The Secure Base Phenomenon in Preschoolers: Child Secure Base Behavior and Narratives about Using Mo

1
The Secure Base Phenomenon in Preschoolers
Child Secure Base Behavior and Narratives about
Using Mom as a Secure Base.Germán Posada
Garene Kaloustian Purdue UniversityPatricia
Bárrig University of Vermont
Introduction
Questions
Procedures and Assessment
Results
Conclusions

• Research on the development of childrens
  attachment related representations during early
  childhood is central to our understanding of
  secure base relationships transition from a
  sensory-motor to a representational modus
  operandi.
• Little research has been conducted to determine
  the organization (i.e., structure) of such
  budding attachment representations. This scarcity
  of research is in part due to the limited
  availability of assessment tools.
• Recent conceptual and methodological innovations
  that integrate cognitive psychological (scripts)
  and attachment (the secure base phenomenon)
  related concepts have made assessments of the
  organization of secure base knowledge/representati
  ons in children readily accessible.

1) Is there an association between preschoolers
secure base behavior organization and their
attachment representations, i.e., secure base
scriptedness? 2) Is secure base scriptedness
associated with childrens verbal ability and
gender, and with mothers education? If so,
3) Are secure base behavior and attachment
representations associated after controlling for
those variables?

• Attachment Representations were assessed using
  the MacArthur Story Stems.
• Children were presented with three different
  story stems (Spilled Juice, Hurt Knee, Monster in
  the Bedroom) and asked to complete each story
  after being prompted by a researcher.
• Stories were coded based upon Waters, Rodrigues
  Ridgeway (1998) secure base scriptedness scale
  1 no secure base script 2 Middle 3 clear
  secure base script. Each story was rated by 2
  researchers.
• Inter-observer Reliability
• Monster in the Bedroom .87
• Spilled Juice .80
• Hurt Knee .80

The findings presented 1. Support the
hypothesis that secure base behavior organization
is related to childrens organization of
attachment represented information. Specifically,
the more a childs behavior during interactions
with mother reflects the secure base phenomenon,
the more her/his narratives regarding attachment
events reveal a secure base script. 2. Provide
support to the notion that attachment
representations are organized (structured) as
secure base scripts.
Question 1 The association between secure base
behavior and secure base scriptedness. Scri
ptedness Security Global .40
Home .39 Park .28 plt .01 plt
.05
Participants
76 predominantly Caucasian (80)
preschooler-mother dyads from non-clinical,
middle class sectors of the population. Gender
35 boys and 41 girls. Age M 51.2 months sd
8.24 Range 36 75 months. Mothers years of
education M 16.6 Range 9 24 sd 2.46
3. Empirically support the validity of the
methodological approach used to assess
preschoolers attachment mental
representations. 4. Indicate that the secure
base scriptedness of childrens narratives do not
seem to reflect their verbal skills, or be
related to mothers level of education, or
childs gender. 5. Open a window to look at the
construction and elaboration of secure base
scripts during the preschool years and beyond.

• Childrens vocabulary knowledge was assessed
  with the Peabody Vocabulary Test (PPVT).
• The PPVT was used for discriminant validity
  purposes. We wanted to rule out the possibility
  that verbal skills may account for differences in
  participants scores on scriptedness.
• PPVT standardized scores were used in analysis.
• Maternal education was assessed as years of
  schooling mothers reported.

Question 2 Associations between scriptedness and
childrens verbal ability and gender, and
mothers education. Scriptedness PPVT
.13 ns Moms education -.03
ns t-test N M sd t M-diff
p Boys 35 1.91 .61 2.47 -.35 lt
.05 Girls 41 2.27 .63

• Based on Brethertons (1990) work and on
  social-cognitive developmental theory, Waters and
  associates (1998) suggest that attachment
  representations could be understood as scripts
  about secure base relationships.
• Using the secure base phenomenon concept, they
  proposed a procedure to rate child narratives in
  response to attachment related events in terms of
  secure base scriptedness.

Procedures and Assessment

• Secure Base Behavior was observed both at home
  (2 hrs.) and at the park (1 hr.) using the
  Attachment Q-Set.
• 50 of 76 Park Visits were double coded
  (Reliability based on inter-observer agreement
  was .75)
• 60 of 76 Home Visits were double coded
  (Reliability based on inter-observer agreement
  was .76)
• Composite q-descriptions for the home and park
  were obtained. Also an overall q-composite was
  calculated.
• A global security score and security scores for
  the home and park were calculated for each child
  by correlating her/his q-descriptions with a
  security criterion sort that describes the
  hypothetically secure child. The correlation
  coefficients are a childs security scores.

Results

• This secure base script has an order of events
  that leads to a typical story The child is
  engaged in the environment or the dyad is
  interacting in a warm manner, an obstacle or
  conflict is introduced (e.g., a minor injury to
  the child), assistance is requested and offered
  by the caregiver, the help is successful in
  resolving the conflict, and the child is able to
  go back to activity or the dyad is able to return
  to productive interaction.
• Scripted information about the secure base
  phenomenon presumably reflects the typical
  experiences in the domain of attachment
  relationships.

Descriptive Statistics M sd Range
Security Global .49 .18 -.14 -- .75
Home .42 .19 -.16 -- .73 Park
.43 .20 -.23 -- .71 Scriptedness 2.11 .64
1 3 PPVT 111.7 14.2 60 -- 150 Moms
education 16.56 2.47 9 -- 16
Question 3 Associations between secure base
behavior and scriptedness after controlling for
gender. Scriptedness Security Global
.40 Home .40 Park
.28 plt .01 plt .05
Correspondance can be addressed to Germán
Posada, gposada_at_purdue.edu or Garene Kaloustian,
gkaloust_at_purdue.edu