Poster #133 - Do I Think that You Think I Love You? Mother versus Child Perspectives on Child Attachment Security

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Prior research suggests that children and their parents do not always see eye-to-eye on children’s emotional lives. For example, Lagattuta et al. (2012) found that 4- to 11-year-olds rated themselves as more anxious and less optimistic than parent reports indicated (see also Lopez-Perez & Wilson, 2016). Here, we investigate whether a similar discrepancy occurs in child- versus parent-reported attachment security. This is of theoretical and empirical importance as researchers typically rely on mother reports in children under 8 years of age, thereby excluding the child’s perspective.

Four- to 10-year-olds (N=154) reported the frequency that they experienced emotions and thoughts reflective of secure attachment using a 5-point pictorial scale (ranging from “none of the time” to “all of the time”). Training ensured comprehension and appropriate use of the scale points. The 10-item attachment questionnaire, read aloud by the experimenter, was adapted from Brenning et al. (2011, 2014; see Table 1). Mothers (N=149) reported how attached they believed their children were to them using the same items via Qualtrics Survey Software.

The internal consistency of children’s responses increased with age: 4/5alpha=.49, 6/7alpha=.70, 8/10alpha=.83. Parallel to this, mothers of 4- to 5-year-olds had weaker internal reliability when reporting on their child’s attachment (alpha=.68) compared to mothers of older children (alphas>.82). Whereas 6- to 10-year-olds showed moderate agreement with their mothers’ perspective (rs>.34, ps<.016), 4- to 5-year-olds and their mothers held unrelated views (r=-.18, p=.223). A 3 (age: 4/5, 6/7, 8/10) x 2 (reporter: child, parent) repeated measures ANOVA on average attachment security scores produced a main effect for reporter qualified by an Age x Reporter interaction, Fs>17.19, ps<.001, np2s>.19 (Figure 1). From children’s perspective, 4- to 5-year-olds were the least and 8- to 10-year-olds were the most securely attached (ps<.018). In contrast, mothers reported that 4- to 5-year-olds were more securely attached than older children (ps<.022). Mothers of 4- to 7-year-olds also reported that their children experienced more frequent emotions and thoughts indicative of secure attachment than 4- to 7-year-olds self-reported (ps<.001), with no differences between 8- to 10-year-olds and their mothers (p=.889).

To assess the test-retest reliability of the scale, a subset of children (N=90) and mothers (N=75) completed the measure again one week later. We conducted bivariate correlations between average attachment security at Time 1 and average attachment security at Time 2 for each age group. All correlations were significant (rs>.62, ps<.001), indicating that children and their mothers were stable in their responses over time.

This study reveals that 6- to 10-year-olds can reliably self-report their attachment security, with their answers positively correlated with how their mothers expected them to respond. In contrast, 4- to 5-year-olds held less coherent views of their attachment (a mixed perspective which held when evaluated one week later), and shared no agreement with their mothers’ beliefs. Mothers expected higher attachment security than 4- to 7-year-olds endorsed. Results will be discussed in relation to developmental changes in children’s ability to reflect on their relationships, including the formation of explicit working models of attachment quality during middle childhood.

Authors

• Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, University of California, Davis
  Presenting Author

• Hannah J Kramer, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karen Hjortsvang Lara, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katie Kennedy, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author