Introduction: Scientific evidence gathered over the last decades has demonstrated that early attachment is a vital process for the understanding, prevention, and intervention of people's mental and physical health. However, information about the attachment system functioning in Chile is scarce.
Objective: To des cribe attachment styles distribution in populations of children under different types of care.
Subjects and method: Through a retrospective descriptive method, 714 mother-child pairs (1 to 36 months- old) selected at random and purposefully, were assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure, Atta chment during Stress Scale (ADS), and Student-Teacher Relationship Scale. The samples were collec ted from randomly selected normative families, infants attending JUNJI nurseries and kindergartens, and infants from CONIN centers and who live in prison with their mothers.
Results: The samples from six studies show the spectrum of the attachment system functioning in diverse conditions: 70% secure and 30% insecure, and 51.1% secure and 48.9% insecure in normative samples; 48.5% secure and 51.5% in secure in alternative care; 39.6% secure and 60.4% insecure, and 25% secure and 75% in secure styles in high-risk samples.
Conclusion: the study presents interesting evidence on the atta chment distributions in childhood, which allow reflecting on the uneven Chilean reality with regard to early social and emotional development.