Parent—Infant Interaction, Attachment, and Socioemotional Development in Infancy

Abstract

Perhaps the most dramatic and significant event occurring during the first year of life is the formation of social attachments. Infantile attachments constitute the first social relationships, crown a rapid phase of emergent social understanding, and appear to have long-term implications for the individual's personality development. In this chapter, I review recent evidence concerning the development of parent---infant attachments in the first year of life. Then I present a perspective on the manner in which the formation of attachments and individual differences can be interpreted. Finally, I discuss evidence concerning the long-term implications of individual differences in the quality of infant---parent attachments.