2003 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 96-104
The present research investigated how attachment and temperament affect children's reactions to maternal separation in early childhood. Observations of 101 children separated from their mothers were made when they were playing with their peers, during the first year after they entered a family education center. The children, ranging in age from 2: 6 to 3: 5 years at the start of observations, were classified into 4 groups according to their reactions to maternal separation: (a) easy separation group (N=29): those who easily separated from their mothers from the beginning of the year; (b) slow separation group (N=26): those who, during the year, gradually became better at handling the separation;(c) consistent separation group (N=29): those who had consistent reactions to separation throughout the year; and (d) difficult separation group (N=17): those who had difficulty separating from their mothers even at the end of the year. The observations indicated that the children in the slow-separation and difficult-separation groups had more shy temperament in new situations than those in the easy-separation group, whereas the children in the slow-separation group showed better attachment security than those in the difficult-separation group. These results suggest that children's patterns of reaction to maternal separation in early childhood could be predicted from a combination of their attachment security and their temperament.
