1. Introduction Patricia McKinsey Crittenden; Part I. Maternal Sensitivity: 2. Parents and toddlers at play: evidence for separate qualitative functioning of the play and attachment system Karin Grossmann and Klaus Grossmann; 3. Parent-child synchrony of interaction Graziella Maria Fava Vizzielo, Chistina Ferrero and Marina Musico; 4. Maternal sensitivity and attachment in East German and Russian family networks Liselotte Ahnert, Tatyana Meischner and Alfred Schmidt; 5. Behavior problems in Swedish four year olds: the importance of maternal sensitivity and social context Gunilla Bohlin and Berit Hagekull; 6. Attachment strategies in Egyptian school-aged children Anna von der Lippe and Patricia M. Crittenden; 7. Summative chapter: maternal sensitivity Angelika Kartl Claussen and Patricia M. Crittenden; Part II. Context: 8. Attachment in Finnish twins Irma Moilanen, Anne Kunelius, Tiina Tirkonnen, Nathan Szajnberg and Patricia M. Crittenden; 9 Characteristics of attachment behavior in institution-reared children Stanislawa Lis; 10. Attachment in children adopted from Romanian orphanages: two case studies Kim Chisolm; 11. Child development in the context of maternal depression: a view from the intermountain west Douglas M. Teti; 12. Relations among mothers' dispositional representations of parenting Patricia M. Crittenden, Claudia Lange, Angelika Claussen and Mary F. Partridge; 13. Summative chapter: adaptation to varied environments Patricia McKinsey Crittenden and Angelika Hartl Claussen; Part III. Maturation: 14. Stability and change in infant-mother attachment in the second year of life: relations to parenting quality and varying degrees of daycare experience Hellgard Rauh, Ute Ziegenhain, Bernd Muller and Lex Wijnroks; 15. Change and continuity in ambivalent attachment relationships from infancy through adolescence Sydney L. Hans, Victor J. Bernstein and Belinda E. Sims; 16. Attachment models peer interaction behavior, and feelings about the self: indications of maladjustment in dismissing preoccupied (Ds/E) adolescents Katherine Black, Lyz Jaeger, Patricia M. Crittenden and Kathleen McCartney; 17. Attachment representation in adolescence and adulthood: exploring some intergenerational and intercultural issues Isabel Soares, Elisabeth Fremmer-Bombik, Klaus E. Grossmann and M. Carolina Silva; 18. Summative chapters: a dynamic maturational approach to continuity and change in quality of attachment over time Patricia McKinsey Crittenden and Angelika Hartl Claussen; 19. A dynamic-maturational exploration of the meaning of security and adaptation: empirical, cultural, and theoretical considerations Patricia McKinsey Crittenden.