Quality of attachment and early symbolic play.

This research investigated (a) the relationship between the quality of attachment and symbolic play development and (b) differences in the ways mothers of secure and anxious children involved themselves in play. Fifteen mother–child dyads (7 secure, 8 anxious) were filmed at regular intervals in free play from 20–28 months. Results indicated that secure children had longer episodes of symbolic play overall and that at 26 and 28 months they spent more time in the highest level of symbolic play than their anxious peers. When symbolic play variables were contrasted across maternal involvement conditions, secure children were found to have longer episodes and higher level play when mothers were actively engaged in play with them. Thus, mother's involvement appeared to serve a facilitating function for secure, but not anxious, children. When engaged in conversation with an experimenter, mothers of secure children were more involved in their children's play and appeared to favor play in which they actively interacted with the child; in contrast, mothers of anxious children favored passive participation in their children's play. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)