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Establishing Psychometric Properties of the Brief Attachment Scale (BAS-16) in a Clinical Sample

Wed, April 7, 10:15 to 11:15am EDT (10:15 to 11:15am EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Infant attachment security predicts many critical developmental outcomes. Therefore, the availability of feasible, valid, and reliable tools to measure the quality of infant attachment is vital to developmental science. Gold-standard measures of child attachment, including the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP; Ainsworth et al., 1978) and the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS; Waters & Dean, 1985), are both time- and resource-intensive, underscoring the need for brief measures of child attachment. This project aims to: 1) demonstrate the psychometric properties of the Brief Attachment Scale (BAS-16) in a clinical sample by replicating and expanding upon findings presented in the seminal BAS-16 study (Cadman et al., 2018), and 2) establish inter-rater agreement on a Likert-based scoring method for this novel, brief measure of child attachment.

Data were collected as part of a larger clinical trial examining the efficacy of an in-home mental health intervention aimed at promoting positive parent-infant/toddler relationships. Data collection occurred at 5 waves across a 12-month period; the BAS-16 was collected at 12-months post-enrollment. Participants included 73 families who were randomized to treatment or control groups. Parents were eligible based on child age (< 24 months at enrollment) and endorsement of ≥ two socio-demographic risks (economic disadvantage, depression, perceived parenting challenges, and/or high childhood adversity). Sixty-three families completed all waves of the study; there was no evidence of differential attrition.

At enrollment, mothers ranged from 19- to 44-years old (M=31.91; SD=5.68); child age ranged from prenatal to 26 months (M=10.68; SD=7.36). The sample was diverse with regards to race (43.80% non-white) and economic advantage (63% eligible for government assistance). Measures include the BAS-16, the Brief Infant Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA; Briggs-Gowan et al., 2002), and the Dyadic Mutuality code (Owens, 1992) derived from video-recorded parent-child interactions.

The BAS-16 consists of Harmonious Interaction and Proximity-Seeking subscales made up of 16 items selected from the 90-item AQS. While the AQS assessment utilizes Q-sort methodology, items in the BAS-16 were rated using a 9-point Likert scale. To obtain inter-rater reliability, evaluators met bi-weekly with an attachment expert to discuss observations and practice coding behavior. Once initial reliability was established, evaluators coded infant/toddler attachment at 12-month visits, which included 2 hours in the home. This rigorous process of review and discussion with an attachment expert was continued throughout data collection to maintain excellent inter-rater reliability.

Evaluators achieved strong inter-rater agreement on BAS-16 items and scales (ICC range=0.90-0.98), indicating excellent inter-rater reliability in Likert-scale ratings. The BAS-16 also demonstrated excellent internal consistency within this clinical sample (α ranges=0.86–0.89). With regard to validity, child social-emotional problems (r=-0.42, p<.01) and observed Dyadic Mutuality (r=0.41, p<.01) were found to be significantly associated with the BAS-16 Harmonious Interaction subscale.

Results demonstrate strong psychometric properties of the BAS-16 in a clinical sample, as well as excellent inter-rater agreement in Likert-scale ratings of BAS-16 items. This study provides additional evidence for reliability and validity of this new observer-rated attachment measure, including the utility of Likert-type item ratings, expanding use of the scale in both research and clinical domains.

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