Attachment for infants in foster care: The role of caregiver state of mind

The concordance between foster mothers' attachment state of mind and foster infants' attachment quality was examined for 50 foster mother-infant dyads . Babies had been placed into the care of their foster mothers between birt h and 20 months of age. Attachment quality was assessed between 12 and 24 m onths of age, at least 3 months after the infants' placement into foster ca re. The two-way correspondence between maternal state of mind and infant at tachment quality was 72%, kappa = .43, similar to the level seen among biol ogically intact mother-infant dyads. Contrary to expectations, age at place ment was not related to attachment quality. Rather, concordance between mat ernal state of mind and infant attachment was seen for relatively late-plac ed babies, as well as early placed babies. These findings have two major im plications. First, following a disruption in care during the first year and a half of life, babies appear capable of organizing their behavior around the availability of new caregivers. Second, these data argue for a nongenet ic mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of attachment.