title: Assessing both safe haven and secure base support in parent-child relationships.
abstract: Although the attachment construct refers to a child's tendency to use an attachment figure both as a safe haven in times of distress as well as a secure base from which to explore, approaches to assessing attachment at older ages have focused on safe haven behavior. We tested modified versions of the Friends and Family Interview and the Security Scale Questionnaire to examine separately the correlates of safe haven and secure base support from parents. The main study (n = 107 children, 10-14-year-olds) included both interview and questionnaire assessments of safe haven and secure base support from mothers and fathers. The two methods converged in expected ways, and both showed associations with narrative coherence. Children reported greater safe haven support from mothers and greater secure base support from fathers, suggesting secure base support is a key aspect of father-child attachment. Both mother-child and father-child relationships were related to children's school adjustment and coping.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychological Sciences , Kent State University , Kent , OH , USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Kerns
authors.forename: Brittany L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Mathews
authors.forename: Amanda J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Koehn
authors.forename: Cierra T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Siener-Ciesla
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D004522:Educational Status; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D066107:Social Skills
keywords: attachment; emotion regulation; fathers; parent–child relationships; school adjustment