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We are interested in how children’s attachment to their caregivers predicts multiple aspects of a young child’s life – including prosocial behavior, empathy, and executive functioning. Our studies of attachment and behavior in infants and young children include a range of methods, from in-person observations in homes, schools, and the lab, to neuroimaging.
Interested in learning more?
Brett, B., Gross, J., Stern, J. A., & Cassidy, J. (2020). Maternal depressive symptoms and children’s helping, sharing, and comforting: The moderating role of child-mother attachment. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
Stern, J., Botdorff, M., Cassidy, J., & Riggins, T. (2019). Empathy and hippocampal subfield volume in young children. Developmental Psychology, 55, 1908-1920.
Beier, J., Gross, J. Brett, B., Stern, J., Martin, D. R., & Cassidy, J. (2018). Helping, sharing, and comforting in young children: Links to individual differences in attachment. Child Development, 90, 273-289.
Stern, J. & Cassidy, J. (2018). Empathy from infancy to adolescence: An attachment perspective on the development of individual differences. Developmental Review, 47, 1-22.
The MCFDL is working on a series of studies about how relationships relate to adolescents and adults’ cognitions and behaviors utilizing a variety of experimental and observational methods.
The goal of this research program is to examine themes such as how adolescents’ relationships with parents relate to their thoughts and feelings about romantic relationships, factors that influence student-teacher relationships, the role of cognitive biases in various types of relationships, parents’ attitudes about their children, and the ways in which thoughts and feelings about relationships shape cultural beliefs and helping behaviors towards others.
Interested in learning more?
Stern, J. A., Jones, J. D., Nortey, B., Lejuez, C. W., & Cassidy, J. (in press). Pathways linking attachment and depressive symptoms for Black and White adolescents: Do race and neighborhood racism matter? Attachment & Human Development.
Jones, J., Stern, J. A., Fitter, M., Shaver, P. R., Mikulincer, M., & Cassidy, J. (2021). Attachment and attitudes toward children: Effects of security priming in parents and non-parents. Attachment and Human Development.
Cassidy, J., Stern, J. A., Mikulincer, M., Martin, D. R., & Shaver, P. R. (2018). Influences on care for others: Attachment security, personal suffering, and care recipient characteristics. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 574–588.
The Circle of Security program is an evidence-based intervention that seeks to improve the quality of child-adult relationships (Powell, Cooper, Hoffman, & Marvin 2016), by enhancing adults’ capacities to serve as a secure base and safe haven to the children in their care. Through this process, our aim is to support children’s social, emotional, and regulatory well being.
Since 2003, we have been involved in examining the efficacy of the Circle of Security Intervention with parents of at-risk children. In partnership with The Lourie Center for Children's Social & Emotional Wellness and with Susan Woodhouse of Lehigh University, we are currently expanding our intervention program to include implementing and examining the Circle of Security - Classroom intervention with teachers of young children in the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Public Schools and local Head Start programs.
Interested in learning more?
Woodhouse, S., Powell, B., Cooper, G., Hoffman, K., & Cassidy, J. (2018). The Circle of Security Intervention: Design, research, and implementation. In H. Steele & M. Steele (Eds.), Handbook of attachment-based interventions (pp. 50-78). Guilford Press.
Cassidy, J., Brett, B. B., Gross, J. T., Stern, J. A., Martin, D. R., Mohr, J., & Woodhouse, S. S. (2017). Circle of Security – Parenting: a Randomized controlled trail in Head Start. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 651-673.
Cassidy, J., & Woodhouse, S. S., Sherman, L., Stupica, B., & Lejuez, C. W. (2011). Enhancing infant attachment security: An examination of treatment efficacy and differential susceptibility. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 131-148.
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