Change and Stability: Longitudinal Associations between Security of Attachment and Developmental Status in the Areas of Speech and Social Functioning

Korntheuer P, Lissmann I, Lohaus A. Wandel und Stabilität: Längsschnittliche Zusammenhänge zwischen Bindungssicherheit und dem sprachlichen und sozialen Entwicklungsstand. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht. 2010;57(1):1-20.This study focuses on the longitudinal relation between measures of attachment and social and language development. The Strange Situation Test and the Attachment-Q-Sort were assessed For 85 mothwer-infant-dyads, when the infants were one and two years old. At each time of assessment, the status of social and language development was determined using the ET 6-6 as developmental test. In a previous assessment at the infants' age of three months, the mothers' education and the mothers' perceived burden by problems with the infant were recorded to be used as control parameters in the analyses. The longitudinal analyses were based on hierarchical linear models with two levels of analysis. The results show clear associations between the development of attachment and language, while the development of attachment was unrelated to social development