This project currently encompasses four areas of investigation based on several different samples with a total of approximately 200 families as participants. All studies were conducted with middle class families and first-born infants. The focal period of current research is from early infancy through the first two and a half years of life. Procedures vary with each sample, but include observations of mother-infant and father-infant interaction in the natural home environment, structured interactions in the laboratory, interviews, and questionnaires. The first area of inquiry concerns the effects of maternal workforce participation on the child's early experiences. Structured laboratory observations of mother-toddler play were conducted to test hypotheses related to previous findings that when negative consequences have been reported for children of employed mothers, these tend to occur for males. A second inquiry focused upon naturally occurring mother-infant separation experiences. In a sample of employed mothers, amount of mother-infant separation was not related to a secure/insecure attachment. Continuity of substitute care during separations, however, was related to quality of attachment. A third area of inquiry is concerned with the father's role in the family. Follow-up observations of father-infant interaction at 1 year of age were analyzed for two groups of men who at 3-months evidenced contrasting affective reactions to parenthood and had distinctive patterns of involvement with their infants. The fourth area of inquiry concerns 3-person interactions, the mutual regulation of visual, vocal, proximitiy, and contact behavior of mothers, fathers, and infants. Patterns of behavior are being examined that vary depending upon the parents' psychological accessibility to the child and their degree of verbal engagement with one another.
