title: Attachment to Mother and Father at Transition to Middle Childhood.
abstract: The present study investigated concordance between representations of attachment to mother and attachment to father, and convergence between two narrative-based methods addressing these representations in middle childhood: theManchester Child Attachment Story Task(MCAST) and theSecure Base Script Test(SBST). One hundred and twenty 6-year-old children were assessed by separate administrations of the MCAST for mother and father, respectively, and results showed concordance of representations of attachment to mother and attachment to father at age 6.5 years. 75 children were additionally tested about 12 months later, with the SBST, which assesses scripted knowledge of secure base (and safe haven), not differentiating between mother and father attachment relationships. Concerning attachment to father, dichotomous classifications (MCAST) and a continuous dimension capturing scripted secure base knowledge (MCAST) converged with secure base scriptedness (SBST), yet we could not show the same pattern of convergence concerning attachment to mother. Results suggest some convergence between the two narrative methods of assessment of secure base script but also highlight complications when using the MCAST for measuring attachment to father in middle childhood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, University of Rome, Sapienza, Italy.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Folco
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX USA.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Messina
authors.affiliation: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, University of Rome, Sapienza, Italy.
authors.forename: Giulio Cesare
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Zavattini
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Elia
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2758-5785
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Psouni
keywords: Attachment to father; Attachment to mother; Generalized attachment representations; Middle childhood; Secure base script