This research will examine the organization and correlates of child-parent attachment in children with cerebral palsy or myelomeningocele and controls matched for mental age. Data collection and reduction procedures developed for the study of attachment in normal children often are not appropriate for motorically impaired children. Pilot work yielded modified procedures which are appropriate for these children. The long-term objective of the project is to demonstrate that attachment research, when appropriately modified for use with these samples, will aid significantly in understanding and predicting differential degrees of personal and social competence in very young children with physical handicaps. Ultimately the results of this project will translate into methods for assessing parent- child relationships in handicapped children, and implications for identifying and intervening with dyads and families at risk. In this laboratory-based, four-year, cross-sectional study, data will be collected on samples of children with moderate to severe cerebral palsy, with myelomeningocele and with no motor impairments. Multiple measures will be obtained in the areas of: a) child attachment, b) adult caregiver attachment, c) parent-child interaction, d) child developmental status, d) child competence and self reliance, and e) family and social ecology. Relations will be examined among child-caregiver outcomes (attachment classifications), child outcomes (self reliance and competence) and the remaining variables.
