Quality of Attachment in a Sample of 1‐Year‐Old Australian Children

Abstract

Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure was used to assess attachment in 134 mother-infant pairs in an Australian nonclinical sample. Seventy percent of the infants were rated as securely attached at 1 year of age. The mothers were primiparas classified according to their trait anxiety level, into high-, moderate-, and low-anxiety groups. Interventions designed to lower anxiety were offered for 12 months to two subgroups of the high-anxiety mothers. The hypotheses that (1) high-anxiety mothers would have anxiously attached infants and (2) lowering of the mother's (state) anxiety level would result in more secure infant attachment, were not upheld.