The early caregiving variables that assessed emotional supportiveness of the early caregiving environment (between ages 1-4) included the number of times that the parent-child attachment relationship was classified as secure2 out of two Strange Situation assessments conducted at 12 and 18 months (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978), maternal supportive presence (minus hostility) at 24 and 42 months during challenging tasks that the participant completed with his/her mother (Erickson, Sroufe, & Egeland, 1985; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978), and maternal verbal and emotional responsivity on the HOME scale (Caldwell, Heider, & Kaplan, 1966) at 30 months. Full descriptions along with reliability and validity information for these measures are reported in Appleyard, Egeland, and Sroufe (2007). Standardized scores on each of these measures were calculated and then averaged to create a single indicator of early caregiving for participants for whom at least two of the contributing measures were available (n = 91, 98% of the subsample).
