Individual Differences in Infant-Mother Attachment Relationships at Age One: Antecedents in Neonatal Behavior in an Urban, Economically Disadvantaged Sample

Abstract

Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scales (NBAS) were administered to 100 neonates at 7 and 10 days after birth. The infants and their mothers were subsequently observed in the Ainsworth and Wittig strange-situation procedure at age 1. Infants were classified as secure, anxious/avoidant, or anxious/resistant. When compared with the secure attachment group, anxious/resistant infants scored lower on orientation, motor maturity, and regulation items at day 7. The secure and anxious/avoidant subjects did not differ at day 7. The anxious/resistant group improved from day 7 to day 10, and neither anxious group differed from the secure group on the second examination. The results suggest that early neonatal difficulties may reflect probelms in integrative and adaptive mechanisms which continue to influence behavior, interaction, and eventually attachment relationships, despite the tendency of all normal infants eventually to meet the demands of the neonatal period. In view of the resiliency of neonatal behavior, it is assumed that neonatal difficulties must interact with difficult environments to produce anxious attachments.