Sensitivity and Attachment: A Meta-Analysis on Parental Antecedents of Infant Attachment
This is the meta-analysis that tested attachment theory's central causal claim: that a caregiver's sensitivity, meaning the ability to notice an infant's signals, read them correctly and respond promptly and appropriately, is what produces a secure attachment. Pooling the studies that had measured both, it found sensitivity associated with security, at a size smaller than the theory's strongest statements imply, which is the finding usually summarised as sensitivity being important but not the whole story. The gap it opened, between what sensitivity explains and what remains unexplained, shaped the next two decades of the field, including the intervention studies which showed that improving sensitivity does improve security, and the behavioural genetic work finding shared environment rather than genes behind it. Written without an abstract, from the title and public accounts of the concept.
This is the meta-analysis that tested attachment theory's central causal claim: that a caregiver's sensitivity, meaning the ability to notice an infant's signals, read them correctly and respond promptly and appropriately, is what produces a secure attachment. Pooling the studies that had measured both, it found sensitivity associated with security, at a size smaller than the theory's strongest statements imply, which is the finding usually summarised as sensitivity being important but not the whole story. The gap it opened, between what sensitivity explains and what remains unexplained, shaped the next two decades of the field, including the intervention studies which showed that improving sensitivity does improve security, and the behavioural genetic work finding shared environment rather than genes behind it. Written without an abstract, from the title and public accounts of the concept.
Written from the the paper's title and public accounts of the concept it tested.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
De Wolff, M. S., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1997). 'Sensitivity and attachment: a meta-analysis on parental antecedents of infant attachment.' Child Development, 68(4), 571-591. In the 21 studies using the Strange Situation with observational sensitivity measures in non-clinical samples, N = 1,099, the combined effect after correction for attenuation was r = .24, about 6 per cent of the variance. The authors describe it as moderately strong and as an important but not exclusive condition.
Where we use it
- What the Crib Actually Decides, Why We Care
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.2307/1132107
DOI: 10.2307/1132107