Scripted knowledge about attachment and social competence in preschoolers: overview

• Published in: Attachment & human development Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 219 - 224
• Main Authors: Vaughn, Brian E., Posada, German, Veríssimo, Manuela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Routledge 04-05-2019; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Attachment representation; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; Internationality; Mother-Child Relations - psychology; Narration; Object Attachment; preschool; Preschool children; secure base script; social competence; Social Skills; secure base script; social competence; Attachment representation; preschool
• ISSN: 1461-6734; 1469-2988
• DOI: 10.1080/14616734.2019.1575545

The papers in this special issue of Attachment & Human Development address questions concerning relations between attachment representations and social competence during early childhood in samples from five different countries. All studies examined these questions using the concept of the "secure base script" that has been widely studied in samples of adults, adolescents, and school-age children. In all samples, the secure base script was scored from attachment-relevant narratives elicited from children in a doll-play task. Consistent with existing literatures, the secure base script score had positive and significant associations with adult ratings of child social competence, even in the presence of potential confounding covariates.