Thomas and Chess did not look at children’s attachment security, but the goodness of fit model suggests that temperament and caregiving should interact in determin- ing the quality of a child’s attachment relationships. The relationship of tempera- ment to attachment was once a contentious issue both for researchers and clinicians.
Researchers Thomas and Chess (1977)
identified three consistent temperamental patterns based on a set of typical behavioral traits shown in infants. How might the effectiveness of caregiving behaviors be different for children with each temperament?
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Neither of these extreme views accounts for the full complement of research findings, however. A multidimensional view, such as Thomas and Chess’s goodness of fit model, seems to best explain the available evidence: Temperament and sen- sitivity of care (both also influenced by other variables) interact at several levels to produce attachment security.
Let’s consider what some of these complex interactive processes are. First, as we have seen, infants whose mothers are more sensitive and responsive in early infancy are likely to make better progress on emotion regulation. For infants who are highly reactive, developing emotion regulation skills is especially important and can mitigate the effects of their reactivity, helping them to be calmer overall. This in turn may help caregivers to continue to be more responsive (see Ursache, Blair, Stifter, & Voegtline, 2012). Second, however, highly reactive infants tax caregivers more. It is simply more difficult to provide sensitive, responsive care to an infant who has these temperamental traits. Caregivers of difficult infants may themselves become more distressed and unsup- portive over time. Without adequate caregiver support, these infants are less likely than others to show strong development in emotion regulation, making them increasingly more challenging to care for as they grow. Imagine caring for a newborn who cries more than others or trying to manage a toddler who cannot moderate his reaction to any frustration (see Bridgett et al., 2009; Crockenberg, Leerkes, & Bárrig Jó, 2008). Third, some mothers are more likely than others to be able to respond sensitively to difficult infants. These include mothers with few other stressors to deal with, mothers with lots of external supports, mothers who are secure and adaptable (e.g., Mangelsdorf, Gunnar, Kestenbaum, Lang, & Andreas, 1990; Cassidy, Woodhouse, Sherman, Stupica, & Lejuez, 2011). Overall then, temperament traits are linked to the formation of secure versus in- secure attachments by the end of the first year, but their effects are largely the result of their influence on the quality of caregiving that infants are likely to experience (Vaughn, Bost, & van IJzendoorn, 2008).
Second, specific temperamental characteristics seem to affect the kind of inse- cure attachment that forms. In a classic study, Kochanska (1998) measured infants’ fearfulness (comparable to Kagan’s behavioral inhibition) and mothers’ responsive- ness when babies were 8 to 10 months and when they were 13 to 15 months. She measured attachment security with the strange situation test at the later time as well. Maternal responsiveness predicted whether babies would be securely or insecurely attached. But for insecurely attached infants, fearfulness predicted the type of inse- curity. More fearful infants tended to be ambivalent; less fearful babies were more often avoidant. Even the tone of secure attachment behavior was related to the babies’ fearfulness, with more fearful babies more highly aroused in the separation and reunion episodes.
Finally, temperamental traits seem to make infants differentially susceptible to both optimal and nonoptimal care in the formation of attachments. Reactive, irritable infants seem to be both more vulnerable to low quality care, and more benefitted by supportive care, than babies with easier temperaments.
Two studies designed to improve infants’ chances of forming a secure attach- ment illustrate many of the interactive processes at play between temperament and caregiving. van den Boom (1994) was able to demonstrate that caregiving actually plays a causal role in attachment security, especially with children at the more diffi- cult temperamental extreme. In a U.S. sample of low-income families, van den Boom identified a group of one hundred 1- to 2-week-olds who were assessed as highly “irritable.” The author assigned half of the infants to a treatment condition in which
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In the second study, Cassidy and her colleagues (2011) identified both very irritable and less irritable infants in a low income sample of families. As in the van den Boom study, half of the mothers were trained to be more accepting of their infants’ temperaments and to provide more sensitive care, and half were part of a control condition where no such training was given. Infants whose mothers received the training were more securely attached by the end of their first year. However, there was clear evidence of differential susceptibility: Only the more irritable infants in the treatment group seemed to benefit from the more sensitive parenting; less irritable in- fants showed few effects. Also, the mothers’ personality characteristics mattered. Only mothers who were more secure (rather than more fearful) in the treatment condition seemed to be able to profit from the training, and it was their infants who were most likely to benefit. It appears that helpers who aim to improve the trajectory of infants’ early socioemotional development would be wise to be mindful of a broad range of caregiver characteristics and needs in devising family interventions.