Attachment and behavior problems in middle childhood as reported by adult and child informants.
The predictive relation between attachment and mother, teacher, and self-reported psychopathology was examined for a diverse socioeconomic status French Canadian sample of 96 children. Attachment classifications were assigned on the basis of reunion behavior with mother when the children were approximately 6 years old, and child problem behavior was assessed 2 years later using the Child Behavior Checklist (mother report), the Social Behavior Questionaire (teacher report), and the Dominic Questionnaire (child self-report). Results indicated that both insecure/ambivalent and insecure/controlling children children were rated higher than secure children on a composite measure of externalizing problems. Concerning internalizing problems, only the controlling group was significantly higher on both a composite adult (teacher and mother) and self-report measure of internalizing problems. Analyses of clinical cutoff scores showed that only the controlling group had a significantly greater likelihood of overall problem behavior than other children.
Moss
Ellen
E
Department of Pshychology, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada. moss.ellen@uqam.ca
Smolla
Nicole
N
Cyr
Chantal
C
Dubois-Comtois
Karine
K
Mazzarello
Tania
T
Berthiaume
Claude
C
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010465:Perception; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011792:Quebec; D019962:Reactive Attachment Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires