Security of attachment in children and adolescents-An Indian experience.
BACKGROUND
Security of attachment plays a key role in a caregiver's relationship with the child. Though this construct is studied extensively during infancy, early and middle childhood in the west, there are only a few Indian studies available on early childhood. The present article reports three studies which examine security of attachment in middle childhood and adolescence using the Security Scale developed by Kerns et al. (2000).


METHODS
In all three studies, the data were collected from a cross sectional sample. Normal school going children formed the sample in studies I and II, whereas study III had both a normal and a clinical group of children.


RESULTS
Findings from studies I and II indicate secure attachment of children and adolescents with their parents. In study III, the normal group of children showed better security of attachment as compared to the clinical group of children.


CONCLUSIONS
The authors of the present study highlight the applicability of the security scale in an Indian setting and suggest further research on standardization of the tool and its clinical utility.
Department of Mental Health and Social Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Deemed University, Hosur Road, Bangalore 560 029, India.
Priya
P
Kayastha
Uma
U
Hirisave
Gitanjali
G
Natarajan
Gitanjali
G
Goyal