SENSITIVITY AND ATTACHMENT - A METAANALYSIS ON PARENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF INFANT ATTACHMENT

This meta-analysis included 66 studies (N = 4,176) on parental anteced ents of attachment security. The question addressed was whether matern al sensitivity is associated with infant attachment security, and what the strength of this relation is. It was hypothesized that studies mo re similar to Ainsworth's Baltimore study (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) would show stronger associations than studies diverging from this pioneering study. To create conceptually homogeneous sets of studies, experts divided the studies into 9 groups with similar const ructs and measures of parenting. For each domain, a meta-analysis was performed to describe the central tendency, variability, and relevant moderators. After correction for attenuation, the 21 studies (N = 1,09 9) in which the Strange Situation procedure in nonclinical samples was used, as well as preceding or concurrent observational sensitivity me asures, showed a combined effect size of r(1,097) = .24. According to Cohen's (1988) conventional criteria, the association is moderately st rong. It is concluded that in normal settings sensitivity is an import ant but not exclusive condition of attachment security. Several other dimensions of parenting are identified as playing an equally important role. In attachment theory, a move to the contextual level is require d to interpret the complex transactions between context and sensitivit y in less stable and more stressful settings, and to pay more attentio n to nonshared environmental influences.