Aims are to examine the role played by primary attachment relationships in the socioemotional adjustment and psychological well-begin of preschoolers living in poverty. The role played by attachment in the preschool years is just beginning to receive focused empirical and theoretical attention, as is the development of children from low-income backgrounds. This investigation also is unique in that it explores attachment relationships among a large sample of African American and Caucasian preschoolers. Attachment among African Americans has been largely ignored by previous researchers, and questions have been raised by theorists that attachment may not be a culturally valid construct for understanding the socioemotional development of African American children. One-hundred-fifty, 4 year olds and their primary caregivers will be the participants in this investigation. Children will be recruited from Head Start programs in the city of Detroit. Assessments of child functioning will be collected in the children's salient environments: home and classroom. To permit standardized conditions for video and psychophysiological recording, preschoolers also will be assessed in the laboratory. Data on home environment, child caregiving, parental stress, social support, coping, child temperament, IQ, attachment, emotion regulation, behavior regulation, and social skills will be gathered. When possible, efforts will be made to gather data from multiple informants (e.g., parents, teachers, observers). Children's quality of attachment is expected to be significantly related to caregiver well-being and sensitivity, but non-significantly related to child temperament and intelligence. Children's quality of attachment is expected to be significantly related to the children's emotional and behavioral regulation as well as to the children's social skills. Statistical relations between attachment, parenting, and child functioning are not expected to vary as a function of racial background.
