title: Children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship and their school adjustment: the mediating role of attention difficulties.
abstract: This study examined the role of attention difficulties as a mediator of associations between children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship and their school adjustment in a sample of two hundred and sixteen 6-year-old children. Consistent with hypotheses, findings from structural equation models indicated that observer ratings of children's insecure representations of interparental relationships in a story completion task predicted computerized task assessments and parent reports of children's attention difficulties 1 year later. Children's attention difficulties, in turn, were associated with concurrent levels of school problems and increases in school problems over a 1-year period as indexed by teacher reports. Attention difficulties accounted for an average of 34% of the association between insecure internal representations and school problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA. patrick.davies@rochester.edu
authors.forename: Patrick T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Meredith J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Woitach
authors.forename: Marcia A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.forename: E Mark
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Cummings
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012574:Schools; D012917:Social Adjustment