Caregiver sensitivity, contingent social responsiveness, and secure infant attachment.

A World Health Organization report (e.g., Richter, 2004) on the importance of caregiver-child relationships as a context for the growth and development of young children throughout the world noted that: Sensitive and responsive caregiving is a requirement for the healthy neurophysiological, physical and psychological development of a child. Sensitivity and responsiveness have been identified as key features of caregiving behavior related to later positive health and development outcomes in young children. (p. 1) One of the developmental consequences of sensitive and responsive caregiving is secure infant/adult attachment (Bowlby, 1988). Secure attachment is generally understood to be an affectional bond between an infant and an adult caregiver (1) that has two elements: (1) the infant seeking out the attachment figure in times of distress and need and (2) the infant having the ability and confidence to engage in activities separate from the attachment figure (Ainsworth, 1989). The development of the attachment relationship is recognized as one of the most important aspects of human social and emotional development (e.g., Lamb, Ketterlinus, & Fracasso, 1992). This is the case, in part, because secure attachment has been found to be related to enhanced cognitive, social, and emotional development throughout childhood and early adolescence (Bukatko & Daehler, 2001; Fagot & Kavanagh, 1993; Hazen & Durrett, 1982; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978; Sroufe, Egeland, & Kreutzer, 1990). Many theories as well as variations of theories have been posited for explaining the sources and consequences of secure infant attachment (see e.g., Cassidy & Shaver, 1999; Egeland & Erickson, 1993). John Bowlby (1969) is credited with the original formulation of attachment theory, and Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969) is credited with highlighting the importance of caregiver sensitivity as a determinant of secure attachment. Gewirtz and his colleagues proposed a behavioral, or operant learning analysis, perspective of secure infant attachment that considers caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness as having reinforcement properties and infants' responses to caregivers' behavior as having differential consequences on caregivers' reactions (e.g., Gewirtz, 1972a, 1991; Gewirtz & Boyd, 1977; Gewirtz & Pelaez-Nogueras, 1991). According to Gewirtz, attachment is parsimoniously explained by the fact that child behavior is cued and reinforced by caregiver responses and may have either positive or negative effects on child behavior that in turn is directed toward the caregiver (e.g., type of attachment). In Gewirtz's (1991) own words, "the dyadic functional relations between the cue and reinforcing stimuli from the attachment figure/object person and the child's responses they control that connote attachment of the child to the attachment figure may occur in any segment of life from infancy onward" (p. 250). The purposes of this article are to summarize findings from: (a) two practice-based research syntheses of the relationships between caregiver sensitivity and secure infant attachment (Kassow & Dunst, 2004, 2005) and (b) one practice-based research synthesis of interventions for strengthening caregiver sensitivity to child behavior (Dunst & Kassow, 2004). A practice-based research synthesis involves the review and integration of research evidence where the focus of investigation is the same or similar environmental (intervention) characteristics and how variations in the characteristics are related to variations in consequences of the different events or experiences. These kinds of research syntheses differ from more traditional research reviews and syntheses by disentangling and unpacking what matters most in terms of explaining the relationship(s) between different environmental experiences and their consequences (Dunst, 2007; Dunst, Trivette, & Cutspec, 2002). …