1-096 - The Developmental Origins of Script-like Attachment Representations

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Building on foundational work by cognitive and developmental psychologists on event schemas and scripts, Waters and Waters (2006) proposed that an individual’s attachment history with their primary caregivers is represented in memory as a secure base script—that is, a generalized temporal-causal representation of secure base use and support. Increasing evidence suggests that individuals use the secure base script across a variety of relationship contexts. However, no data of the developmental origins of secure base script knowledge have been reported in the literature.

In this symposium we will present the first three long-term longitudinal studies examining the developmental origins of secure base script knowledge. Paper 1 examines associations between maternal and paternal sensitivity, assessed nine times from infancy to early adolescence and secure base script knowledge at age 18 years in a large (N=673), normative-risk sample. Study 2 examines the associations of maternal sensitivity, assessed seven times from infancy to early adolescence, and secure base script knowledge at age 19 in an at-risk sample (N=169). Study 3 examines the associations between maternal sensitivity, measured at five time-points from infancy to early adolescence, and secure base script knowledge in a sample of children adopted by European families (N=118). This symposium will present evidence that a secure base script is abstracted from experiences with sensitive caregivers across risk profiles, across cultures, and independent of genetic similarity between parents and children. Our discussant will integrate these findings and discuss the implications of carrying a scripted attachment representation forward into novel developmental contexts.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Theodore Waters, Univ of Minnesota

Discussant

• Matthew J. Dykas, Suny Oswego

Individual Presentations

• The Developmental Antecedents of Secure Base Script Knowledge: Evidence from the 18 year follow-up of the NICHD SECCYD - Presenting Author: Ryan Davies Steele, Univ of Minnesota; Theodore Waters, Univ of Minnesota; Kelly K. Bost, Univ of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Brian E Vaughn, Auburn Univ; Warren Truitt, Auburn University; Harriet Salatas Waters, State Univ of New York; Cathryn Booth-LaForce, Univ of Wash; Glenn I. Roisman, University of Minnesota

• The Development of the Secure Base Script and its Implications for the Coherence of Adult Attachment Representations - Presenting Author: Theodore Waters, Univ of Minnesota; Sarah Ruiz, University of Minnesota; Ryan Davies Steele, Univ of Minnesota; Glenn I. Roisman, University of Minnesota

• From Maternal Sensitivity in Infancy to Adult Secure Base Scripts - Presenting Author: Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Leiden University; Marinus H. Van IJzendoorn, Leiden University; Femmie Juffer, Leiden University; Christie Schoenmaker, Leiden University