ABSTRACT
In a series of recent studies, behaviour-based assessments of individual differences in the infant’s response to separation from and reunion with the parent in the Ainsworth Strange Situation (Ainsworth et al. 1978) have been compared with individual differences in both the parent’s representations of his or her attachment history, and the child’s later representations of attachment-related situations. These studies (e.g. Main et al. 1985) have shown significant relations between the quality of the infant’s attachment to the parent (secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent, insecuredisorganized/disoriented) and (1) the adult’s reconstruction of his or her attachment history, as well as (2) the child’s later representation of self and others.
