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Relations between attachment security and temperament were stud ied in 6 samples. Ages at temperament assessments ranged from 5 to 42 months and attachment security was assessed between 12 and 45 months. Attachment security was assessed using the Waters and Deane Attachment Behavior Q-set. Principal component analyses were used with the temperament data, and scores for the first component (Emotional Reactivity) served as correlates of attachment security. Analyses revealed significant associations between temperament and attachment at all ages when mothers completed both instruments, and when Q-sorts were independent from maternal temperament perceptions, temperament and attachment security correlations reached significance for older children. These results may help clarify relations between the domains of attachment and temperament, rather than affirm distinctions between them.Within the Bowlby/Ainsworth framework (e.g., Ainsworth, 1982;Bowlby, 1982), patterns of attachment established early in life are expected to play roles in the expression and control of affect and in later personality organization (e.g.,

The evolutionary rationale offered by Bowlby implies that secure base relationships are common in child-caregiver dyads and thus, child secure behavior observable across diverse social contexts and cultures. This study offers a test of the universality hypothesis. Trained observers in nine countries used the Attachment Q-set to describe the organization of children's behavior in naturalistic settings. Children (N = 547) were 10-72 months old. Child development experts (N = 81) from all countries provided definitions of optimal child secure base use. Findings indicate that children from all countries use their mother as a secure base. Children's organization of secure base behavior was modestly related to each other both within and across countries. Experts' descriptions of the optimally attached child were highly similar across cultures.The secure base phenomenon is at the core of Bowlby and Ainsworth's analysis of the infant-mother relationship. Ainsworth coined the term "secure base behavior" based on her naturalistic observations of infant-mother interactions in rural Uganda. When reviewing her field notes, she noticed that infants "do not always stay close to the mothers but rather make little excursions away from her, exploring other objects and interacting with other people, but returning to the mother from time to time" (Ainsworth, 1967, p. 345). The hallmark of secure base behavior is the seemingly purposeful balance between excursions or explorations away from the

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