1 Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine.
2 Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, Texas.
Psychol Sci. 2017 Dec;28(12):1786-1795. doi: 10.1177/0956797617721271. Epub 2017 Oct 12.
A child's attachment to his or her caregiver is central to the child's development. However, current understanding of subtle, indirect, and complex long-term influences of attachment on various areas of functioning remains incomplete. Research has shown that (a) parent-child attachment influences the development of effortful control and that (b) effortful control influences academic success. The entire developmental cascade among these three constructs over many years, however, has rarely been examined. This article reports a multimethod, decade-long study that examined the influence of mother-child attachment and effortful control in toddlerhood on school achievement in early adolescence. Both attachment security and effortful control uniquely predicted academic achievement a decade later. Effortful control mediated the association between early attachment and school achievement during adolescence. This work suggests that attachment security triggers an adaptive cascade by promoting effortful control, a vital set of skills necessary for future academic success.
儿童对其照顾者的依恋是其发展的核心。然而，目前对于依恋对各种功能领域的微妙、间接和复杂的长期影响的理解还不完整。研究表明：(a) 亲子依恋影响努力控制的发展，以及 (b) 努力控制影响学业成功。然而，这些三个结构在多年间的整个发展级联很少被检验。本文报告了一项使用多种方法、历时十年的研究，该研究考察了幼儿期母子依恋和努力控制对青少年早期学业成绩的影响。安全性依恋和努力控制都可以独特地预测十年后的学业成绩。努力控制在青少年时期早期依恋和学业成绩之间的关系中起中介作用。这项工作表明，安全性依恋通过促进努力控制引发适应性级联，而努力控制是未来学业成功所必需的重要技能。
