ABSTRACT
Twenty years ago, Susan Crockenberg (1981) charted new and important territory for researchers studying the interplay of child and family factors in development when she reported that social support was the best predictor of secure infant attachment among the participants in her study-particularly among mothers of irritable babies. Unfortunately, as attested to by Crockenberg and Leerkes (this volume), progress has been quite limited since the time of that 1981 report. Thus, they strive to nudge us forward again, and do a much more thorough job of localizing the effects of infant temperament within the broader system of the family than has been the case in most previous reports. Appropriately perhaps, their review mirrors the state of the field-focusing principally on mothers and infants, but giving some thoughtful attention to father-infant, marital, and coparenting dynamics as well.
