We investigated the effects of timing and the course of maternal perinatal depressive symptoms on mother-infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response profiles during an attachment stressor, as well as on within-dyad synchrony of stress profiles: coordination of HPA and sympathetic nervous system and infant-mother HPA attunement. Mothers (n = 86) completed the Center for Epidemiological ...

In order to survive after birth, mammalian infants need a caretaker, usually the mother. Several behavioral strategies have evolved to guarantee the transition from a period of intense caregiving to offspring independence. Here, we examine a selection of literature on the genetic, epigenetic, physiological, and behavioral factors relating to development and mother-infant interactions. We intend...

The relation between maternal alcohol consumption and Infant attachment behavior at one year was investigated in this study. Alcohol consumption was estimated by self-report questionnaires filled out by mothers over 30 vears of age, regarding the amount of alcohol they consumed prior to, during, and following pregnancy. Alcohol level was computed using the Jessor, Graves, Hanson and Jessor AA s...

John Bowlby’s (1979) proposal that ‘attachment behavior is held to characterize human beings from the cradle to the grave’ (p. 129) has spawned a large body of research applying principles of attachment theory to adult love relationships. A central and commendable goal of Shaver and Mikulincer’s target article was to provide a means of bridging the conceptual gap between two lines of research w...

In the longitudinal study reported here, we examined genetic and caregiving-based contributions to individual differences in infant attachment classifications. For 154 mother-infant pairs, we rated mothers' responsiveness to their 6-month-old infants during naturalistic interactions and classified infants' attachment organization at 12 and 18 months using the Strange Situation procedure. These ...

BACKGROUND Animal research indicates that the neural substrates of emotion regulation may be persistently altered by early environmental exposures. If similar processes operate in human development then this is significant, as the capacity to regulate emotional states is fundamental to human adaptation. METHODS We utilised a 22-year longitudinal study to examine the influence of early infant ...

The data for 197 mother-infant pairs from two longitudinal studies were analyzed to assess relations between maternal attachment representations; atypical maternal behavior, coded with a new tool. Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE), and infant attachment. Both maternal and infant attachment were systematically related to atypical maternal behavior...

Using data from the Durham Child Health and Development Study (n=148), the current study examines the associations between child and parenting variables at 6 months and child attachment quality at 12 months of age and maternal report of child self regulation at 24 months of age. Child and parent variables predicted distinct forms of insecure attachment relationships. Observations of infant soot...