Effects of Maternal Absence Due to Employment on the Quality of Infant-Mother Attachment in a Low-Risk Sample

Abstract

Recent reports have suggested that day-care experience initiated prior to 12 months of age is associated with increased proportions of infants whose attachment to mother is classified as "insecure-avoidant." However, reviewers have questioned the generality of these findings, noting that samples in which associations between early day-care experience and avoidant attachment patterns have been reported come from high-risk populations, and/or that the infants' day-care settings may not have been of high quality. In the present study, effects of maternal absences on infant-mother attachment quality were assessed in a low-risk, middle-class sample (N = 110). In all instances, substitute care had been initiated at least 4 months prior to the infant's first birthday and was provided in the infant's home by a person unrelated to the baby. Infants were assessed using the Ainsworth Strange Situation when they were 12-13 months of age. Analyses indicated that a significantly greater proportion of infants whose mothers worked outside the home (N = 54) were assigned to the category "insecure-avoidant" as compared to infants whose mothers remained in the home (N = 56) throughout the first year of life. Analyses of demographic and psychological data available for the sample indicated that this relation is dependent upon maternal parity (primi- vs. multiparous mother). The association between attachment quality and work status was significant only for firstborn children of full-time working mothers. The results are interpreted as evidence that the repeated daily separations experienced by infants whose mothers are working full-time constitute a "risk" factor for the development of "insecure-avoidant" infant-mother attachments.

Quality of Infants' Attachments to Professional Caregivers: Relation to Infant-Parent Attachment and Day-Care Characteristics

“…Although more time away from parents may increase the risk of an insecure relationship with the mother (Barglow et al, 1987;Belsky, 1988;Belsky & Rovine, 1988), more time in day-care appears to promote a secure relationship between infants and caregivers. Both infants and caregivers need time to adapt to each other and to learn how to decode each other's Signals and behaviors.…”

“…Few studies have been carried out to assess quality of attachment to Professional caregivers (Krentz, 1982;Sagi et al, 1985). Because infants' attachments to Professional caregivers may influence the children's socioemotional adaptation at kindergarten age (Oppenheim, Sagi, & Lamb, 1988), discussions about the influence of day-care on quality of attachment and on later developmental outcome (Barglow, Vaughn, & Molitor, 1987;Belsky, 1988;Belsky & Rovine, 1988) should focus on the infants' network of attachment relationships. Day-care infants may develop a network of attachment relationships both within and outside of the family (Smith & Noble, 1987), and infant-caregiver attachments may compensate for insecure infant-parent attachments (van IJzendoorn & Tavecchio, 1987).…”

Mother or Market? Effects of Maternal Employment on the Intellectual Ability of 4-Year-Old Children

“…Several recent studies suggest that when mothers begin employment before their child's first birthday, problems in social development may arise. These problems are manifested in insecure attachment to parents at the age of 1 (Barglow, Vaughn, and Molitor, 1987;Schwartz, 1983), especially among boys (Belsky and Rovine, 1988;Chase-Lansdale and Owen, 1987), many of whom showed higher rates of avoidant behavior. There is disagreement about how maladaptive this behavior is and whether it leads to long-term problems in social development (Clarke-Stewart and Fein, 1983).…”

Maternal employment, family functioning, and preterm infant development at 9 and 12 months

“…Some investigators report negative effects of maternal employment on attachment (Barglow et al, 1987;Belsky & Rovine, 1988;Schwarz, 1983), mother-child interaction (Cohen, 1978;Field, Stoller, Vega-Lahr, Scafidi, & Goldstein, 1986), and cognitive development (Cohen, 1978;Schacter, 1981). Others report either no effects or positive effects on attachment (Easterbrooks & Goldberg, 1985;Hock, 1980;Owen, Easterbrooks, Chase-Lansdale, & Goldberg, 1984), mother-child interaction (Schubert, Bradley-Johnson, & Nuttal, 1980) (Doyle, 1975;Hock, 1980;Stith & Davis, 1984).…”

“…Indeed, nearly 50% of married women with children under 3 years old are employed (Shank, 1988). Although some researchers believe that maternal employment is a stressful situation for children (Barglow, Vaughn, & Molitor, 1987;Belsky & Eggebeen, 1991), the effects of this potential stressor with children born prematurely have not been studied. Research with healthy children may not be applicable to prematurely born children for several reasons.…”