Attachment in Middle Childhood: Theoretical Advances and New Directions in an Emerging Field
New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, Number 148
J–B CAD Single Issue Child & Adolescent Development Series

One of the critical factors in early development is the formation of a secure attachment, and it continues to be important for older children′s responses to psychological stressors like hurt pride, fear, and sadness. This volume provides a timely review of research to date, describing important insights that have both theoretical and clinical importance as well as identifying remaining gaps in our understanding.

Summarizing the most relevant findings, this volume is important for theory on child (attachment) development, and also for clinicians to broaden their understanding of the importance of middle childhood attachment processes for understanding the development of children s behavior problems and for designing effective treatment strategies.

This is the 148th volume in this Jossey–Bass series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in this subject area. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts from that field.

1. Attachment in Middle Childhood: Progress and Prospects 1
Guy Bosmans, Kathryn A. Kerns

This introduction to the issue highlights two decades of middle childhood attachment research, providing an overview of the main insights and research gaps concerning the conceptualization and measurement of middle childhood attachment.

2. Attachment in Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary Developmental Perspective 15
Marco Del Giudice

This article discusses the evolutionary relevance of middle childhood attachment. More specifically, it provides a theoretical framework of the biological and social processes that drive the development of middle childhood attachment.

3. Parent Child Attachment and Emotion Regulation 31
Laura E. Brumariu

This article discusses the relevance of middle childhood attachment relationships in the development of children s abilities to regulate emotions, with attention to how both secure and insecure attachment patterns are related to different aspects of emotion regulation.

4. Attachment in Middle Childhood: Associations With Information Processing 47
Peter Zimmermann, Alexandra Iwanski

This article discusses the cognitive processes underlying the development of attachment in middle childhood. Research is reviewed demonstrating links between insecure attachment and changes in how attachment– and emotion–related information is attentionally encoded, recalled, and interpreted.

5. Attachment and Socioemotional Problems in Middle Childhood 63
Ellen Moss, Vanessa Lecompte

This article discusses the clinical relevance of middle childhood attachment research, demonstrating how, throughout childhood, children s inability to use parents as a secure base puts them at risk to develop externalizing and internalizing problems.

6. Middle Childhood Teacher Child Relationships: Insights From an Attachment Perspective and Remaining Challenges 77
Karine Verschueren

This article discusses how children s caregiving context expands throughout middle childhood. Focus is on teachers as new caregivers who function as ad hoc attachment figures who can have protective but also impairing effects on children s well–being and academic success.

7. Commentary Culture and Attachment During Middle Childhood 93
Bin–Bin Chen

This commentary discusses the insights described in the different articles of this issue from a multicultural perspective.

8. Commentary Attachment in Middle Childhood: Looking Back, Forward, and Within 99
Howard Steele

This commentary discusses the insights described in the different articles from a life span perspective on attachment theory and research.

INDEX 105

Guy Bosmans is an assistant professor in the Parenting and Special Education Research Group at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

Kathryn A. Kerns is a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.