Attachment and temperament in early childhood; Implications for later behavior problems

In the context of a French validation study, the Child Behavior Checklist ( CBCL) was administered to more than 3000 French speaking mothers of 5-year- old children. Scores were factor-analyzed. Principal components analysis re vealed four dimensions: externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, immaturity and somatoform disorders. Another sample of 40 mothers participa ted in a longitudinal study, filling in the CBCL when their children were 5 years old. These children had been observed previously in the Strange Situ ation (SSP) at 21 months. Several dichotomous variables derived from the SS P (e.g. secure versus insecure, proximal versus distal interaction with the mother, avoidant behavior) have been used as predictors of the four dimens ions extracted from the CBCL. Hierarchical regressions showed that proximal behaviors with the mother, which reflect temperamental characteristics ind ependently of the quality of attachment, predicted internalizing problems, whereas avoidance of the mother, or insecure-avoidant attachment, predicted internalizing as well as externalizing problems at 5 years of age. These r esults show that attachment and temperament, as assessed by the SSP, may ea ch have specific implications for later behavior problems. Copyright (C) 20 00 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.