Measuring Infant-Mother Attachment: Is the Strange Situation Enough?

• Published in: Social development (Oxford, England) England), 2001-01, Vol.10 (2), p.143-169
• Main Authors: Clarke-Stewart, K. Alison, Goossens, Frits A., Allhusen, Virginia D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure; assessment; Attachment; Attachment Behavior; child care; Comparative Analysis; Emotional Development; Evaluation Methods; Infant Behavior; Infant-mother attachment; Mother-Infant interactions; Mothers; Parent Child Relationship; Personality Measures; Psychological tests; Security; Security of Attachment; strange situation; Test Validity
• ISSN: 0961-205X; 1467-9507
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9507.00156

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of a new procedure for assessing infant‐mother attachment. Sixty children (34 in child care) and their mothers were seen in the Strange Situation (SS) at 17 months and in a new attachment assessment, the California Attachment Procedure (CAP), which does not involve mother‐child separations, at 18 months. Overall, children were more likely to be classified as secure in the CAP (83% vs. 67%), but this was particularly true for children with experience in routine nonmaternal care. Of the children in nonmaternal care who were insecure in the SS, 91% were secure in the CAP, whereas of the maternal‐care children who were insecure in the SS, only 44% were secure in the CAP. Attachment security in the CAP was more highly correlated with observed maternal sensitivity than was attachment security in the SS, particularly for children in nonmaternal care.