Attachment in childcare centers. Is it related to toddlers’ emotion regulation and attentive behavior?

The aim of this study was to develop a multiple-level-of-analysis model on toddlers' attachment security toward childcare caregivers and toddlers' attentive behavior and emotion regulation, to determine how attachment, emotion regulation and attention were related. One hundred-forty eight toddlers and their childcare caregivers were examined. Children's ages ranged from 24 to 36 months (M = 33.82; SD = 5.33). Toddlers' attentive behaviors in childcare centers were rated by observers using the Toddler Attention Questionnaire. Toddlers' Attachment behavior and emotion regulation were rated by childcare caregivers using the Attachment Q-Sort and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Results of structural equation modeling indicated a good overall fit for the model. Toddlers' attachment to childcare caregivers had a direct effect on emotion regulation, negative lability, and attentive behavior, but not on attentive lability, and had a mediated effect, via emotion regulation, on attentive flexibility