Preschool children’s mental representations of attachment: Antecedents in their secure base behaviors and maternal attachment scripts

摘要

This study examined the antecedents of preschool age children’s mentalrepresentations of attachment, assessed using the Attachment Story CompletionTask (ASCT). Antecedent predictors were maternal attachment scripts, assessedusing the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA), and the child’s secure basebehaviors, assessed using the Attachment Q-Set (AQS). Participants were 121mothers and their preschool children assessed in three samples (Portuguesesample, n ¼ 31; US Midwestern sample, n ¼ 38; US Southeastern sample,n ¼ 52). AQS and ASA assessments were completed approximately 1.5 yearsbefore the ASCT data were collected. No cross-sample contrasts for theattachment variables were significant. Correlations and structural equationmodeling (SEM) indicated that the three attachment measures were significantlyassociated and that both maternal secure base script knowledge and children’ssecure base behaviors (AQS) were uniquely and significantly associated withchildren’s mental representations of attachment (ASCT). A test of the indirecteffect between maternal scripts and child representations through children’ssecure base behaviors was not significant.