Mental representations of attachment of 31 day-care providers were assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and compared with established observational measures of their behavior with the children under their care. Contrary to expectation, there was no significant association between the caregivers' mental representations of attachment and their observed behavior. Teacher-report ratings of aggressive behavior were obtained for 135 children who had been under the care of these providers. Ten of the 13 children who scored in the clinical range for aggressive behavior were known to have been under the care of a provider with a secure mental representation of attachment for an extended period of time (average 14 months), but the average age of first exposure to such a provider in this study was 16 months. For center-based day-care providers, standardized observational assessments of caregiving behavior appear to be unrelated to mental representations of attachment. Children who, during the second year of life, were cared for by providers with secure mental representations of attachment were not necessarily protected from abnormally aggressive behavioral outcome.
RESUMEN: Las representaciones mentales que de la unio ´n afectiva tenı ´an 31 personas que prestaban cuidado durante el dı ´a fueron evaluadas usando la Entrevista de Unio ´n Afectiva para el Adulto (AAI), y comparadas con medidas establecidas de observacio ´n de su conducta con los nin ˜os que estaban bajo su cuidado. Contrario a lo que se esperaba, no se dio ninguna asociacio ´n significativa entre las representaciones mentales de quienes prestaban el cuidado acerca de la unio ´n afectiva y su conducta observada. Los puntajes de conducta agresiva de 135 nin ˜os que habı ´an estado bajo el cuidado de estas personas fueron reportados por los maestros. Se supo que 10 de los 13 nin ˜os que obtuvieron un puntaje dentro de la escala clı ´nica de conducta agresiva habı ´an estado bajo el cuidado de una persona con una firme representacio ´n mental de la unio ´n afectiva, por un perı ´odo extenso de tiempo (promedio de 14 meses), si embargo, la edad promedio del primer contacto con tal persona en este estudio fue de 16 meses. Para los que prestan cuidado durante el dı ´a en un centro, las estandarizadas evaluaciones de observacio ´n de prestar el cuidado parecen no estar relacionadas con las representaciones mentales de la unio ´n afectiva.
The authors thank the staff of Kingdom House Day Care Center and the Webster Child Care Center, Saint Louis, Missouri for their generous contributions of time and effort to this project. We also gratefully acknowledge Ulrike Wartner, Ph.D. for her work as second coder for the Adult Attachment Interview, Alan Berkbigler for his observational assessments of the day care providers, and Lee N. Robins, Ph.D. for her review of an earlier version of this manuscript.