Child Care Caregiver Sensitivity and Attachment

Changes in child care caregivers' sensitivity and in children's attachment security were examined in three studies. Study one involved 55 children enrolled in community based child care. There was no intervention in these sites. Caregiver responsive involvement and children's attachment security did not change over time or when children changed caregivers. Study two involved 71 toddler age children enrolled in family child care homes. The caregivers of these children were enrolled in a family child care training project. Six months after the training security scores increased and caregivers of children who became secure or remained secure were more sensitive following training. Study three involved 36 children enrolled in center-based child care. Children were observed before and after selective staff replacement and in-service training to increase caregiver sensitivity. Six months following intervention security scores increased and caregivers of children who became secure or remained secure were more sensitive following training.     

Children and their child care caregivers: profiles of relationships

One thousand three hundred and seventy-nine (682 girls) caregiver-child relationships were used to derive attachment behavior profiles. All of the children were enrolled in child care (72% in child care centers). Profile analysis was completed using five subscales of Attachment Q-Set items. Three profiles were replicated on randomly drawn subsamples, on center based and in-home based subsamples and on separate subsamples of toddler and preschool children. These profiles were labeled: difficult, avoiding and secure. Children in the secure profile had higher security scores than children in the difficult or avoiding profiles. Children in the avoiding profile appeared the most heterogeneous in attachment security. Children in the avoiding profile with high as opposed to low security scores were older and more likely to use the caregiver as a secure base, seek her for comfort and engage in positive negotiations. Observations conducted on the children with their caregivers provided external validity for the profiles. Children in the secure profile had the most adult involvement.     

Networks of Attachment Relationships in Low-income Children of Mexican Heritage: Infancy through Preschool

Eighty-three low-income Mexican-heritage children (44 girls) and their mothers participated in this research. Children were observed with alternative caregivers at 14, 24, and 36 months of age using the Attachment Q-Set. Most children received regular care from infancy through preschool from relatives and childcare providers. Children had high attachment security scores with both mothers and caregivers. Child–mother and child-alternative caregiver attachment security scores were independent of each other. Children whose mothers did not participate in family clusters were lowest in child–mother attachment security at 14 months. More emotionally sensitive mothers and responsive alternative caregivers were associated with more secure child–adult attachments. Mothers who had more contact with relatives still in Mexico were more likely to have somewhat more positive relations between intrusive interaction and positive attachment relationships than mothers who had less contact.     

Stability in Center Day Care: Relations with Children's Well‐being and Problem Behavior in Day Care1

Mothers and primary professional caregivers of 186 children, aged 6–30 months, participated in this study in which a new measure for daily stability in center day care was developed, describing staffing, grouping, and program features. Relative contributions of infants’ daily experiences of care stability, quality of care, and mother's daily stress to the child's adjustment to day care were analyzed with hierarchical regressions. The child's adjustment was assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist ( Achenbach, 1997 ) and with the Leiden Inventory for the Child's Well‐being in Day Care. Children enrolled in fewer care arrangements showed less internalizing behavior and more well‐being in the day care setting. Children had higher well‐being scores when trusted caregivers were more available. Mother's family management stress was related to more internalizing problem behavior. Interactions between mother's daily stress and stability in care were found to affect the child's adjustment to day care.     

Attachment in the Indonesian Caregiving Context

The quality of the mother-child attachment relationship, the quality of support mothers provide to their children, and characteristics of the caregiving context were examined in 46 Indonesian mother-child dyads. The distribution of attachment patterns, as assessed with the Strange Situation, showed the proportion of children classified as secure and insecure-disorganized to be comparable to the global distribution as reported in two meta-analyses. An over-representation of resistant children was found within the insecure group, which was comparable to the distribution in Japanese samples. The quality of maternal support, measured in two settings, was highest for secure dyads and lowest for insecure-disorganized dyads. Contextual characteristics were not found to differentiate secure from insecure dyads but were found to discriminate between different types of insecure attachment.     

Attachment‐facilitating interactions in non‐kin foster families

This study aims to analyse the interaction between children in foster care and their main caregivers during a microcoded co‐construction task, focusing on the verbal and non‐verbal behaviours that the adults use to promote a secure attachment in the child. It also examines how children and caregivers' socio‐demographic variables relate to the interaction. The sample is made up of 28 Spanish children between 4 and 9 years old in long‐term non‐kin foster care and their foster families. The building task was administered to 28 dyads, composed of the child and the main caregiver in each family. Our results showed that the caregivers' use of attachment‐facilitating behaviours was frequent during the interaction. Moreover, children tended to display a positive attitude when adults used these attachment‐facilitating behaviours. We also found some differences in the interaction according to the caregivers and children's age, the child's gender and the caregivers' satisfaction with the child's development. These results offer us a better understanding of the functioning of the adult–child relationships in foster families, which helps us make more efficient interventions to improve the caregivers' sensitivity towards the children's needs and difficulties.     

The nature of relationships between orphans and their kinship carers in Botswana

Generations of parents lost to AIDS and other causes have created a vacuum of care for the orphaned children they leave behind. This crisis has resulted in rapid changes in caregiving and family life, with extended family members, having to care for orphaned children. As a result of high numbers of vulnerable orphaned children residing with kinship carers, and the fundamental importance of the relationship between carers and orphaned children, we need to understand more about these relationships. This paper explores the nature of orphaned children–kinship carer relationships in Botswana. Interview guides were used to collect data from 15 caregivers and 15 orphaned children. The results indicate that the nature of relationships between orphaned children and caregivers is influenced by the way the parties communicate, how adolescents behave and the competing responsibilities of caregivers. Lastly, the paper recommends how positive relationships can be developed and nurtured between orphaned children and their caregivers in an African setting.     

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

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.     

Quality of care: relationship between the perceptions of elderly home care users and their caregivers

The aim was to study the relationship between elderly home care users', and their caregivers', perceptions of the quality of care. The sample consisted of 151 matched elderly home care user-caregiver pairs in a Swedish municipality. The elderly home care users were interviewed and their caregivers filled in questionnaires using an established, theory-based instrument. Results showed that the elderly home care users evaluated most care components more favourably than their caregivers. On ratings of the various care components' subjective importance to the caretaker, the caregivers consistently scored higher than the elderly home care users. Within the subset of elderly home care users who received help at least twice a day, there were greater similarities between caregivers and caretakers. The results are related to comparable research and discussed in terms of caregivers' needs to legitimize their professional identity and actions.     

Foster children: a longitudinal study of placements and family relationships

Foster children's family relationships have been one of the themes in a longitudinal study, starting with a disadvantaged group of children, 0–4 years of age when taken into care and placed in a children's home in Sweden. Seven rounds of data collection were carried out; the last two when the children were young adults. This article is about those 20 children in the study group who, in addition to temporary residential care at an early age, have experiences from foster care, either for the remainder of their childhood or before or after a period of reunion. Placement history is put in relation to family relationships, i.e. relationships to birth family and foster family. The categorisation in secure and insecure relationships or attachment patterns is based on interviews with the young adults, with a retrospect of previous relationships. The connection between placement history and family relationship is not obvious in this high-risk group. However, inclusive attitudes from the foster family towards the child's family promote continuity and a sense of security, also in periods of reunion or re-placement, and facilitate foster children's hard work in coming to terms with their family background and finding their own way.     

Intergenerational Care Providers of Non-Institutionalized Frail Elderly

This study reports on the care provided to (41) non-institutionalized frail older persons by their children and/or grandchildren. The study is based on a population of frail elderly persons referred for in-home assessment services to the Iowa Model Gerontology Project in Scott County, Iowa. These referrals were based on the referral sources belief that the older person was at risk for institutional care. The study explores three aspects of intergenerational family caregiving: the characteristics of the off-spring caregivers, their perceptions of both the positive and negative impacts of providing care, and their perceptions of supplementary assistance needed and desired from outside agencies in carrying out the caregiving tasks.     

Attachment,Intelligence, and Language: A Meta-analysis†

In attachment theory, several hypotheses about the association between attachment and cognitive development have been generated. In a series of meta-analyses on 32 studies, we tested whether the quality of attachment is related to intelligence (DQ or IQ) and to language competence. Attachment showed a weak association with DQ and IQ measures (combined r = .09; N = 1026). The combined effect size for the relation between attachment and language competence was r = .28 (N = 303). We conclude, first, that differences in intelligence do not play a major role in shaping attachment relationships. Differences in quality of attachment are not confounded in any significant way with differences in intelligence. Second, secure children appeared to be more competent in the language domain than insecure children. Language development appears to be stimulated in the context of a secure attachment relationship because secure parents may be better ‘teachers’ and secure children may be better motivated ‘students’.     

Contact between birth parents and children in kinship care in a sample from Spain

Within the context of kinship care, the main objectives of this work are to study the characteristics of contact between foster children and their birth parents, and their relationship with key variables of fostering, the children and their kinship caregivers. The sample included 189 children from Spain and their kinship families. A semi‐structured placement interview and two scales relating to the child–caregiver relationship and child's psychological adjustment were used with the kinship families. The results revealed a significant percentage of foster children who had no family contact. Various visit types, frequencies and durations were described. Kinship care with contact, compared with placements without contact, was frequently characterized by the absence of professional supervision, and an affectionate child–caregiver relationship; moreover, children with contact were perceived to have fewer serious behaviour and socio‐emotional problems and a greater probability of family reunification. The regression analysis showed that the main predictors for how caregivers assessed contact were the children's emotional reaction during visits and the quality of the relationship between the kinship families and the birth parents. These results suggest the need for further research about contact, which will certainly have a major impact on professional intervention with these families.     

Quality of Relationships Between Care Recipients and Their Primary Caregivers and Its Effect on Caregivers' Burden and Satisfaction in Israel

Research on the impact of quality of relationships between primary caregivers and their care recipients on burden and satisfaction with caregiving is still rare. The sample included 335 dyads of primary caregivers and care recipients who were cognitively intact. Face-to-face interviews were conducted at the respondents' homes using structured questionnaires. No significant correlation between caregiving burden and caregiving satisfaction was found. Quality of relationship was the most significant variable in explaining both caregiving burden and caregiving satisfaction, yet different sets of additional variables were found to explain each of the outcomes. Interventions should address quality of relationships in order to reduce burden and increase caregiving satisfaction.     

Quality of relationships between care recipients and their primary caregivers and its effect on caregivers' burden and satisfaction in Israel

Research on the impact of quality of relationships between primary caregivers and their care recipients on burden and satisfaction with caregiving is still rare. The sample included 335 dyads of primary caregivers and care recipients who were cognitively intact. Face-to-face interviews were conducted at the respondents' homes using structured questionnaires. No significant correlation between caregiving burden and caregiving satisfaction was found. Quality of relationship was the most significant variable in explaining both caregiving burden and caregiving satisfaction, yet different sets of additional variables were found to explain each of the outcomes. Interventions should address quality of relationships in order to reduce burden and increase caregiving satisfaction.     

Developing Evidence-Based Interventions for Foster Children: An Example of a Randomized Clinical Trial with Infants and Toddlers

Children who enter foster care have usually experienced maltreatment as well as disruptions in relationships with primary caregivers. These children are at risk for a host of problematic outcomes. However, there are few evidence-based interventions that target foster children. This article presents preliminary data testing the effectiveness of an intervention, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up, to target relationship formation in young children in the foster care system. Children were randomly assigned to the experimental intervention that was designed to enhance regulatory capabilities or to a control intervention. In both conditions, the foster parents received in-home training for 10 weekly sessions. Post-intervention measures were collected 1 month following the completion of the training. Outcome measures included children's diurnal production of cortisol (a stress hormone), and parent report of children's problem behaviors. Children in the experimental intervention group had lower cortisol values than children in the control intervention. Also, the experimental intervention parents reported fewer behavior problems for older versus younger foster children. Results provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of an intervention that targets children's regulatory capabilities and serve as an example of how interventions can effectively target foster children in the child welfare system.     

Mothers' Representations of Relationships with their Children: Relations with Parenting Behavior, Mother Characteristics, and Child Disability Status

Representational models of mother-child relationships were assessed through interview for 112 mothers of children ages 14 to 52 months. Fifty-eight (51.8%) children had a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, 19 (17%) were diagnosed with epilepsy, while the remaining 35 (31.3%) had no diagnosis. Relations were examined between dimensions of representations (compliance, achievement, secure base, enmeshment, worry, pain) and maternal age, education and stress; diagnostic group and child developmental status; and mother's behavior with the child in a problem-solving task. Mothers for whom boundary violations were represented were also less focused with child achievement and experienced more worry and pain in the relationship. More severe disability status was associated with less compliance and more pain in representations. Longer time since diagnosis was positively correlated with painful representations. Representations were unrelated to child gender, child age, maternal education or age, or parenting stress. With educational level controlled, mothers' support for the child and positive affect in a problem-solving task were negatively related to representations of worry about the child's future. Boundary concerns were predictive of mothers' pressuring behavior in the problem-solving task. Findings suggest representations are related to caregiving behavior apart from other maternal characteristics, and that mothers' representations reflect variability in their children.     

'I made some mistakes . . . but I love them dearly' the views of parents of children in informal kinship care

In-depth semi-structured interviews with 30 parents of children living with relatives in informal kinship care arrangements revealed the parents' views of the reasons for the informal kinship care arrangements, quality of their relationships with the children and their caregivers, their current and future roles in their children's lives, feelings experienced when with and away from the children, positive and negative aspects of kinship care, future goals and dreams for their children, and their assessments of their own strengths and challenges. Results of these interviews suggest several implications for social work practice and research.     

Social issues in contemporary native America: reflections from Turtle Island

The purpose of this study was to explore how the death and dying-related beliefs of caregivers influence their actual caregiving behavior, and to explore factors that may prevent them from translating these beliefs into functional behavior. Using a biopsychosocial-spiritual- environmental framework, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with three primary caregivers of patients diagnosed with terminal illness. Caregiving behavior was found to be associated with the biopsychosocial-spiritual-environmental beliefs of the caregivers. These beliefs could have been influenced by the caregivers' past experiences with death and dying. Financial difficulty might also be a main obstacle hindering caregivers from providing the kind of care they believed was best for the patients.     

A stress process model of family caregiver service utilization: factors associated with respite and counseling service use

This study examines whether caregivers' differential utilization of respite and counseling support services is associated with different situational stress processes. A multinomial regression analysis was conducted to compare respite users, counseling users, and those who used neither service, using data collected on a statewide random sample of 1,643 California caregivers providing assistance to individuals aged 50 or older. Compared with caregivers who used neither service, respite service users were more likely to have demanding care situations giving rise to physical symptoms of stress, and were more likely to use community services for the care recipient to augment their care. In contrast, counseling service users were more likely to be managing the meaning of their care situation by seeking out information about services and talking with a confidant about their situation, while coping with both emotional and physical symptoms of stress. Tailoring caregiver interventions to meet the support needs and coping strategies stemming from diverse caregiving situations and caregiver characteristics may increase the likelihood that those interventions will be effective in alleviating or preventing deleterious secondary stress frequently experienced by family caregivers.