ABSTRACT
This meta-analysis evaluated the psychometric properties of the Security Scale (SS; k = 57 studies), a measure specifically designed to assess attachment in middle childhood, using several criteria: stability over time, associations with other attachment measures, relations with caregiver sensitivity, and associations with theoretically driven outcomes. The SS demonstrated moderate stability and meaningful associations with other attachment measures and caregiver sensitivity. Furthermore, the SS showed significant associations with developmental correlates of attachment: school adaptation, emotional and peer social competence, self-esteem, and behavioral problem. Some effect sizes varied as a function of socioeconomic status (SES; peer social competence and maladjustment) and publication status (emotional competence, peer social competence, and self-esteem). The association between the SS and our constructs of interest were, for the most part, independent of geographical location and child gender or age. Overall, findings suggest that the SS is a robust measure of attachment in middle childhood and early adolescence.
Subject(s)
Caregivers/psychology , Health Surveys/methods , Health Surveys/standards , Object Attachment , Age Factors , Child , Emotions , Female , Humans , Male , Parent-Child Relations , Parents/psychology , Peer Group , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of Results , Residence Characteristics , Self Concept , Sex Factors , Social SkillsABSTRACT
In middle childhood, more securely attached children show better emotion regulation when assessed as general tendencies (e.g. coping style), but studies looking at emotion in response to specific stressors have revealed mixed results. This study examined how attachment security, avoidance, and ambivalence - assessed with a story stem task (99 children, 9-11 years old) - relate to dynamic indices of affective and autonomic responses (baseline, reactivity, recovery). Reports of positive and negative affect, and high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), were assessed during a social stressor task. Securely attached children did not show reactivity effects, although they did show greater recovery of positive affect after the task ended. Avoidant children showed both less reactivity and recovery of negative affect, suggesting a dampened emotional response. Ambivalent children showed more reactivity and more recovery of negative affect. Autonomic response changes were only evident for ambivalent children, who showed less suppression of HF-HRV variability under stress.
Subject(s)
Affect/physiology , Object Attachment , Social Behavior , Stress, Psychological/physiopathology , Vagus Nerve/physiology , Adaptation, Physiological , Animals , Autonomic Nervous System/physiology , Child , Emotions/physiology , Female , Heart Rate , Humans , Male , Pets/psychology , Sex Factors , Single-Blind MethodABSTRACT
Understanding emotions serves as a critical foundation for several aspects of children's social development. Secure attachment relationships, which allow for open emotion communication between the parent and child, are hypothesized to foster emotion understanding. The goal of the current meta-analysis was to determine the strength of the relationship between emotion understanding and attachment security. We conducted an electronic search using PsycINFO and identified 10 studies (N = 564 children) examining this association in children younger than 18 years of age. The meta-analysis yielded a medium and significant overall effect size of r = .33 with no significant moderators. Thus, our results demonstrated that the association between emotion understanding and security of attachment is quite robust. (PsycINFO Database Record
