Understanding Attachment: Parenting, Child Care, and Emotional Development

"Clear, concise and engaging, Jean Mercer's Understanding Attachment is a trustworthy guide for any reader who wants to learn about what the author calls the most important way of thinking of emotional development. Mercer goes back more than a century to describe psychoanalysts' and ethologists' contributions to understanding infants' intense relationships to their caregivers….After describing what we know about attachment and how we know it, Mercer ventures beyond the limits of research findings to suggest the implications of attachment theory for contemporary infants, young children, and parents….She challenges makers of public policy, lawyers and judges, the child care community, and parents to make the effort to truly understand attachment-- and to use new knowledge on behalf if all young children and families."(Emily Fenichel, Editor, Zero To Three Journal)