Abraham Sagi-Schwartz

• Ph.D.
• University of Haifa

This article examines Mary Main’s impact on attachment research in Israel and vice versa, focusing on her contributions: the disorganized attachment classification (D) and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Israeli research spans Jewish and Arab populations, individuals with special needs, and trauma-affected groups, testing the Normativity, Sen...

A growing body of research suggests that, compared with single parent–child attachment relationships, child developmental outcomes may be better understood by examining the configurations of child–mother and child–father attachment relationships (i.e., attachment networks). Moreover, some studies have demonstrated an above-chance level chance of co...

An individual participant data meta-analysis was conducted to test pre-registered hypotheses about how the configuration of attachment relationships to mothers and fathers predicts children's language competence. Data from seven studies (published between 1985 and 2014) including 719 children (Mage : 19.84 months; 51% female; 87% White) were includ...

An individual participant data meta-­ analysis was conducted to test pre-­ registered hypotheses about how the configuration of attachment relationships to mothers and fathers predicts children's language competence. Data from seven studies (published between 1985 and 2014) including 719 children (Mage: 19.84 months; 51% female; 87% White) were inc...

Disrupted maternal communication during mother‐infant interaction has been found to be associated with infants’ disorganized attachment, but has been studied primarily in North American and European samples and not in Arab samples. To address this gap the study examined the association between disrupted maternal communication and infant attachment...

Maternal sensitivity and disrupted communication are usually considered independently as antecedents of attachment security and attachment disorganization, respectively. This study examined whether considering them jointly allows specific predictions of attachment classifications. The sample (N = 159) was selected from a previous study conducted in...

Objective: The present study investigated whether prosocial propensities displayed by adult daughters of elderly Holocaust child survivors in a non-clinical/non-select sample were more pronounced than in a closely matched comparison group with no Holocaust background. Method: 78 participants: 42 adult daughters of Holocaust child survivors, and 36...

An individual participant data meta-analysis was used to test pre-registered hypotheses about how the configuration of attachment relationships to mothers and fathers predicts children’s language competence. Data collected from seven studies (published between 1985 and 2014) and 719 children (mean age: 19.84 months; 51.2% female; 86.9% White) were...

An unsettled question in attachment theory and research is the extent to which children's attachment patterns with mothers and fathers jointly predict developmental outcomes. In this study, we used individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis to assess whether early attachment networks with mothers and fathers are associated with children's inte...

Early attachment has been commonly hypothesized to predict children's future developmental outcomes, and robust evidence relying on assessments of single caregiver-child attachment patterns has corroborated this hypothesis. Nevertheless, most often children are raised by multiple caregivers, and they tend to form attachment bonds with more than one...

This study examined whether maternal disrupted communication, which is associated with disorganized infant attachment, also characterizes mothers of ambivalent infants. The study, conducted in Israel, included a Jewish sample (N = 163; 68 Girls) from diverse socioeconomic status, collected between 1991 and 1993 in an earlier study. The sample over‐...

Early attachment has been commonly hypothesized to predict children’s future developmental outcomes, and robust evidence relying on assessments of single caregiver-child attachment patterns has corroborated this hypothesis. Nevertheless, most often children are raised by multiple caregivers, and they tend to form attachment bonds with more than one...

An unsettled question in attachment theory and research is the extent to which children’s attachment patterns with mothers and fathers jointly predict developmental outcomes. In this study, we used individual participant data meta-analysis to assess whether early attachment networks with mothers and fathers are associated with children’s internaliz...

Infants’ patterns of attachment to their mothers and fathers influence important developmental outcomes. Studies suggest that infants form discordant attachment patterns to mothers and fathers, and stress the importance of assessing infants’ parental attachment relationships to evaluate their integrative effects on how they function later in life....

The literature on regeneration in the central nervous system of vertebrates has been reviewed exhaustively by Windle (1955, 1956). Adult fish and urodeles reestablish physiological and anatomical continuity of the spinal cord after it has been completely transected while adult anurans (Piatt & Piatt, 1958) and mammals on the whole do not. In all gr...

This study is the first to examine infant-mother attachment in the Arab culture. Eighty-five Arab 1-year-old infants from Israel were observed in the strange situation, and maternal sensitivity was assessed from home observations. Supporting attachment theory's normativity hypothesis, no differences were found between the Arab-Israeli attachment di...

This article addresses core concepts of John Bowlby's attachment theory, underscoring the mechanism of primary drive reduction in the context of real-life events. We highlight Ainsworth's contribution to attachment theory and present her major advances such as the Strange Situation Procedure. We also review recent research including disorganized at...

This chapter addresses issues of severe trauma that Holocaust survivors experienced and the consequences of the loss of attachment figures under atrocious circumstances. Specifically, we look into intergenerational transmission of trauma, which is inflicted by anonymous social and destructive forces external to the family, as is the case with Holoc...

In this article, we test the hypothesis that beliefs about the ideal mother are convergent across cultures and that these beliefs overlap considerably with attachment theory’s notion of the sensitive mother. In a sample including 26 cultural groups from 15 countries around the globe, 751 mothers sorted the Maternal Behavior Q-Set to reflect their i...

Group care for children and adolescents is widely used as a rearing environment and sometimes used as a setting in which intensive services can be provided. This consensus statement on group care affirms that children and adolescents have the need and right to grow up in a family with at least 1 committed, stable, and loving adult caregiver. In pri...

Does surviving genocidal experiences, like the Holocaust, lead to shorter life-expectancy? Such an effect is conceivable given that most survivors not only suffered psychosocial trauma but also malnutrition, restriction in hygienic and sanitary facilities, and lack of preventive medical and health services, with potentially damaging effects for lat...

Political conflicts and intractable wars can be conceived as disasters of human activities and they affect the entire life of children and their families. An ecological-transactional perspective of human development is adopted in order to identify multilevel developmental and contextual trajectories that might facilitate or impede the willingness a...

The well-being and productivity of immigrant youth has become one of the most important global issues of our times as a result of mass migration and resettlement. In this unique volume, leading scholars from multiple nations and disciplines provide a state-of-the-art overview of contemporary research on immigrant youth and delineate the most promis...

We examined the effects of the Holocaust on diurnal cortisol secretion in survivors and their adult offspring. Israeli female Holocaust survivors and matched comparisons formed a case-control study design with two generations: 32 Holocaust survivors and 33 comparisons, and their offspring (total N = 144). Participants self-reported on dissociation...

People’s response to stress depends to a large extent on their sense of perceived control over the situations they encounter. This longitudinal study of 136 children (70 girls) examined associations between attachment patterns and maternal sensitivity at 12 months of age, and perceived primary and secondary control at 11 years of age. Compared with...

The study examined how individuality and connectedness of female adolescents relate to their perceptions of maternal behavior and to adolescent-mother discrepancies in perceptions of maternal behavior. Seventy 16.5-year-old daughters and their mothers participated in the study. Individuality and connectedness of the daughters were assessed from obs...

In the current study we tested whether ADRA2B moderates stress regulation of Holocaust survivors as indexed by their diurnal cortisol secretion and cortisol reactivity to a stressor. Salivary cortisol levels of 54 female Holocaust survivors and participants in the comparison group were assessed during a routine day and in response to a stress-evoki...

The Holocaust has become an iconic example of immense human-made catastrophes, and survivors are now coping with normal aging processes. Childhood trauma may leave the survivors more vulnerable when they are facing stress related to old age, whereas their offspring might have a challenging role of protecting their own parents from further pain. Her...

The current set of meta-analyses elucidates the long-term psychiatric, psychosocial, and physical consequences of the Holocaust for survivors. In 71 samples with 12,746 participants Holocaust survivors were compared with their counterparts (with no Holocaust background) on physical health, psychological well-being, posttraumatic stress symptoms, ps...

In this commentary to Friedman's and Boyle's review we focus on the context of early child care as it is reflected in the debate on the effects of quality of care versus amount of care and attachment relations. It is argued that cross-national research should be considered along with the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD...

This special issue is the first outcome of the workshop and its underlying mutual quest for cooperation. Consequently, this collection of papers focuses on children, important as children's chronic exposure to catastrophic war experiences and political violence worldwide is steadily escalating. We believe special attention should be given to the ef...

The paper presents a comprehensive review and integration of available studies on the effects of severe traumatic experiences on children, especially in the context of short and enduring exposure to harsh events and adversities, as they relate to children who live in violent war zones, in particular in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The re...

This project was made possible thanks to the collaboration of all authors who collected pertinent information in the different countries presented here. Countries and authors are listed alphabetically: China: Yuan Gao and Fang Wu; Colombia: Roberto Posada and Margarita Tascon; Germany: Axel Schöelmerich; Israel: Abraham Sagi; Japan: Kiyomi Kondo-Ik...

In a series of meta-analyses with the second generation of Holocaust survivors, no evidence for secondary traumatization was found (Van IJzendoorn, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & Sagi-Schwartz, 200348. Van IJzendoorn , M. H. , Bakermans-Kranenburg , M. J. and Sagi-Schwartz , A. 2003. Are children of Holocaust survivors less well-adapted? No meta-analyt...

This study examined associations between infant—mother attachment, assessed using Ainsworth's Strange Situation at 12-months, and mother—child narrative co-construction in 110 Israeli mothers and their 71/2 year-old children to examine aspects of Bowlby's (1973) notion of Goal-Corrected Partnerships. Narrative co-constructions were classified into...

It was examined whether secure infant-mother attachment contributes to emotionally congruent and organized mother-child dialogues about emotions in later years. The attachment of 99 children was assessed using the Strange Situation at the age of 1 year and their emotion dialogues with their mothers were assessed at the ages of 4.5 and 7.5 years. Di...

This study assessed whether infants with anxious-ambivalent attachment develop higher levels of anxiety later in childhood than do infants with secure attachment. Infants (N=136) participated in Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure at 12 months of age. The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) was completed by children an...

Twenty three Israeli kindergarteners and sixteen Israeli college students were tested on a variant of the Semantic Differential Test developed by Guiora (1976) to test the hypothesis that young Israeli children, like adults, are not influenced by the prevalence of grammatical gender in the language but ascribe sexual meanings to the test words base...

Data from an Israeli project shows higher proportion of insecurely attached infants in center care as compared with noncenter care (Sagi, Koren-Karie, Gini, Ziv, & Joels, 2002). The present study was designed to assess structural and emotional aspects characterizing infants' experiences in center care, aiming to explain, in part, the high incidence...

This longitudinal study was designed to examine the links between infant-mother attachment and social information processing in middle childhood. The Strange Situation was used to assess infant-mother attachment at 12 months and a revised and adapted Hebrew version of the Social Information Processing Interview (Dodge & Price, 1994) was used to mea...

During the Holocaust, extreme trauma was inflicted on child survivors. Two questions are central to the current investigation : First, do Holocaust child survivors still show marks of their traumatic experiences, even after more than 50 years ? Second, has the trauma been « passed on » to the next generation, that is, to the children of Holocaust c...

In the present study we present a new and rare type of discourse in the AAI which is characterized by absence of attachment representations during adulthood. Forty-eight women, who as children lost both parents as a result of the Holocaust, were administered the AAI in their late adulthood. Two cases in this sample could not be assigned to any of t...

In the present study attachment theory was used as a conceptual framework to investigate the long-term effects of the Holocaust on child survivors. Child survivors who as children lost both mothers and fathers as a result of the Holocaust (N=48), were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) in their late adulthood. They were expected to d...

H. Keilson (1979) coined the term "sequential traumatization" for the accumulation of traumatic stresses confronting the Holocaust survivors before, during, and after the war. A central question is whether survivors were able to raise their children without transmitting the traumas of their past. Through a series of meta-analyses on 32 samples invo...

H. Keilson (1979) coined the term “sequential traumatization” for the accumulation of traumatic stresses confronting the Holocaust survivors before, during, and after the war. A central question is whether survivors were able to raise their children without transmitting the traumas of their past. Through a series of meta‐analyses on 32 samples invo...

This study investigated in a sample of infants and mothers that represented the full SES spectrum in Israel (n=704) the hypothesis that low quality non-maternal care imposes ecological constraints on infant–mother attachment formation by moderating the relations between maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security. Infant attachment to mothe...

Three studies examined associations between early child care and child outcomes among families different from those in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network study. Results suggest that quality is an important influence on children's development and may be an important moderator of the...

During the Holocaust, extreme trauma was inflicted on children who experienced it. Two questions were central to the current investigation. First, do survivors of the Holocaust still show marks of their traumatic experiences, even after more than 50 years? Second, was the trauma passed on to the next generation? Careful matching of Holocaust surviv...

Predictive associations of infant attachment to mothers and fathers with later school functioning, beyond the contribution of contemporaneous representations of relationships and circumstances of caregiving, were examined in 66 young adolescents who were raised in infancy in Israeli kibbutzim with collective sleeping. The Strange Situation Procedur...

The Haifa Study of Early Child Care recruited a large-scale sample (N = 758) that represented the full SES spectrum in Israel, to examine the unique contribution of various child-care-related correlates to infant attachment. After controlling for other potential contributing variables--including mother characteristics, mother-child interaction, mot...

This study longitudinally assessed associations between secure and ambivalent attachment with mothers, fathers and professional caregivers in infancy, and personal space regulation and perceived interpersonal competence in 64 early adolescents (31 boys, 33 girls). Children classified as ambivalently attached to their mothers and/or professional car...

In 2 related studies of nonclinical Israeli samples, the long-term sequelae of traumatic Holocaust experiences were investigated from an attachment perspective. In each study, Holocaust survivors were compared with participants who had not experienced the Holocaust, and their attachment style and state of mind with regard to past and present attach...

In 2 related studies of nonclinical Israeli samples, the long-term sequelae of traumatic Holocaust experiences were investigated from an attachment perspective. In each study, Holocaust survivors were compared with participants who had not experienced the Holocaust, and their attachment style and state of mind with regard to past and present attach...

This article integrates research data about attachment in kibbutz-raised children with a review of the socio-historical processes that shaped the interrelations between the kibbutz family and the collective and influenced childrearing practices. It uses systems theory to evaluate the changing practices of kibbutz childrearing with particular focus...

This study examined the links between mothers’ empathic understanding of their preschoolers’ internal experience and early infant-mother attachment. The empathic understanding of 118 mothers of 4.5-year-olds was assessed by showing them three videotaped segments of observations of their children and themselves and interviewing them regarding their...

Dyadic emotional availability and infant–mother attachment relationship were examined in 687 Israeli dyads. Concurrent assessments used the Strange Situation procedure (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) for evaluating infants' attachment relationship, and the Emotional Availability Scales (Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1993) for evaluating the...

59 male and female Israeli students were interviewed twice by 2 different interviewers at 3 mo intervals to assess the Adult Attachment Interview's (AAI; C. George et al, 1985) test–retest reliability and the effects of the interviewers on the interview itself as well as its subsequent classification. Various memory measures were used to obtain a w...

In a multiple caretaker environment, nonparental caregivers can be important attachment figures with considerable impact on children's later socioemotional development.

Studies in various countries–among them Germany, Holland, Israel, Japan, Sweden, and the United States–have reported Strange Situation distributions that differ markedly across and within cultures, thus raising doubts as to whether infant behavior in the Strange Situation can be regarded as a valid index of the security of attachment, at least in a...

The predictive validity of Strange Situation classifications was studied in a sample of infants raised on kibbutzim in Israel. C-type (resistant) attachments are frequently found on Israeli kibbutzim, but the long-term correlates of this “insecure” pattern have not been identified. Fifty-nine kibbutz children, whose attachments to mothers, fathers,...

Maternal risk for child inadequate development and disturbed parentchild interaction was assessed in a sample of 262 Israeli mothers by considering maternal history, pregnancy situation, and current medical and psychosocial conditions. Outcome measures included the assessment of maternal perceptions of their infants characteristics and their percep...

This chapter deals primarily with issues related to the validity of the Strange Situation procedure in cross-cultural research. Specifically, we show that the relative proportion of infants classified as secure and insecure is not the same, and that the ratio between the A (avoidant) and C (resistant) groups often varies as well. Also, inconsistenc...

The present study examined social work students' perceptions of major custody arrangments. Although subjects used appropriate criteria in making their recommendations, custody was seldom awarded to fathers even when they qualified for it. It is suggested that because the students were value-biased, their professional socialization should be reconsi...

Israel is a “natural laboratory” for studying child abuse due to the low rate of abuse despite high levels of parental stress. This ecological study examined cultural, social and psychological factors in physical abuse. Twenty-five abused Jewish Israeli children aged 1 to 6 years were matched with the same number of non-abused children on age, sex,...

Eighty-six kibbutz-reared infants were observed in the Strange Situation with their mothers, fathers, and metaplot on three separate occasions between 11 and 14 months of age. Prior to each Strange Situation, sociability with male and female strangers was assessed. A-group and B-group infants were significantly more sociable than B4- and C-group in...

Recent discussions of attachment research methodology have questioned the appropriateness of measuring individual differences in Strange Situation behavior in terms of the avoidant, secure, and resistant categories. Continuous, factor-analytically derived latent variables have been proposed as an alternative. The validity of the traditional categor...

Thirty-six Israeli personnel directors were interviewed regarding their attitudes about parental role in the family and their support of maternal policy and family policy programs. Most agreed that the combined family and work load of mothers is larger than that of fathers, but many believed that fathers can do well in child care. Nevertheless, few...

Thirty-eight first-born kibbutz-reared infants and their parents were observed in the parents' living quarters when the infants were 8 and 16 months of age. Although childcare was the primary responsibility of nonparental caretakers (metaplot) rather than either parent, sex differences in parental behavior similar to those observed in the US and Sw...

A review of the literature suggests that: (a) Women are not the exclusive potential contributors to quality child care; (b) men can provide care equally well; (c) a growing number of men want to increase their involvement in child care. A number of obstacles impede, however, increased paternal involvement in child care; these include the existing s...

Mothers of eight Israeli preterm infants were exposed to a standardized but individualized intervention during their stay in the hospital and before their infants were discharged. Mothers and infants in the intervention group were compared to eight control subjects using various outcome measures. While the intervention did not affect maternal perso...

The concept of abuse is a broad one: according to Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus (1976), some of the connotations of the verb “to abuse” are to belittle, depreciate, disparage, ill-use, maltreat, or mistreat. Despite this wide range of meaning, the conventional usage of the term “child abuse” is restricted to the nonaccidental infliction of severe...

To the Editor.— It is clear that there is some disagreement about the effects of early skin-to-skin contact, and these issues are discussed below. We want to underscore, however, that there is no disagreement about the laudable humanization of birthing practices that Klaus and Kennell helped bring about. All are agreed that the maintenance and exte...

The present study tested whether Hoffman's conceptualization of the relationship between disciplinary techniques and moral development can account for findings that delinquents score lower than nondelinquents on various measures of moral development. Twenty-six delinquent adolescents, 20 middle class nondelinquents, and 20 lower class non-delinquen...

In the very few studies examining adults' ability to recognize the different types of infants' cries, it has usually been concluded that experience is the prime factor which facilitates identification of the various types of cry. The present study explored the specific skill of the mother, irrespective of experience. Thirty six-mothers and 32 non-m...

This article compares moral development of delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. The subjects, 249 males and females ranging in age from 13 to 17, were administered a morality test for children including the following measures: resistance to temptation, moral stage, feelings after offense, judgment about the severity of punishment, and confessi...

Most studies investigating the Stroop phenomenon have used duration of performance as a measure to demonstrate the interference effects. In the present study the Stroop phenomenon was examined by means of a recall test. Sixty male and female undergraduates, randomly assigned into one of three experimental conditions, were included in the study. The...

Ninety-six seven- and nine-year-olds were tested under four experimental conditions. A “distinctive label” group associated four different gender-cued labels with four infants’ faces. An “equivalent label” group associated only two of these labels. There were also two no-label groups: “differential perception” and “perception”. In the former, perce...