Twenty premature and 20 fullterm infants participated in study of stranger sociability and infant-mother attachment. The preterms were born 4-10 weeks early and had a mean birth weight of 1990 grams. The two groups of infants did not differ on variables such as SES or time between hospital discharge and laboratory assessment. Stranger sociability was assessed in the Stevenson and Lamb (1979) procedure, and security of attachment in the Strange Situation (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969). Mothers also completed questionnaires on child-rearing attitudes, perinatal anxiety, and infant temperament. Results showed that birth status was unrelated to both attachment and sociability. Securely attached infants were more sociable, however, and were perceived as more "easy" than insecurely attached infants. Difficult infants were less sociable than infants perceived as easy.
It is well established that premature birth places an infant at risk in multiple ways. Prematurity is associated with medical hazards,' cognitive deficits,2 bonding failure^,^ parenting problems and child abuse4s5. Sameroff and Chandler,6 however, stressed that most facets of development, including socioemotional development, are bior multidirectional and that this process of mutual influence begins at a very early age. In their review of long-term effects of prematurity they concluded that early difficulties are often overcome, but suboptimal circumstances within the caretaking environment may help sustain them. For instance, inexperienced or unprepared mothers may limit the quality of the caretaking environment.
Although there are exceptions ,'s8 some studies involving premature infants have concluded that despite early difficulties these babies typically ''bounce back" and later become indistinguishable from those born at term.g