New research supports the universality of maternal sensitivity in shaping child attachment

New research supports the universality of maternal sensitivity in shaping child attachment

A new study published in Child Development provides the strongest longitudinal evidence to date that sensitive caregiving in early life predicts children’s attachment security in China, a country with cultural traditions and parenting styles often seen as different from those in the West. Drawing from a nine-year study of over 350 mother-child pairs in Nanjing, researchers found that maternal sensitivity in infancy was associated with children’s…