The Preschool Assessment of Attachment: construct validity in a sample of depressed and nondepressed families.

Construct validity of the newly developed Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA) was examined in a sample of depressed and nondepressed mothers and their preschoolers, focusing on attachment related differences in children's general caregiving environments, maternal psychosocial functioning, and child behavior during interactions with mother. Mothers of secure children were more emotionally and verbally responsive to their children than were mothers of insecure children, and secure children were emotionally more positive to their mothers than were insecure children. Mothers of secure children also reported higher levels of social supports than did mothers of insecure children. Finally, dyads with children who lacked unitary, coherent attachment strategies (i.e., anxious depressed, defended/coercive, and insecure other) showed the worst functioning in all domains relative to all other attachment groups. Similar but slightly less robust findings were obtained with socioeconomic variables statistically controlled. These results lend support to the PAA as a valid system for the conceptualization and measurement of quality of attachment among preschoolers. Future research applications with the PAA are discussed.

Mother-toddler interaction patterns associated with maternal depression.

Interactive coordination was observed in laboratory play interactions of pairs of 29 clinically depressed and 14 nondepressed mothers and their 13-29-month-old children (M = 18.9 months). Nondepressed mothers and their children displayed more interactive coordination than depressed-mother dyads (p < .001). Depressed mothers were less likely to repair interrupted interactions, and their toddlers were less likely to maintain interactions than nondepressed controls. Toddlers matched their nondepressed but not their depressed mothers negative behavior rates. Results suggested that early interventions focus on training mothers to attend to maintain, and repair mother-child interactions to more closely approximate normal levels of interactive coordination.

Effects of mothers' simulated withdrawal and depressed affect on mother-toddler interactions.

Effects of enacted maternal withdrawal and depression were observed in a sample of 18-36-month-old children during counterbalanced brief (10-min) episodes of simulated depression and normal affect. As predicted, when mothers enacted withdrawal and depressed affect by becoming less positive, expressive, involved, talkative, and responsive, toddlers physically withdrew from them, made more negative physical bids for attention, and became more unfocused and generally negative. Children accepted their unresponsive mothers' infrequent interaction bids, but did not attempt to comfort them when they appeared depressed. In mothers' normal mood episodes, children were more positive, were never unfocused, and played closer to their mothers. As expected, toddlers reacted negatively to transitory maternal withdrawal and depressed affect, displaying their distress in a developmentally appropriate manner.

Behavioral competence among mothers of infants in the first year: the mediational role of maternal self-efficacy.

This study tests the idea that mothers' self-efficacy beliefs mediate the effects on parenting behavior of variables such as depression, perceptions of infant temperamental difficulty, and social-marital supports. Subjects were 48 clinically depressed and 38 nondepressed mothers observed in interaction with their 3-13-month-old infants (M = 7.35 months). As predicted, maternal self-efficacy beliefs related significantly to maternal behavioral competence independent of the effects of other variables. When the effects of self-efficacy were controlled, parenting competence no longer related significantly to social-marital supports or maternal depression. In addition, maternal self-efficacy correlated significantly with perceptions of infant difficulty after controlling for family demographic variables. These results suggest that maternal self-efficacy mediates relations between maternal competence and other psychosocial variables and may play a crucial role in determining parenting behavior and infant psychosocial risk.

Characteristics of Venezuelan school refusers. Toward the development of a high-risk profile.

Parent, teacher, and child reports were used to identify situational and personal factors associated with school refusal in 114 3- to 13-year-old Venezuelan children. The sample consisted of 57 school refusers and 57 nonrefusers matched on age, school, and sex. As compared with nonrefusers, the refusers had changed schools more often, were rated as more dependent, had more school-related fears, and were perceived by their parents as more difficult to manage. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that school refusal status could be predicted by both situational and personality variables including the child's fear level, dependency, depression, frequency of school changes, history of refusal in the family, and other variables. Refusal onset frequently coincided with situational stress (e.g., the beginning of the school year, a new school or teacher, or trouble with a teacher or peers). Categories of refusal resembled those of other studies and included adjustment reaction, school phobia, and emotional disturbance. In the future, these risk factors can be used to identify and treat potential school refusers.

Why does children's generosity increase with age: susceptibility to experimenter influence or altruism?

This study evaluated whether age differences in children's generosity are due to increasing altruistic motivation or increasing susceptibility to experimenter influence strategies. 282 first, third, and fifth graders voted on how to spend a gift of money under 1 of 5 instructional sets--3 levels of experimenter influence, peer influence, or no influence, or no influence. Voting choices (in increasing order of generosity according to experimenter-defined scoring weights) were splitting up the money equally among class members, buying something for their class, buying something for their school, or giving the money to poor children. Voting choices also were scored according to empirically derived weights based on rankings provided by an independent sample of 50 first, third, and fifth graders. Both scoring systems indicated that fifth graders were more generous than younger children, but only under high levels of experimenter demand, and peer influence did not increase children's generosity. Furthermore, first graders appeared more generous when the child-derived rather than the experimenter-derived scoring system was used. Thus generalizations regarding age differences in generosity observed in laboratory experiments may require qualification, specifying the degree and type of experimenter influence involved.

Estimating the prevalence of school refusal and school-related fears. A Venezuelan sample.

This study investigated the prevalence of school refusal and school-related fears in a sample of 1034 Venezuelan children from 3 to 14 years of age. Fear surveys were administered to children older than 9 years and to the younger children's parents. In addition, parents and teachers completed questionnaires regarding the children's other behavior problems, and teachers reported on the children's school achievement and attendance. Although a significant proportion (17.7 per cent) of the children expressed intense fears of school, only rarely were such fears combined with high absenteeism or with parents' or teachers' reports of school refusal problems. School refusal prevalence was calculated using six different fear and absenteeism criteria. When refusal was defined by agreement among all information sources, prevalence was .4 per cent, which is comparable to rates reported in other countries using similar criteria. However, the data indicate that there are various degrees of school aversion and refusal.