The Relationship of Preterm Infant-Mother Attachment to Stranger Sociability at 3 Years

This study tested the relationship between preterm infant-mother attachment patterns and sociability of 3-year-old children with an unfamiliar female adult. The subjects in the study (N=48) were part of a longitudinal investigation of the developmental sequeloe of high-risk preterm birth. Results supported the study’s motor hypotheses that 3.year-olds’ behaviors and affective states vary in occordance with the degree of a stronger’s intrusiveness, ond thot security of ottachment is reloted to stranger sociability. However, by oge 3. the preterm risk stotus of these children was not strongly associated with differences in patterns of stronger sociability. nor were there reliable sociability differences between children with anxious-ovoidant (“A”) or anxious-resistant (“C”) attachment relotionships. In short, this study showed thot patterns of children’s behovior in the presence of a stranger were associated with their security of attachment OS meosured in the second year of life. Moreover, it wos the quality of attachment--not early risk stotus-that reliably predicted sociability with a stronger.