachment Networks over TimeAttachment is a life-long phenomenon (Bowlby, 1969) and parents remain attachment figures into adulthood (Ainsworth, 1985). Beginning in middle childhood, attachment functions gradually transfer from parents to peers beginning with proximity-seeking, then safe haven (providing care to reduce distress), and ending with the secure base (supporting exploration) (Seibert & Kerns, 2009; Zeifman & Hazan, 2010). The reorganization of attachment to parents is prompted by two psychosocial challenges in adolescence: establishing autonomy and achieving interdependence (Collins & Steinberg, 2006). One outcome of these normative developmental processes is that peers are included in the attachment network, the group of relationships in which the individual (seeks to) experiences comfort and security with attachment figures (Ainsworth, 1985).Within the attachment network, attachment figures are organized in a hierarchical structure (e.g., Rowe & Carnelley, 2005; Trinke & Bartholomew, 1997). Studies indicate that attachment networks are fluid and dynamic in structure, changing over time (e.g., Friedlmeier & Granqvist, 2006; Mayseless, 2004; Zeifman & Hazan, 2010). The primary, or most important, attachment figure occupies the uppermost position above a number of subsidiary figures. For older adolescents and adults, mothers tend to occupy the first or second position, after romantic partners (e.g., Rosenthal & Kobak, 2010; Trinke & Bartholomew, 1997). In contrast, fathers are lower down in the hierarchy and are more likely than mothers to be relinquished as peer attachments are added to the network (Rosenthal & Kobak, 2010). Indeed, fathers -and mothers -do not feature in the attachment hierarchies of some adolescents and adults (e.g., Antonucci, Akiyama, & ...