A Compile Of Attachment Questionnaire For Two-to-four-year-old Children And Assessment Of Their Attachment Security

Background:Attachment theory has become the dominant approach to understanding early socioemotional and personality development.An enormous amount of research has been conducted to examine the development of attachment during infancy.The third development stage in the growth of attachment—i.e,the phase of clear-cut attachment—has been the focus of most research attention. Since Bowlby's formative work,attachment research has expanded significantly in longitudinal scope, and most current attachment research is focused,not on infants,but on toddlers and preschoolers,with attention beginning to transfer to the fourth stage—the phase of goal-corrected partnership.Implications of the attachment partnership for the organization of attachment behavior during the preschool year draws particular research interest.This research brings important new conceptual and methodological challenges.Conceptually,attachment security and the secure base are central to the theory. Methodologically,the Strange Situation Procedure and the Attachment Q-sort are the golden standards for assessing children's attachment security and secure base phenomenon,but both methods either require extensive training,or consume lots of time.This research aims at developing a Preschoolder Attachment Qestionnaire(PAQ),which assesses 2-4-year-olds' attachment security with mother.Method:There were four studies:(Study 1) 454 2-to-4-year-old(M =42.4 months,SO =7.18) children and their mothers participated in questionnaire survey.We conducted item analysis and exploratory factor analysis of the preliminary questionnaire,and assessed the formal one's internal reliability,test-retest reliability,construct validity and predicted validity;(Study 2) 31 2-4-year-old (M = 39.7 months,SD = 8.93) children's maternal AQS was used to assessed criterion validity of PAQ,and a cross-culture comparison on security score(or secure base phenomenon) between our sample and other countries or cities' was conducted;(Study 3) 70 2-4-year-old(M = 38.7 months, SO = 8.31 ) children and their mothers were videotaped in a modified Strange Situation Procedure,with subsequent scoring used to examine the PAQ's criterion validity once more.Furthermore,a possibility to classify three attachment groups by the questionnaire was studied;(Study 4) 22 2-4-year-old (M = 43.2 months,SD = 5.37) mother-child dyads participate in Competing Demands Tasks,drawing on the procedure we assess the theoretical construct validity of the questionnaire.Results:(1) There are altogether eight first-order factors in PAQ,namely,secure base,activity, compliance,interactive affect tone,enjoyment of physical contact,response to strangers,response to praise,and demanding;three second-order factors,namely,attachment-exploration,smooth interaction with mother,and social-activity;(2)PAQ appears to have good internal consistency reliability,test-retest reliability with 6 months between assessment,construct validity,predicted reliability,discriminated reliability,criterion reliability and theoretical construct validity;(3) Distribution of security scores derived from our sample's maternal AQS was highly similar to the Germany sample,but was significantly different from Beijing's sample,verifying Bowbly and Ainsworth's notion—characteristic patterns of secure-base behavior were similar across cultures rather than specific to particular cultures; (4) Chinese 2-4-year-old children's strange situation behavior patterns was similar with western children's;(5) PAQ has the potential to classify child into avoidant,secure,and resistant-attached groups.28.2%,42.5%,29.3%of the 454 subjects belong to these three types respectively,indicating that resistant-attached children are more prevalent than in the U.S.A,but comparable to samples from Israel and Japan..Moreover,it appears that there are more insecure-attached children in China than in the U.S.A and Japan. Conclusions and implications:Dimensions in PAQ were identical to domain scales in AQS;PAQ has good reliability and validity,so could be used to assess attachment security of Chinese 2-4-year-olds; Secure-base phenomenon is universal;There were significant differences in proportions of three attachment groups between China and the U.S.A and Japan.This research provides a more convenient and specific instrument for assessing mother-child attachment relationship,so facilitates attachment research in China.It also provided reference conclusions to further Chinese child attachment research.