Maryland Child & Family Development Lab

Research

1) Attachment & Socioemotional Functioning in Young Children

We are interested in how children’s attachment to their caregivers predicts multiple aspects of a young child’s life, including prosocial behavior, empathy, and executive functioning. Our studies of attachment and behavior in infants and young children include a range of methods, from in-person observations in homes, schools, and the lab, to neuroimaging.

Interested in learning more?

Beier, J., Gross, J., Brett, B., Stern, J., Martin, D. R., & Cassidy, J. (2019). Helping, sharing, and comforting in young children: Links to individual differences in attachment. Child Development, 90, 273-289. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13100. Epub 2018 Jun 5. [pdf]

Brett, B., Gross, J., Stern, J. A., & Cassidy, J. (2022). Maternal depressive symptoms and children’s helping, sharing, and comforting: The moderating role of child-mother attachment. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 51, 623-636. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2020.1738235 [open access]

Cassidy, J., Stern, J., Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2025). Mary Main’s concept of conditional strategies: Influences on studies of child-parent and adult romantic attachments. Attachment and Human Development, 27, 67-98. doi: 10.1080/14616734.2024.2426304 [pdf]

Gross, J. T., & Cassidy, J. (2024). Hidden feelings: Expressive suppression in middle childhood and links with physiology and negative emotion. Emotion, 24, 255-268. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001266 [open access]

Gross, J. T., Stern, J. A., Brett, B. E., Fitter, M., & Cassidy, J. (2023). Mothers’ attachment style predicts response to child distress: The role of maternal emotions and attributions. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32, 876–891. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02517-5 [open access] [pdf]

Stern, J. A., Barbarin, O., & Cassidy, J. (2022). Working toward anti-racist perspectives in attachment theory and research. In J. A. Stern, O. Barbarin, & J. Cassidy (Eds.). Attachment perspectives on race, prejudice, and antiracism. [Special issue], Attachment & Human Development, 24, 392-422. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2021.1976933 [open access]

Stern, J., Botdorff, M., Cassidy, J., & Riggins, T. (2019). Empathy and hippocampal subfield volume in young children [Special issue]. Developmental Psychology, 55(9), 1908-1920. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000684 [open access]

Stern, J. A., & Cassidy, J. (2018). Empathy from infancy to adolescence: An attachment perspective on the development of individual differences. Developmental Review, 47, 1-22. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2017.09.002 [open access] [pdf]

Stern, J. A., & Cassidy, J. (2025). Mattering in childhood: A developmental attachment perspective. In A. Kruglanski, I. Prilleltensky, & A. Raviv (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of human significance and mattering (pp. 15-28). Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003424437-4 [open access]

Stern, J. A., Coard, S., Barbarin, O, & Cassidy, J. (2024). What attachment researchers can learn from research on Black family resilience. Child Development Perspectives, 18, 10-18. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12492 [noted as among the top 10 most cited articles published in Child Development Perspectives in 2023; also published in Child Development’s SRCD Anti-Racist Development Science Summit Virtual Issue, first published April 2024.] [open access]

Stern, J. A., Dunbar, A. S., & Cassidy, J. (2023). Pathways to emotion regulation in young Black children: An attachment perspective. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 64 [Special Issue: Developmental Cascades], 163-188. doi: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2022.10.001 [open access] [pdf]

Whittenburg, P., Stern, J. A., Brett, B. E., Straske, M. D., & Cassidy, J. (2023). Maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems: Attachment security as a protective factor. Development and Psychopathology, 35, 678-688. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579421001802 [open access] [pdf]

2) Attachment and Adult Relationships

The MCFDL is working on a series of studies about how relationships relate to adolescents and adults’ cognitions and behaviors utilizing a variety of experimental and observational methods.

The goal of this research program is to examine themes such as how adolescents’ relationships with parents relate to their thoughts and feelings about romantic relationships, factors that influence student-teacher relationships, the role of cognitive biases in various types of relationships, parents’ attitudes about their children, and the ways in which thoughts and feelings about relationships shape cultural beliefs and helping behaviors towards others.

Interested in learning more?

Cassidy, J., Stern, J. A., Mikulincer, M., Martin, D. R., & Shaver, P. R. (2018). Influences on care for others: Attachment security, personal suffering, and similarity between helper and care recipient. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 574-588. doi: 10.1177/0146167217746150 [pdf]

Dugan, K. A., Fraley, R. C., Jones, J., Stern, J. A., Lejuez, C. W., & Cassidy, J. (2025). Coordination of parent and adolescent attachment across time. Developmental Psychology, 61(9), 1721-1738. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001835 [open access]

Ehrlich, K B., Stern, J. A, Eccles, J. S., Dinh, J. V., Hopper, E. A., Kemeny, M. E., Adam, E. K., & Cassidy, J. (2019). A preliminary investigation of attachment style and inflammation in African American young adults. Attachment & Human Development, 21, 57-69. doi: 10.1080/14616734.2018.1541516 [open access]

Jones, J. D., Fraley, R. C., Stern, J. A., Lejuez, C. W., & Cassidy, J. (2025). Developmental trajectories of adolescent internalizing symptoms and parental responses to distress. Development and Psychopathology, 37, 603-614. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579424000361 [pdf]

Jones, J., Stern, J. A., Fitter, M., Shaver, P. R., Mikulincer, M., & Cassidy, J. (2021). Attachment and attitudes toward children: Effects of security priming in parents and non-parents. Attachment and Human Development, 24(2), 147-168. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2021.1881983 [open access] [pdf]

Stern, J. A., Awao, S., Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., & Cassidy, J. (2025). Relational roots of retributive vs. restorative justice: Attachment insecurity predicts harsher responses to crime. Attachment and Human Development, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2025.2532068 [open access] [pdf]

Stern, J. A., Jones, J. D., Nortey, B., Lejuez, C. W., & Cassidy, J. (2022). Pathways linking attachment and depressive symptoms for Black and White adolescents: Do race and neighborhood racism matter? In J. A. Stern, O. Barbarin, & J. Cassidy (Eds.). Attachment perspectives on race, prejudice, and antiracism [Special issue]. Attachment & Human Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2021.1976924 [open access] [pdf]

3) Early Interventions: The Circle of Security

The Circle of Security program is an evidence-based intervention that seeks to improve the quality of child-adult relationships (Powell, Cooper, Hoffman, & Marvin 2016), by enhancing adults’ capacities to serve as a secure base and safe haven to the children in their care. Through this process, our aim is to support children’s social, emotional, and regulatory well being.

Since 2003, we have been involved in examining the efficacy of the Circle of Security Intervention with parents of at-risk children. In partnership with The Lourie Center for Children's Social & Emotional Wellness and with Susan Woodhouse of Lehigh University, we are currently expanding our intervention program to include implementing and examining the Circle of Security - Classroom intervention with teachers of young children in the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Public Schools and local Head Start programs.

Interested in learning more?

Woodhouse, S., Powell, B., Cooper, G., Hoffman, K., & Cassidy, J. (2018). The Circle of Security Intervention: Design, research, and implementation. In H. Steele & M. Steele (Eds.), Handbook of attachment-based interventions (pp. 50-78). Guilford. [pdf]

Cassidy, J., Brett, B. B., Gross, J. T., Stern, J. A., Martin, D. R., Mohr, J., & Woodhouse, S. S. (2017). Circle of Security – Parenting: A randomized controlled trail in Head Start. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 651-673. [open access] [pdf]

Cassidy, J., & Woodhouse, S. S., Sherman, L., Stupica, B., & Lejuez, C. W. (2011). Enhancing infant attachment security: An examination of treatment efficacy and differential susceptibility. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 131-148. [open access]