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2-056 - Scripted Secure Base Attachment Representations Predict Social Competence in Preschool Age Children

Fri, April 7, 10:15 to 11:45am, Austin Convention Center, Meeting Room 4A

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Attachment theory is the broadest and most implicative framework in the developmental sciences for organizing data relevant to social adaptation from infancy through childhood. Attachments constructed during the early years influence aspects of social adaptation from early childhood through adolescence. Bowlby’s concept of “internal working models” (i.e., mental representations of attachment relationships that provide informational inputs into mental representations of self, self in relation to others, and to the nature of the larger world) is considered to be the mechanism that carries the influences of early attachments forward. In this symposium, each presentation provides evidence of the implications of attachment representations for child adaptive functioning during early childhood. The studies come from Europe, Asia, North, and South America. In each study children’s representations of attachment were assessed using the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT), scored for the presence and quality of the secure base script and adult(s) rated social competence. In each study, the ASCT secure base script score was a positive, significant correlate of adult-rated and/or observed social competence, net of effects of relevant covariates. This was so even though the measures and raters of social competence were not identical across studies. These findings extend the generality of attachment across socio-cultural boundaries and also suggest important continuities of adaptation from infancy/toddlerhood to early childhood, even though the nature of social adaptation changes (from family relationships to peer relationships). The results also are consistent with the theoretical perspective on the development of competence offered by Waters & Sroufe (1983).

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