Attachment and Temperament in the Early Life Course: A Meta-Analytic Review

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2016 papers

Abstract

This meta-analytic review examines the association between early attachment (assessed at 1-5 years) and child temperament (assessed at birth-12 years), and compares the strength of this association with recently documented meta-analytic associations between early attachment and social competence, externalizing behavior, and internalizing symptoms. Based on 109 independent samples (N = 11,440) of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, temperament was weakly associated with attachment (in)security (d = .14, CI [0.08, 0.19]) but modestly associated with resistant attachment (d = .30, CI [0.21, 0.40]). Temperament was not significantly associated with avoidant (d = .10, CI [-0.02, 0.19]) or disorganized (d = .11, CI [-0.03, 0.25]) attachment. Across developmental domains, early attachment security was more strongly associated with social competence and externalizing behaviors than internalizing symptoms and temperament.

Related Papers

• → Temperament, Parenting, and Moral Development: Specificity of Behavior and Context(2014)44 cited
• → A Structural Relationship between Preschoolers's Temperament, Mothers' Parenting Competency, and Externalizing Behavior Problems(2015)5 cited
• → Temperament and personality(2007)5 cited
• → The concept of difficult temperament in the developmentally disabled preschool child(1987)20 cited
• → Status Passages and the Life Course. Volume 1: Theoretical Advances in Life Course Research, and Volume 2: The Life Course and Social Change: Comparative Perspectives.(1993)2 cited