ABSTRACT
Myriad nuances texture everyday interactions between caretakers and babies. Evaluating how categories of caretaker interactions influence human development points to the need to recognize a multivariate model of growth that specifies the nature of the interactions themselves, their developmental timing and statistical conditionally, as well as their specific outcomes. The multivariate nature of interaction effects consisting of different categories of interaction acting alone or in concert with one another and with the developmental status of the child research confirms that caretaking effects do not generalize widely. More often, specific modes of interaction tend to yield specific developmental outcomes. The long-term stability or instability of caretaking cannot be determined, however, until measurement reliability is distinguished from behavioral stability; for this reason, the psychometric criteria of internal consistency, orthogonality, and reliability are doubly important. Nonetheless, several studies document stability of maternal behavior over longer periods. Just as some modes of caretaking may never influence cognitive growth.
