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This paper describes the evolution of Ainsworth's construct of maternal sensitivity-insensitivity to infant signals from its beginnings in her research in Uganda to its explicit emergence in the findings from the Baltimore study. It provides an analysis of her bipolar Maternal Care Scales (Sensivity-Insensitivity, Cooperation-Interference, Acceptance-Rejection, and Accessibility-Ignoring and Neglecting) and associated findings from the Baltimore study, including studies of specific maternal and infant interactive behaviors also rooted in the sensitivity construct. In addition, the four Maternal Care ratings of observed maternal behavior in the home environment are considered in relation to Strange Situation subgroups and Ainsworth's home classifications of infant attachment and exploratory behavior. A brief comparison of Ainworth's with Bowlby's contributions follows. The paper ends with a discussion of Ainsworth's approach to science.

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Three related hypotheses derived from attachment theory were examined in this multi-informant and multi-method study of 71 postdivorce mothers and their preschool children (40 boys, 31 girls): (1) mother-child interactions observed at home will be related to attachment-related representations by children (Attachment Story Completion Task or ASCT) and mothers (Parent Attachment Interview or PAI); and (2) these variables will be inversely correlated with maternal depressive symptoms and positively with social support (from mother's parents and the child's father); and (3) mother-child observations and representations will predict teacher-rated peer behavior. Where appropriate, child gender, maternal income, and child receptive language were statistically controlled. More harmonious observed mother-child interactions were associated with children's sense of self-worth in family relationships (ASCT) and maternal accounts of sensitive-effective guidance (PAI). Observational and representational variables were inversely correlated with maternal depressive symptoms. Mothers' satisfaction with social support from their parents was indirectly linked to the family variables while social support from the child's father had no measurable effect on the mother-child variables. Mother-child variables and teacher ratings were uncorrelated but explained independent variance in ASCT self-worth scores.

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This commentary has two parts. In the first part I highlight major theoretical issues raised by the two integrative articles, adding my own perspective and interpretations. Next I discuss selected findings from the two intervention programs designed to enhance infant-mother attachment in prison- and jail-diversion nurseries and the multi-informant interview study of children's, caregivers', and mentors' comments about an incarcerated parent. I offer some additional background, queries, and what I hope to be clarifications. In the second part of this commentary, I reflect on ways in which theory and findings presented in this special issue might inform future intervention research on children of incarcerated parents and their families, briefly touching on issues related to recruitment of participants, research design, and qualitative and quantitative measures, as well as required conceptual innovations, social policy, and advocacy.

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Studies of infant-father attachment and other aspects of father-child relationships burgeoned during the 1980s and 90s, in step with new expectations for greater father participation in childrearing, but less is known about how involved fathers experience themselves as attachment figures, socialization agents, and playmates/companions of their young children. In an attempt to investigate these topics from a relationship perspective, we administered the Parent Attachment Interview (PAI) to 49 married fathers from dual career families who, based on current literature, were expected to be active participants in caring for and interacting with their preschool children. The 22 open-ended PAI questions were designed to probe fathers' thoughts and feelings about parent-child attachment, but also elicited extensive descriptions of other aspects of fathering, including socialization and companionship. In addition, fathers reflected on similarities and differences between the father- and mother-child relationships, and these accounts were compared with corresponding discussions by their wives. Among new issues raised by the study were the role of affection in attachment relationships, evidence for the attachment hierarchy construct, issues of parental self-control in relation to discipline, conceptual overlaps between attachment and other aspects of parenting, and the diverse meanings of father-mother differences and disagreements in the three domains of parenting addressed in this study.

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Marvin and Stewart and Byng-Hall proposed that effective family collaboration requires family members to construct "shared family working models," and that the renegotiation of these working models during family transitions is facilitated by family members' "interactional awareness" (ability to be perceptive observers of family relationships). We apply these constructs to data collected from 71 mothers and their 4.5- to 5.0-year-old preschool children, 2 years after parental divorce. Maternal representations of the father as coparent and ex-spouse, and of father- and mother-child relationships were assessed via two interviews. A family story completion task captured child representations of mother-child and father-child, coparental and ex-spousal interactions. Maternal accounts of mother-child conversations illustrated the negotiation of shared working models. Primarily qualitative analyses contrasting maternal and child perspectives are presented in the first section. Then we use regression analyses to predict children's story themes from maternal representations of flexible, sensitive, and effective discipline-related interactions; maternal depressive symptoms; and perception of the child's father. Finally, we identify gender differences in children's enactments of divorce-related and child-empathy themes. We conclude by considering how our findings could be used to assist post-divorce families in constructing shared rather than conflicting working models of family relations.

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In the present article on intergenerational transmission of attachment representations, we use mothers' and fathers' Adult Attachment Interview classifications to predict a 3-year-old's responses to the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT). We present a Q-sort coding procedure for the ASCT, which was developed for children as young as three. The Q-sort yields scores on four attachment dimensions (security, deactivation, hyperactivation, and disorganization). One-way ANOVAs revealed significant mother-child associations for each dimension, although results for the hyperactivation and disorganization dimensions were significant only according to contrast tests. Conversely, no father-child association was found, regardless of the dimension considered. Findings are discussed in terms of the respective part played by each parent in their children's emotional development.

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