Four-Month Attentional Regulation and Its Prediction of Three-Year Compliance

The extent to which 4-month attentional regulation during an infant-mother still-face situation and 12-month attachment security during the Strange Situation predicted rates of compliance and noncompliance during a cleanup task at 36 months was examined longitudinally in 70 infant-mother dyads. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that infants who showed more attentional regulation during the still-face situation with mothers later showed a higher rate of committed compliance and a lower rate of situational compliance during cleanup with mothers. Furthermore, lower levels of attentional regulation were later associated with higher rates of assertive behavior, but only for infants in an insecure attachment relationship.