ANOTHER LOOK AT THE DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH |
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| Authors: | Judith Solomon Zeynep Biringen |
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| Institution: | Judith Solomon, Ph.D. is a developmental psychologist specializing in the study of early attachment relationships and representations. She has been a senior research associate with the Judith Wallerstein Center for the Family in Transition, Corte Madera, California, where she completed a study of the development of attachment in divorcing families funded by the Maternal and Child Research Bureau. She is an associate editor of Attachment and Human Development, and a registered psychologist at the An Martin Children's Center, Oakland, California. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982.;Zeynep Biringen received her Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of California, Berkeley and completed a MacArthur Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Colorado Medical School. She is currently a licensed clinical psychologist and an assistant professor of human development and family studies, conducting research on attachment and emotional availability. She also has an active private practice related to divorce and custody issues. |
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| Abstract: | Kelly and Lamb (2000) recently provided a summary of the attachment literature and a set of guidelines for visitation and custody for young children in divorced and separated families. Here, Solomon and Biringen review the same literature with an eye to critically evaluating these guidelines, especially the suggestion that more, rather than fewer, transitions between parents are appropriate for very young children. Three types of empirical findings raise questions regarding the appropriateness of Kelly and Lamb's guidelines. These include differences in the development of infant-mother and infant-father attachments, young children's sensitivity to overnight separations from the primary caregiver, and the possibility of infant preferences for primary versus secondary caregivers in times of stress. The authors argue that considerably more rigorous research is required before submitting Kelly and Lamb's suggestion to social policy. |
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