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David Coffee It would be convenient to believe that children with secure attachments are actually children with easy temperaments and children with insecure attachments have difficult temperaments (see Karen, 1998). Temperament certainly influences how easy or difficult a particular baby is to care for and can make an enormous difference in the way a parent or caregiver responds to the child. But researchers have found clear evidence that attachment doesn't depend on temperament. When mothers learn sensitive ways to parent (van den Boom, 1994, 1995) and when caregivers have solid social support (Crockenberg, 1981; Jacobson and Frye, 1991), babies with a difficult temperament are far more likely to become securely attached. A meta-analysis has even concluded that disorganized attachment is not the consequence of a difficult temperament. However, in the end it seems evident that both temperament and attachment play crucial roles in challenging behavior.
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