The Antecedents and Enduring Significance of Early Attachment Experiences

Despite the great intellectual, political, and economic investment in the idea that early interpersonal experiences with primary caregivers represent profound and lasting influences on developing children, some scholars continue to assert in highly influential volumes that the first few years of life are either inconsequential or held in undue high regard (see Bruer, 2002, Kagan, 1996; Lewis, 1997). To be sure, it is well established that children who share higher quality relationships with their parents (e.g., a secure attachment in infancy) appear to be at a developmental advantage, particularly in their early lives. However, the proposed work is the first to employ statistical models that were explicitly designed to examine whether early experiences show enduring (rather than merely short-lived or transient) effects on subsequent social and cognitive functioning over the long-term. The researchers also plan to address, using a genetically sensitive research design, a related question of whether the quality of early experiences with caregivers is influenced by genetic differences among children.

The current proposal includes three studies to address these important issues. First, the researchers will complete a key quantitative assessment (i.e., meta-analysis) of the last thirty years of empirical research on attachment security that can be used to (a) determine whether early experiences with caregivers leave an enduring or merely transient mark on development, and in what domains, and (b) identify gaps in the literature to be addressed in the next generation of empirical research in this area. Second, the studies will follow-up a previous meta-analytic assessment with a secondary analysis of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development dataset designed to (a) attempt replication of evidence that interpersonal experiences in the first three years of life have enduring implications for youth through age 15 in the domains of social and cognitive functioning and (b) examine potential moderators (e.g., contextual risk and molecular genetic polymorphisms that have been demonstrated to heighten individuals' sensitivity to environmental inputs) and mediators (e.g., subsequent caregiving experiences and parental intelligence) of enduring effects of early experiences, should they be identified. The identification of moderators will allow the investigators to pinpoint for whom effects of early experiences are most profound and enduring. The identification of mediators will provide information about the mechanisms by which early experiences have lasting impacts on developing children. Finally, using behavior-genetic analyses that make use of the twin sub-sample from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort dataset, the researchers will take an important step in accurately characterizing the origins of infant attachment security as a product of early social experiences per se or as genetic differences between children reflected in their early interpersonal behavior. Taken together, this work has the potential to comprehensively describe the origins, magnitude, pervasiveness, and enduring vs. transient significance of early relationship experiences, questions at the heart of developmental theory and much public policy.