Relationships Between Early Mother-Infant Interaction and Later Patterns of Attachment

This study investigates the relationships between initiative and responsive attachment behaviors exchanged between mothers and infants in a free play laboratory observation, and later pattern of attachment. Pearson product-moment correlations revealed significant intercorrelations between frequencies of the different attachment behaviors studied. Factor analysis revealed seven factors, three of which were predictive of attachment security through main or interaction effects. High frequencies of infant eye contact in response to maternal initiations significantly predicted later insecure attachment. Attachment security could also be predicted from frequency rates of infant-initiated proximity seeking and vocalization, and maternal responsive non-parallel body contact. When infant gender was considered, insecure males and secure females and their mothers activated these behaviors significantly more than secure males, insecure females, and their mothers did. These findings are considered in the light of empirical and theoretical literature, with particular attention to human sex differences and to methodology in attachment research.