Biomedical subjects

R M Pasco Fearon

Publications and source records attributed to R M Pasco Fearon.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

In search of shared and nonshared environmental factors in security of attachment: a behavior-genetic study of the association between sensitivity and attachment security.

The current article presents results from a twin study of genetic and environmental components of maternal sensitivity and infant attachment and their association. The sample consisted of 136 twin pairs from 2 sites: Leiden, the Netherlands, and London, UK. Maternal sensitivity was assessed in the home at 9-10 months, and infant attachment security was observed in the laboratory at 12 months. The study yielded little evidence that genetic factors are involved in variations between twins in maternal sensitivity ratings but did find that shared variance in maternal sensitivity was able to account for some of the similarity between twins in attachment security. Weak nonshared associations between sensitivity and attachment appeared to suppress the magnitude of the correlation between attachment and sensitivity in twin children. The results could indicate that the attachment security of one twin may depend on the relationship the parent has with the other twin. The results are brought to bear on the validity of attachment theory as a theory of primarily shared environmental effects in children's development and the continuing challenge posed to attachment theory by within-family differences in socioemotional processes.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Exploring marriage-parenting typologies and their contextual antecedents and developmental sequelae.

To identify types of families, latent-class analysis was applied to (reported) marriage and (observed) parenting measures obtained during the infancy, toddler, and/or preschool years for 828 two-parent families participating in the NICHD Study of Child Care. Five types of families were identified: Consistently Supportive (i.e., good parenting, good marriage, 15% of sample), Consistently Moderate (i.e., moderate marriage, moderate parenting. 43%), Consistently Risky (i.e., poor parenting, poor marriage, 16%), Good Parenting/Poor Marriage (19%), and Poor Parenting/Good Marriage (7%). When groups were compared in terms of contextual antecedents (measured at child age 1 month) and child cognitive-academic and socioemotional functioning in first grade, results indicated (a) that contextual risks increased linearly and children's functioning decreased linearly as one moved across the first three aforementioned groups; and after controlling for group differences in background factors (b) that children in the Good-Parenting/Poor-Marriage families outperformed those in the Poor Parenting/Good Marriage; (c) that there was evidence of "added value" developmentally when children experienced two sources of support (i.e., good marriage and good parenting) rather than just one (i.e., good marriage or good parenting); but (d) that there was only modest evidence of protective buffering whereby children experiencing just good parenting (but not just good marriages) outperformed children experiencing poor parenting and poor marriages. Results are discussed in terms of the relative influence of marriage and parenting on child development and the potential benefits of applying typological approaches to the study of marriage-parenting family subsystems.

Achievement↗

PubMed2002

Infant-mother attachment security, contextual risk, and early development: a moderational analysis.

In light of evidence that the effects of attachment security on subsequent development may be contingent on the social context in which the child continues to develop, we examined the effect of attachment security at age 15 months, cumulative contextual risk from 1 to 36 months, and the interaction of attachment and cumulative risk to predict socioemotional and cognitive linguistic functioning at age 3 years, using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. Results indicated that early attachment predicts both socioemotional development and language skills, but not cognitive functioning as indexed by a measure of school readiness, and that the effect of attachment on socioemotional development and expressive language varied as a function of social-contextual risk. Insecure-avoidant infants proved most vulnerable to contextual risk, not children classified as secure or insecure more generally, although in one instance security did prove protective with respect to the adverse effects of cumulative contextual risk. Findings are discussed in terms of risk and resilience and in light of the probabilistic nature of the relation between early attachment and later development.

Affective Symptoms↗

PubMed2002

Early attachment security, subsequent maternal sensitivity, and later child development: does continuity in development depend upon continuity of caregiving?

In order to test the hypothesis (1) that the most competent 3-year-olds would be those with histories of secure attachment (at 15 months) who subsequently experienced (relatively) high-sensitive mothering (at 24 months), (2) that the least competent children would be those with histories of insecure attachment who subsequently experienced (relatively) low-sensitive mothering, and (3) that those with mixed or inconsistent attachment-sensitivity histories would fall in between, data gathered as part of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care were examined. A-priori tests supported the hypothesis in the case of all five developmental outcomes examined (problem behavior, social competence, expressive language, receptive language, school readiness), though group means did not always rank in the predicted direction. Further planned comparisons of children with mixed attachment-sensitivity histories revealed that, in the case of all outcomes, insecurely attached children who subsequently experienced high-sensitive mothering significantly outperformed secure children who subsequently experienced low-sensitive mothering. Follow-up analyses highlighted the role of maternal and family stress in accounting for why some infants who were classified as secure at 15 months experienced low-sensitive mothering at 24 months and why some infants classified as insecure subsequently experienced high-sensitive mothering. Results are discussed with regard to the role of early experience in shaping development.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The importance of shared environment in mother-infant attachment security: a behavioral genetic study.

In a sample of 157 monozygotic and dizygotic twins, genetic and environmental influences on infant attachment and temperament were quantified. Only unique environmental or error components could explain the variance in disorganized versus organized attachment as assessed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure. For secure versus nonsecure attachment, 52% of the variance in attachment security was explained by shared environment, and 48% of the variance was explained by unique environmental factors and measurement error. The role of genetic factors in attachment disorganization and attachment security was negligible. Genetic factors explained 77% of the variance in temperamental reactivity, and unique environmental factors and measurement error explained 23%. Differences in temperamental reactivity were not associated with attachment concordance.

Female↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Attachment and attention: protection in relation to gender and cumulative social-contextual adversity.

Data from 918 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care were examined to test the interrelation of attachment and attentional performance and 2 known risks for poor attentional performance: male gender and social-contextual adversity. Attachment was measured using the Strange Situation at 15 months, attentional performance by a Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and maternal questionnaires at 54 months, and social-contextual adversity by a variety of measures from birth to 54 months. Findings indicated (a) that children with secure attachment were less susceptible to the effects of cumulative risk and gender on CPT attentional performance than their insecure counterparts and that (b) no such differential risk susceptibility was evident for maternal reports of attention-related behavior problems.

Affect↗