Attachment and Dependency in Developmental Perspective

SROUFE, L. ALAN; FOX, NANCY E.; and PANCAKE, VAN R. Attachment and Dependency in Developmental Perspective. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1983, 54, 1615-1627. In the past 15 years, a major advance in the study of early social development has been the conceptual distinction between attachment (the relationship between infant and caregiver) and dependency (the reliance of the child on adults for nurturance, attention, or assistance). Having made this distinction, it is possible to ask questions anew concerning the relationship between infant-caregiver relations and later overdependency of the child. In this study such a tie was examined by assessing children with varying attachment histories in a preschool setting. It was found that groups of children classified at 12 and 18 months as avoidant (Ainsworth Group A) and resistant (Ainsworth Group C) both were highly dependent in the preschool, based on teacher ratings, rankings and Q sorts, observed physical contact seeking, and observed guidance and discipline received from teachers. Children who had been securely attached (Group B) were significantly lower on all these measures and significantly higher on seeking attention in positive ways. The high dependency of both anxiously attached groups, despite their differences in manifest behavior in the attachment assessments, suggests that the roots of overdependency lie in the quality of the early infant-caregiver relationship.