ABSTRACT This research will examine the nature of parents' "working models" of attachment and their impact upon parents' caregiving patterns and upon their children's developing social-emotional competence. Working models are defined as cognitive and affective representations based on parents' current conceptions of their childhood relationships with their own parents. These models guide parents' strategies for accessing and organizing information about ttachment-related experiences, and thereby influence their overall quality of child care. This project will explore: 1) the stability of parents' working models over time, and links between parents' working models and their personality characteristics; 2) how working models forecast particular patterns of parent-child interactions; and 3) how working models and caregiving patterns affect children's developing social- emotional competence. Mothers' and fathers' models of attachment will be assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview prenatally, and when their firstborn is 24-months old. Measures of both parents' personality characteristics will be obtained prenatally to see how they relate to their working models. Caregiving quality will be assessed by videotaping parent-child interactions when the child is 8 and 24 months old. Finally, children's social emotional competence will be examined by assessing attachment security in infancy and autonomy in problem-solving in toddlerhood.
