Correlates of Attachment to Multiple Caregivers in Kibbutz Children from Birth to Emerging Adulthood: The Haifa Longitudinal Study.

In his depiction of personality development, Bowlby (1985) used the metaphor of railway tracks that start from a main station in a certain direction but soon branch into a variety of divergent routes. Initially, these routes are close together and continue in the general direction of the original track, but as they stretch further away from the main station they branch out more. By analogy, this metaphor can also be used to describe the multidimensionality of issues in attachment development and the inherent difficulties in its study. Thus, in line with Bowlby's metaphor and his notion of branching pathways, this chapter reports on one of the branching tracks in attachment research, joining a host of contributions that address issues of stability and continuity in attachment from infancy to adulthood. Though our research is based on a project with a unique population, namely, kibbutz-reared children, the various issues it has encountered are shared by all longitudinal studies of attachment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)