ABSTRACT
We begin this chapter with the premise that a high-quality motherinfant relationship is central to a child’s healthy development. It is within this first intimate relationship that a child begins to develop a foundation of security, learns to regulate emotion, masters basic language and cognitive concepts, and establishes relational patterns that are carried forward into later stages of development (Erickson, Egeland, & Sroufe, 1985; Erickson, Korfmacher, & Egeland, 1992; Sroufe & Fleeson, 1986). For this reason, understanding the forces that support or hinder the formation of high-quality mother-infant relationships is key to our ability to promote healthy child development.
