Parenting and attachment among low-income African American and Caucasian preschoolers.

Abstract

Despite a plethora of research on parenting and infant attachment, much less is known about the contributions of parenting to preschool attachment, particularly within different racial groups. This study seeks to build on the extant literature by evaluating whether similar associations between parenting and attachment can be observed in African American and Caucasian families, and whether race moderates them. Seventy-four primary caregivers and their preschool children (51% African American, 49% Caucasian, 46% male) from similar urban, low-income backgrounds participated in two visits 4 weeks apart when children were between 4 and 5 years of age. Attachment was scored from videotapes of the Strange Situation paradigm using the preschool classification system developed by Cassidy, Marvin, and the MacArthur Working Group. Parenting was assessed using a multimethod, multicontext approach: in the child’s home, in the laboratory, and via parent-report. Seventy-three percent of the children were classified as securely attached. Warm, responsive parenting behavior (but not race) predicted attachment. Although parents of African American and Caucasian children demonstrated some significant differences in parenting behaviors, race did not moderate the relationship between parenting and child attachment. These findings highlight the direct role that parenting plays over and above race in determining attachment security during the preschool period.

Effect of the INSIGHT Responsive Parenting Intervention on Rapid Infant Weight Gain and Overweight Status at Age 1 Year

“…15 Additionally, RP promotes a range of adaptive outcomes in children including secure attachment, emotion regulation, cognitive and language development, and aspects of self-regulation including inhibitory control and executive function. 17–20 …”

Attachment security and recent stressful life events predict oxytocin levels: a pilot study of pregnant women with high levels of cumulative psychosocial adversity

“…Indeed, higher levels of prenatal OT may be especially important to mothers with mental illness because, as a group, they are at risk of exhibiting poorer interactive behaviors with their infants (Coyne, Low, Miller, Seifer, & Dickstein, 2007;Crockenberg & Leerkes, 2003;Lovejoy, Graczyk, O'Hare, & Neuman, 2000). Maternal interactive behaviors are linked, in turn, to a wide range of child development outcomes including attachment security (De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997;Dexter, Wong, Stacks, Beeghly, & Barnett, 2013;Laucht, Esser, & Schmidt, 2002;Mäntymaa, Puura, Luoma, Salmelin, & Tamminen, 2004;Wang & Dix, 2013).…”

Predictors of mother–child interaction quality and child attachment security in at-risk families

“…An extensive body of research on human parenting has provided evidence that quality of caregiving is essential in determining the level of children’s social emotional as well as cognitive development (Bornstein and Tamis-LeMonda, 1989; Landry et al, 2006; Dexter et al, 2013). Specifically, sensitive and responsive parenting promotes a secure attachment relationship (De Wolff and van IJzendoorn, 1997; Nievar and Becker, 2008), which in turn is predictively associated with positive outcomes in numerous domains of child development (Bar-Haim et al, 2000; Vondra et al, 2001; Belsky and Pasco Fearon, 2002; Bernier and Meins, 2008; Dexter et al, 2013). However, the parent–child relationship can be affected by several psychosocial and socio-demographic risk factors that undermine its quality and in turn play a negative role in short and long term child psychological wellbeing (Sameroff, 1998, 2000; Choe et al, 2013).…”

“…Secure attachment has been shown to positively influence child social emotional as well as cognitive adaptation beyond infancy (Bar-Haim et al, 2000; Vondra et al, 2001; Dexter et al, 2013). Secure mother–child attachment is the result of adequate maternal sensitivity, as postulated by Ainsworth et al (1978) and demonstrated by a strong body of literature (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1997, 2006).…”