L Alan Sroufe
Biographic Data
| ID | 769718 |
|---|---|
| NAME | L Alan Sroufe |
| GIVEN NAMES | L Alan |
| FAMILY NAME | Sroufe |
| SIGNATURE | SROUFE L A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minnesota |
| ORCID | 0009-0004-2828-7063 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 201 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Practitioner Review: Clinical insights from attachment theory and research for professionals working with young children and their families
Attachment theory, with its core concepts, perspectives, and insights developed over the past five decades, is influential for professionals working with young children. However, practitioners face challenges translating attachment theory and research into practical applications. This manifests in attachment myths, theoretical misinterpretations, and inconsistency of application. This state‐of‐the‐art review is authored by 47 attachment researche…
Disorganized attachment in infancy: A review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers
Disorganized/Disoriented (D) attachment has seen widespread interest from policy makers, practitioners, and clinicians in recent years. However, some of this interest seems to have been based on some false assumptions that (1) attachment measures can be used as definitive assessments of the individual in forensic/child protection settings and that disorganized attachment (2) reliably indicates child maltreatment, (3) is a strong predictor of path…
The interpersonal antecedents of supportive parenting: A prospective, longitudinal study from infancy to adulthood
This study drew on prospective, longitudinal data to test the hypothesis that the intergenerational transmission of positive parenting is mediated by competence in subsequent relationships with peers and romantic partners. Interview-based ratings of supportive parenting were completed with a sample of 113 individuals (46% male) followed from birth to age 32. Results indicated that supportive parenting during adulthood was predicted by observed ma…
Frightened versus not frightened disorganized infant attachment: Newborn characteristics and maternal caregiving
The disorganized infant has been described as experiencing "fright without solution" (Hesse & Main, 1999, p. 484) within the attachment relationship. Using a sample at risk because of poverty (n = 157), this study evaluated the role of newborn characteristics in predicting disorganized attachment and explored the existence of 2 subgroups of disorganized infants, based on whether they display direct indices of fear. For the entire sample, regressi…
Diverging Pathways, Developmental Transformations, Multiple Etiologies and the Problem of Continuity in Development
Could homotypic continuity be assumed, determining the degree of continuity in individual development over time would be straightforward. But simple stability is rarely obtained for several reasons, as will be illustrated by research examples. Data from an ongoing longitudinal study following children from birth through age 10–11 illustrate impressive continuity over time. Yet, determining the degree of coherence or continuity in individual adapt…
Conceptualizing the role of early experience: Lessons from the Minnesota longitudinal study
The intergenerational continuity of observed early parenting: A prospective, longitudinal study
The authors report the results from a prospective, longitudinal study of cross-generational parenting quality in a lower socioeconomic status sample of moderate ethnic diversity (N = 61). The study extends previous research on intergenerational continuity of parenting in several significant ways: (a) Assessments in both generations were based on direct observation, (b) assessments were made at the same age (24 months) in both generations, (c) the…
When more is not better: The role of cumulative risk in child behavior outcomes
Background: Cumulative risk research has established the deleterious effects of co‐occurring risk factors on child behavior outcomes. However, extant literature has not addressed potential differential effects of cumulative risk at different points in development and has left open questions about whether a threshold model or a linear risk model better describes the impact of cumulative risk on behavior outcomes. The current study examined the imp…
Attachment and development: A prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood
There is much to digest in a 30 year longitudinal study of the developing person (Sroufe, Egeland, Carlson, & Collins, 2005a). The following paper summarizes some key points regarding the place of infant attachment in the developmental course. It is argued that understanding the role of attachment entails grasping the organizational nature of the attachment construct and embracing a non-linear transactional model. Using such concepts, attachment …
Attachment categories as reflections of multiple dimensions: Comment on Fraley and Spieker (2003)
Ainsworth's system of classifying patterns of attachment behavior has served the field well and will not be easily displaced--not because of a commitment by attachment researchers to the taxonomic status of these categories but rather because of difficulties lying in the way of a dimensional approach. Foremost among these is the large number of dimensions used in making classifications and the need to develop reliable scales to tap them. Other pr…
A Prospective Longitudinal Study of High School Dropouts Examining Multiple Predictors Across Development
Attachment from Infancy to Early Adulthood in a High-Risk Sample: Continuity, Discontinuity, and Their Correlates
This study explores the stability of attachment security and representations from infancy to early adulthood in a sample chosen originally for poverty and high risk for poor developmental outcomes. Participants for this study were 57 young adults who are part of an ongoing prospective study of development and adaptation in a high-risk sample. Attachment was assessed during infancy by using the Ainsworth Strange Situation (Ainsworth & Wittig) and …
Contents Vol. 43, 2000
Attachment Theory and Systems Concepts 1
Early relationships and the development of children
Capacity for Intimate Relationships: A Developmental Construction
The advent of romantic relationships is a hallmark transition of adolescence. Images of the sudden onset of preoccupation with the other, shyness and self-consciousness, awkwardness in interactions, and sexual awakening suffuse popular treatments of the topic. In developmental perspective, however, romantic relationships are embedded in fundamental human motivations to form and maintain close relationships (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; MacDonald, 19…
Early Environmental Support and Elementary School Adjustment as Predictors of School Adjustment in Middle Adolescence
Longitudinal data from a high-risk sample (N = 173, male: n = 93, female: n = 80) were used to examine socioemotional antecedents of school adjustment in adolescence. Parental problem-solving support in early childhood and early adolescence and measures of peer competence, externalizing behavior, and emotional health/self-esteem in early middle childhood were examined both independently and in relation to academic achievement in early middle chil…
Developmental precursors of romantic relationships: A longitudinal analysis
Romantic relationships emerge in a context of earlier experiences with caregivers and peers that contribute to variability in adolescents' capacities for intimacy
Early Attachment as a Pathway to Adolescent Peer Competence
Forty-one adolescents ages 15-16, a subset of participants from an ongoing longitudinal study, were observed and interviewed during a 2-day-long camp reunion. Early attachment information was available for all participants. Counselors rated them on several personal and interpersonal characteristics after the reunion, including social competence. The participants were also interviewed regarding their experience and their thoughts about friendships…
Emotional Development: The Organization of Emotional Life in the Early Years
In the past, researchers have treated the development of the emotions and the task of emotional regulation as two separate topics, the former emphasizing 'normative' questions and the latter emphasizing 'individual' differences. Until now, understanding the first topic has never been seen as relevant for the second. This is the area pioneered by Emotional Development. This book presents the early phases of emotional life from a developmental pers…
Emotional development: The Organization of Emotional Life in the Early Years
In the past, researchers have treated the development of the emotions and the task of emotional regulation as two separate topics, the former emphasizing normative questions and the latter emphasizing individual differences. An understanding of the first has not been seen as relevant to the second. By bringing them under the perspective of development and emphasizing common core processes, Emotional Development illuminates both topics. All emotio…
Stages of Friendship Growth in Preadolescence as Related to Attachment History
A process model of friendship formation in preadolescence is proposed in this article, and the continuity of early parent-child relationships (quality of attachment) with later friendship processes and peer competence is explored. Thirty-two preadolescents, subjects in a longitudinal study of attachment and subsequent social development, were observed in 4-week summer day camps. Those who had been securely attached with their caregivers as infant…
Early Childhood Antecedents of Aggression and Passive‐Withdrawal in Early Elementary School
Early childhood antecedents of elementary school aggression and passive‐withdrawal were evaluated in a large longitudinal study ( N = 191) With teacher ratings as outcome measures, a variety of predictor variables were selected from a comprehensive data base Predictors were selected to represent several major factors ( a ) a developmental history of insecure attachment and poor adjustment, ( b ) inadequate or hostile parental care, and ( c ) stre…
Individual differences in empathy among preschoolers: Relation to attachment history
Is the quality of early relationships linked to later emotional development? Children with secure attachments at twelve and eighteen months of age are more empathic and prosocial toward others
Breaking the Cycle of Abuse
Social competence as a developmental construct
Profiles of peer competence in the preschool: Interrelations between measures, influence of social ecology, and relation to attachment history
Stages of Friendship Growth in Preadolescence as Related to Attachment History
A process model of friendship formation in preadolescence is proposed in this article, and the continuity of early parent-child relationships (quality of attachment) with later friendship processes and peer competence is explored. Thirty-two preadolescents, subjects in a longitudinal study of attachment and subsequent social development, were observed in 4-week summer day camps. Those who had been securely attached with their caregivers as infant…
The intergenerational continuity of observed early parenting: A prospective, longitudinal study
The authors report the results from a prospective, longitudinal study of cross-generational parenting quality in a lower socioeconomic status sample of moderate ethnic diversity (N = 61). The study extends previous research on intergenerational continuity of parenting in several significant ways: (a) Assessments in both generations were based on direct observation, (b) assessments were made at the same age (24 months) in both generations, (c) the…
Attachment patterns of infants separated at birth
Early Environmental Support and Elementary School Adjustment as Predictors of School Adjustment in Middle Adolescence
Longitudinal data from a high-risk sample (N = 173, male: n = 93, female: n = 80) were used to examine socioemotional antecedents of school adjustment in adolescence. Parental problem-solving support in early childhood and early adolescence and measures of peer competence, externalizing behavior, and emotional health/self-esteem in early middle childhood were examined both independently and in relation to academic achievement in early middle chil…
A methodological and philosophical critique of intervention-oriented research
Intervention-oriented research programs typically yield differences between social classes in the task performance of children and the parent interaction style. It is then concluded that deficiencies in task performance are due to limitations in the family environment, and this pathology model yields the proposal to alter lower-class parental behavior. Questions concerning the methods and procedures for obtaining class differences, interpretation…
The interpersonal antecedents of supportive parenting: A prospective, longitudinal study from infancy to adulthood
This study drew on prospective, longitudinal data to test the hypothesis that the intergenerational transmission of positive parenting is mediated by competence in subsequent relationships with peers and romantic partners. Interview-based ratings of supportive parenting were completed with a sample of 113 individuals (46% male) followed from birth to age 32. Results indicated that supportive parenting during adulthood was predicted by observed ma…
A developmental perspective on day care
Early Attachment as a Pathway to Adolescent Peer Competence
Forty-one adolescents ages 15-16, a subset of participants from an ongoing longitudinal study, were observed and interviewed during a 2-day-long camp reunion. Early attachment information was available for all participants. Counselors rated them on several personal and interpersonal characteristics after the reunion, including social competence. The participants were also interviewed regarding their experience and their thoughts about friendships…
Age changes in cardiac deceleration within a fixed foreperiod reaction-time task: An index of attention
A methodological and philosophical critique of intervention-oriented research
Intervention-oriented research programs typically yield differences between social classes in the task performance of children and the parent interaction style. It is then concluded that deficiencies in task performance are due to limitations in the family environment, and this pathology model yields the proposal to alter lower-class parental behavior. Questions concerning the methods and procedures for obtaining class differences, interpretation…
Age changes in cardiac deceleration within a fixed foreperiod reaction-time task: An index of attention
Attachment as an Organizational Construct
Assumptions concerning the nature of constructs underlying developmental research are often only implicit, yet they guide data collection and inter-pretation of results. For example, a number of researchers have provided data concerning int-correlations among behaviors presumed to be in-dices of attachment (e.g., Coates, Anderson & Hartup 1972; Maccoby & Feldman 1972). Noting that such "index " behaviors do not intercorrelate highly, do not show …
Continuity of Adaptation in the Second Year: The Relationship between Quality of Attachment and Later Competence
Leah Matas, Richard A. Arend, L. Alan Sroufe, Continuity of Adaptation in the Second Year: The Relationship between Quality of Attachment and Later Competence, Child Development, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Sep., 1978), pp. 547-556
Attachment, Positive Affect, and Competence in the Peer Group: Two Studies in Construct Validation
Everett Waters, Judith Wippman, L. Alan Sroufe, Attachment, Positive Affect, and Competence in the Peer Group: Two Studies in Construct Validation, Child Development, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Sep., 1979), pp. 821-829
Individual Differences in Infant-Mother Attachment at Twelve and Eighteen Months: Stability and Change in Families under Stress
100 economically disadvantaged mothers and their infants were observed in the Ainsworth and Wittig "strange situation" at 12 and 18 months. Infants were classified as secure, anxiously attached/avoidant, or anxiously attached/resistant. In addition, mothers reported occurrence of stressful events related to the stability of the caretaking environment during the 12--18 month period by completing a 44-item checklist concerning work, finances, famil…
Continuity of Individual Adaptation from Infancy to Kindergarten: A Predictive Study of Ego-Resiliency and Curiosity in Preschoolers
Richard Arend, Frederick L. Gove, L. Alan Sroufe, Continuity of Individual Adaptation from Infancy to Kindergarten: A Predictive Study of Ego-Resiliency and Curiosity in Preschoolers, Child Development, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Dec., 1979), pp. 950-959
The coherence of individual development: Early care, attachment, and subsequent developmental issues
Attachment and Early Maltreatment
Attachment patterns of infants separated at birth
Issues of temperament and attachment
Attachment and Dependency in Developmental Perspective
SROUFE, L. ALAN; FOX, NANCY E.; and PANCAKE, VAN R. Attachment and Dependency in Developmental Perspective. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1983, 54, 1615-1627. In the past 15 years, a major advance in the study of early social development has been the conceptual distinction between attachment (the relationship between infant and caregiver) and dependency (the reliance of the child on adults for nurturance, attention, or assistance). Having made this distinct…
The developmental consequence of different patterns of maltreatment
A road careened into the woods: Comments on Dr. Morrison's commentary
Social competence as a developmental construct
The Domain of Developmental Psychopathology
It is the "developmental" component of developmental psychopathology that distinguishes this discipline from abnormal psychology, psychiatry, and even clinical child psychology. At the same time, the focus on individual patterns of adaptation and maladaptation distinguishes this field from the larger discipline of developmental psychology. In this essay a developmental perspective is presented, and the implications of this perspective for researc…
The Relationship between Quality of Attachment and Behavior Problems in Preschool in a High-Risk Sample
Martha Farrell Erickson, L. Alan Sroufe, Byron Egeland, The Relationship between Quality of Attachment and Behavior Problems in Preschool in a High-Risk Sample, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Vol. 50, No. 1/2, Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research (1985), pp. 147-166
Profiles of peer competence in the preschool: Interrelations between measures, influence of social ecology, and relation to attachment history
Breaking the Cycle of Abuse
A developmental perspective on day care
Early Childhood Antecedents of Aggression and Passive‐Withdrawal in Early Elementary School
Early childhood antecedents of elementary school aggression and passive‐withdrawal were evaluated in a large longitudinal study ( N = 191) With teacher ratings as outcome measures, a variety of predictor variables were selected from a comprehensive data base Predictors were selected to represent several major factors ( a ) a developmental history of insecure attachment and poor adjustment, ( b ) inadequate or hostile parental care, and ( c ) stre…
Individual differences in empathy among preschoolers: Relation to attachment history
Is the quality of early relationships linked to later emotional development? Children with secure attachments at twelve and eighteen months of age are more empathic and prosocial toward others
Stages of Friendship Growth in Preadolescence as Related to Attachment History
A process model of friendship formation in preadolescence is proposed in this article, and the continuity of early parent-child relationships (quality of attachment) with later friendship processes and peer competence is explored. Thirty-two preadolescents, subjects in a longitudinal study of attachment and subsequent social development, were observed in 4-week summer day camps. Those who had been securely attached with their caregivers as infant…
Emotional Development: The Organization of Emotional Life in the Early Years
In the past, researchers have treated the development of the emotions and the task of emotional regulation as two separate topics, the former emphasizing 'normative' questions and the latter emphasizing 'individual' differences. Until now, understanding the first topic has never been seen as relevant for the second. This is the area pioneered by Emotional Development. This book presents the early phases of emotional life from a developmental pers…
Emotional development: The Organization of Emotional Life in the Early Years
In the past, researchers have treated the development of the emotions and the task of emotional regulation as two separate topics, the former emphasizing normative questions and the latter emphasizing individual differences. An understanding of the first has not been seen as relevant to the second. By bringing them under the perspective of development and emphasizing common core processes, Emotional Development illuminates both topics. All emotio…
Psychology (41 works) · Developmental psychology (40 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (29 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (23 works) · Social Psychology (21 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (11 works) · Attachment theory (10 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (10 works) · Longitudinal study (10 works) · Medicine (9 works)