Ding et al. (2014) The relation of early infant attachment to attachment and cognitive development outcomes in early childhood.
To investigate the relation of mother–infant attachment to attachment, cognitive and behavioural development in young children.
This study used a longitudinal study design.
The current study adopted Ainsworth's “strange situation procedure (SSP)” to evaluate mother–infant attachment in 12- to 18-month-old infants.
Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the Children's Hospital of Fudan University. Informed consent was obtained from all the mothers.
Sample: At the first visit, the subjects included 160 infant–mother dyads. They were recruited through child health care networks in Shanghai. Most of the sample were middle-income families.
All 160 infants were firstborn, full-term, healthy infants. There were 82 boys and 78 girls. Participants completed an attachment assessment by SSP during the first visit by the researchers. After the assessment, the infants were followed up when they were approximately 3 years old.
For the follow-up, participants were asked to visit the research study unit and Ding et al. provided cost reimbursements, such as transportation fees for the visit. In total, 118 young children completed the follow-up (63 boys and 55 girls), so forty-two infants were not included in the follow-up. Reasons for this included moving to a new location or inability to get to the unit because of family arrangements or events.
Follow up testing included 8 scenarios using the SSP: mother–infant dyads entering, infants staying with their mothers; the intervention of strangers; separation of infants from their mothers; staying with strangers; reunion with their mothers; and separation from their mothers followed by reunion with their mothers.
Video and audio recording were used. Video data was coded to classify the attachment type of the infants. The videos were coded by two authors and the inter-rater/inter-coder reliability on the A, B, C and D categories was 95%.
A child Attachment Q-set (AQS) was also used to evaluate the attachment type of the 118 young children. The AQS has 90 cards that reflect the security of a child's attachment and related behavioural characteristics.
This evaluation was performed by the mothers. Ding et al. provided instructions to the mothers. The scores from the AQS were used to divide the children into 2 types: those with the secure type of attachment and those with the insecure type of attachment.
Ten mothers were randomly selected to re-evaluate their children using the AQS as a consistency/control measure.
The BSID-II was used to evaluate the mental development index (MDI) and psychomotor development index (PDI) development of the children. This was administered by 2 professional evaluators who were unaware of the attachment type of the children to avoid bias.
10 children were also randomly selected to be evaluated simultaneously by 2 professional evaluators using the BSID-II to test for inter-reliability.
The CBCL (for 2- to 3-year-olds) was used to evaluate behavioural problems. This scale has 99 items about behavioural problems. The mothers completed the CBCL. 10 mothers were randomly selected to re-evaluate their children using the CBCL as a consistency/control test.
Of the 118 followed-up young children:
78 demonstrated secure type of attachment
40 demonstrated insecure type of attachment
10 with avoidant type
27 with resistant type and
3 with disorganised type.
There were no reports of parental divorce or death or other family crises among the 118 followed-up young children. Two of them had a young brother and one of them had a young sister since the first visit.
Consistency of the attachment security from infancy to early childhood
Of the 118 followed-up young children:
At the first visit:
76 children were classified as having secure type of attachment (64.4%).
42 children were classified as having insecure type of attachment (35.6%).
At the follow-up visit:
70 still demonstrated secure type of attachment giving a consistency rate of 89.7%.
34 still demonstrated insecure type of attachment giving a consistency rate of 85.0%.
Mother–infant attachment in relation to cognitive development
The evaluation of cognitive development in early childhood showed:
MDI was 102.9 ± 12.6 for secure types (B) compared to 97.5 ± 14.8 for insecure types (A and C and D) PDI was 98.8 ± 12.1 for secure types (B) compared to 95.6 ± 13.4 for insecure types (A and C and D)
Results of a t-test showed that the difference in MDIs was statistically significant, although the t-test result for the difference in PDIs showed no significant difference.
Mother–infant attachment in relation to behavioural problems
The insecurely attached infants scored more highly in social withdrawal, aggressive behaviour and total problems in early childhood than the securely attached infants.
Consistency
The majority of securely attached infants maintained a secure attachment relationship with their mothers in early childhood, while the majority of insecurely attached infants maintained insecure attachment with their mothers.
Relation of infant attachment to cognitive development in early childhood
In line with the findings of most previous studies the results demonstrated that attachment security in infancy had a significant impact on general cognitive development in early childhood. Securely attached infants were more likely to have a better cognitive development than insecurely attached infants.
The cognitive developmental level of children with insecure-avoidant type was close to that of children with the secure type, while the levels of young children with insecure resistant type of attachment were significantly lower than those of children with the secure type.
Relation of infant attachment to behavioural problems in early childhood
Attachment security in infancy has an important impact on the occurrence of behavioural problems in early childhood, especially social withdrawal and aggressive behaviour.
The avoidant infants showed no significant difference in any single behaviour problem or in total problems in early childhood when compared with the securely attached infants.
One possible reason is that the number of avoidant types in the present study was relatively small. Another possible reason is that mothers of avoidant infants are likely to ignore or be insensitive to their children's behavioural problems.
Children with secure type attachment in infancy tended to have mainly single-behaviour problems, whereas children with insecure type (especially disorganised type) attachment in infancy, tended to have various behavioural problems occurring simultaneously.
Evaluate your chosen contemporary study from developmental psychology. (8) January 2019