4.4.1 Recruitment of non-clinical trial sample
The researcher would send the letter presented as Appendix A to the Principals of several suburban State Primary Schools, proposing the study and inviting participation in the Design Phase. With the permission of the Principal and Classroom Teachers, the researcher would directly issue a verbal invitation to students in Grades 1, 3 and 5, to participate in the study. All students expressing interest in participating would be given an Invitation to Participate, presented as Appendix B, and a Consent Form, presented as Appendix C, for their parents/guardians to read and consider. Consenting parents/guardians and children would then sign the Consent Form.
Signed Consent Forms would be returned to Classroom Teachers who would forward them to the school receptionist, from whom the researcher would collect them. The first 10 children to return signed Consent Forms would participate in the Design Phase of the study.
A telephone call to consenting parent/guardians by the researcher would first confirm their consent and confirm the absence of identified psychological difficulties. The researcher would then arrange an appointment to come to the school and collect the data.
4.4.2 Administration of the technique
Administration of the CEAT would be conducted individually with the children by the researcher, in school hours, and in a private room provided by the school. Children themselves would be asked to confirm their consent prior to administration, and if at that time they declined, arrangements would be make for another participant to be involved.
As part of the CEAT method, all stories would be recorded verbatim in writing by the researcher. They would then be transcribed using a word processing program. These data would then be used in the evaluation of the stimulus cards and procedures, and in the development of the Coding Scheme. Details of the evaluation of the stimulus cards and development of the Coding Scheme are presented in Chapter 5 in Section 5.2.2 below.
4.4.3 Evaluation of the appropriateness of the technique
Data collected in the trial of the technique would be evaluated in an effort to understand the effectiveness of each card in eliciting responses relevant to quality of attachment. This evaluation would look at the range and quality of individual responses to the CEAT stimulus cards, especially noting:
(1) difficulties participants might have had in responding to the activity;
(2) the frequency with which participants’ responses included interactions with others and other attachment-related material;
(4) which cards presented difficulties for the children and which the children seemed to connect with easily.
This analysis would consider the grade level of participants, so that judgments could be made about differences in effectiveness associated with using the technique across the three different age groups included in the study. Stimulus cards that were judged as failing to produce usable data would be eliminated or revised, and new ones produced if necessary. Finally, a decision about the order in which the stimulus cards would be presented would be made. Results of this analysis are set out in Chapter 5, Sections 5.2.2 and 5.3 below. Following this analysis, the creation of a Coding Scheme would be undertaken.
4.4.4 Development of the quality of attachment Coding Scheme
Several steps were planned for the development of a Coding Scheme and an accompanying Coding Manual.
4.4.4.1 Analysis of the literature conceptualizing attachment
Next the literature on the empirical investigation of attachment would be reviewed and summarized, to highlight coding methods used in other attachment assessment techniques, and characteristics previously deemed to be associated with IWMs of attachment. The following considerations were central.
(1) Previously created coding methods would not be imposed on the CEAT Coding Scheme, but they would inform the researcher’s choice of attachment variables and indicators. As other story-telling narrative activities do it was planned to
include evaluation of both Story Content (what was represented in the narrative) and Discourse Features (narrative coherence, perspective taking, themes and defensive processes).
(2) Attachment would be conceptualized as being multifaceted rather than merely categorical, such that the Coding Scheme would capture the hierarchy of different qualities of attachment presented in a story, where this was the case. In other words, the intent was to create a Coding Scheme which would allow for obtaining scores on each of four styles of attachment quality, if each of these were represented in a child’s responses. It also was intended that the coding would indicate which quality of attachment was predominant and which qualities were subsidiary.
(3) Because it would not be expected that each story contained a particular number of indicators, a process of scoring that would proportionally include all indicators identified would be designed.
4.4.4.2 Analysis of the trial data collected
The development of a Coding Scheme for the CEAT would first involve a systematic qualitative analysis, of the stories collected in the Design Phase trial. Stories would be read repeatedly to help understand the kind of coding information that seemed relevant to experience of attachment and that needed to be coded, and to establish a preliminary list of coding variables likely to be useful in making sense of the data.
4.4.4.3 Formalization of Coding Guide and Coding Manual
A Coding Guide would be produced to standardize the coding of CEAT responses, along with a Coding Manual elaborating administration and coding and its interpretation. To facilitate coding, a Summary Sheet would be designed to collate all the attachment indicators identified in the set of stories told.
4.4.4.4 Modification of the technique
After analysis of the trial data using a preliminary Coding Guide and Summary Sheet, it was planned to produce a revised version of the CEAT Stimulus Cards, Coding Guide, and Summary Sheet. This modified version of the technique would then be used in the collection and coding of data in the Pilot Phase of the research.