Attachment theory and research are drawn upon in many applied settings, including family courts, but misunderstandings are widespread and sometimes result in misapplications. The aim of this consensus statement is, therefore, to enhance understanding, counter misinformation, and steer family-court utilisation of attachment theory in a supportive, evidence-based direction, especially with regard to child protection and child custody decision-making. The article is divided into two parts. In the first, we address problems related to the use of attachment theory and research in family courts, and discuss reasons for these problems. To this end, we examine family court applications of attachment theory in the current context of the best-interest-of-the-child standard, discuss misunderstandings regarding attachment theory, and identify fac

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Temperament and parental control are two important factors that influence the early development of children's committed compliance. However, there is a need to comprehensively depict the developmental profiles of committed compliance across the first 3 years and further examine the impacts of these two factors on the profiles. Thus, the current study examined how 92 participants (39 boys) differed in their trajectories of committed compliance throughout toddlerhood and how these individual variances were underpinning of their temperament fearfulness and distractibility in infancy and maternal behavioral control from infancy to toddlerhood. According to children's committed compliance observed in the clean-up task from 14 to 38 months, three groups with different developmental trajectories were identified: the high-level group, the low-level group, and the developmental group. Compared with the high-level group, the mothers reported that the low-level group displayed higher distractibility and lower fearfulness at 6 months. Maternal behavioral control was coded from two 5min mother-child free plays at each age of 10, 14, 25 and 38 months. Results indicated that though the initial level of committed compliance of the two groups were similar at 14 months, the developmental group mothers had a lower mean intercept of behavioral control than the low-level group mothers at 10 months. Moreover, the developmental group mothers tended to decrease their use of behavioral control more slowly than the high-level group mothers. Limitations and implication for future research were discussed.

Grandmothers are important in Chinese families. This study explored the early emerging mother‐grandmother‐infant network and its association with child's socioemotional development in multigenerational families in a non‐WEIRD country. The analytic sample included 60 children (T1: Mage = 6.5 months) and their caregivers residing in Beijing. Measures used were the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP), the Maternal Behavior Q‐Sort (MBQS), and the Infant‐Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment. Structural equation and path modeling revealed that (1) more grandmaternal neutral/watching coparenting behaviors at the first assessment were related to more secure infant‐mother attachment relationships at the second assessment (T2: Mage = 1 year); (2) maternal sensitivity at T2 was a partial mediator between earlier undermining and neutral/watching coparenting behaviors and young children's externalizing problems at the final assessment (T3: Mage = 2 years). Findings are discussed in terms of the roles played by mother‐grandmother coparenting network in the children's socioemotional development.

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