Infant-care provider attachments in contrasting child care settings I: Group-oriented care before German reunification

Before the reunification of Germany, East German child care authorities instructed care providers to foster peer interactions. We investigated the extent to which group-level (empathy, punitiveness, dedication, and permissiveness) and dyadic-level (attentiveness and responsiveness) measures of the care providers' behavior predicted the security of infant-care provider attachment. In 1987-1989, 40 German 11-to 13-month-olds were observed 1 to 2 days, 2 to 4 weeks, acid 3 to 4 months after entry into child care. In Month 5, infants were also seen in the Strange Situation with their primary care providers. Insecure infant-care provider attachments, including high levels of disorganized behavior, were quite common, suggesting that many infants received inadequate care, Secure infant-care provider attachments were best predicted by measures of the care providers' empathy, whereas dyadic-level measures of the care providers' behaviors were not predictive. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc, All rights reserved.