Attachment Security of 12 Month Old Korean Infants: Relations with Maternal Sensitivity and Infants’ Temperament

Abstract

Maternal sensitivity and infant temperament were studied in relation to infant attachment security. Subjects were 47 one‐year‐old Korean infants and their mothers from intact upper‐middle class families. Mothers sorted the Attachment Q‐set (Waters, 1987, version 3.0) and filled out the Toddler Temperament Questionnaire (Chun, 1992). Maternal sensitivity was observed in the home for two 3‐hour sessions, and observers completed the Maternal Behavior Q‐set (Pederson, Moran et al., 1990). Mean attachment security score of the infants, using criterion scores developed with Korean infants, was .42, which is comparable to previous studies. During home observations, infants who were securely attached to mothers showed more secure‐base behaviors and compliance, enjoyed physical contact, and showed fewer fussy/difficult behaviors with mothers. Mothers of girls were observed to be more sensitive to their infants’ signals than mothers of boys. Maternal sensitivity scores were not related to infant security scores. However, boys of sensitive mothers were less compliant compared with boys of insensitive mothers. Infants’ threshold of responsiveness was related to infants’ attachment security scores. Infants’ temperamental characteristics were not associated with maternal sensitivity.