Wider Theoretical Considerations

This part of the study raises a number of important issues concerning research into attachment in middle childhood, especially concerning its measurement and the implications of the usefiilness and likely benefits of such research. For clarity, these points are dealt with under a number of sub-headings.

11.10.1 Measuring Change Over Time

One of the unique qualities of the CAI, compared with other psychological measures, is its attempt to capture an internal representation or state of mind with respect to

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attachment in children aged between six and twelve years old. In many ways, such a measure may be of benefit in seeking to measure change over time, especially in psychotherapy outcome studies. However, the scales may well prove to be of greater utihty in measuring such change rather than the global classifications which could be more resistant to change. If such a conjecture were correct, as Trowell (1998) has suggested for her psychotherapy outcome study with sexually abused adolescent girls using the AAI, it would provide a compelling argument for extending the number of scales and developing the existing scales.

Such a research strategy may be considerably more illuminating than comparing global attachment classifications, which at this stage are not fully operationalised and do not provide a detailed constellation of attachment patterns. Although, as stated earlier, the micro-analytical scores may not prove to be good predictors of later developmental achievement unlike the global rating scales (Parke and Tinsley, 1987). Thus, both the rating scales and global classifications are of use but for different purposes.

11.10.2 Different Attachment Classifications

The coding manual as outlined in this document did not set out to classify distinct attachment patterns, although a number of probable attachment patterns that may result from responses to the CAI have been discussed above. This discussion has not yet addressed the issue of disorganised attachment patterns. If this measure were to be

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used with a psychiatric population it is expected that there will be a number of children who wall fall into such a category.

Indeed, there were several interviews in the samples used for this study which may well provide usefiil indicators for operationalising such a classification. Such interviews were characterised by bossy and controlling children who provided unpleasant and tormenting narratives. This unresolved and disorganised attachment pattern is hypothesised to be linked to a controlling and punitive caretaking style (Goldberg, Muir and Kerr, 1995). The most probable candidate for this classification in this sample had strange gaps in her narrative, acted strangely with the interviewer and was preoccupied in an odd fashion. Thus, if there were more of these children it would be possible to classify a disorganised attachment pattern in middle childhood.. It is predicted that such narratives would contain dissociated responses, odd connections, bizarre images of death and a “switching- o ff’ every time an attachment figure was mentioned (Carlson et al., 1989; Lyons-Ruth et al., 1990; Main and Hesse, 1990; Schneider-Rosen et al., 1985).

11.10.3 Issues of Measurement

This project has clearly demonstrated that it is possible to ask children between six and twelve years about their relationships with their parents. The issue of how to code those responses is far from resolved. A number of measurement issues concerned with using the CAI in middle childhood will now be discussed. These include paying greater attention to the behaviour children exhibit during the interview, whether there are

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different types of attachment security in middle childhood and the issue of whether attachment is independent of verbal ability and intelligence

Behavioural Information

The current coding instructions pay particular attention to the content and form of the responses and uses gross behavioural information when assigning an attachment classification. However, there is a need to operationalise the coding of the children’s behaviour throughout the interview for three main reasons. Firstly, a more detailed behavioural analysis may provide important additional information in being able to further separate patterns of responses to the interview beyond the ‘secure’ and ‘insecure’ classifications, providing more subtle distinctions between the children’s responses. For example, a child who repeatedly avoids eye contact when speaking about emotions may be distinguished from a child who maintains eye contact throughout the interview.

Secondly, the provision of a coding system which fully incorporated both behavioural and representational expressions of attachment in middle childhood would theoretically bridge the gap between the study of attachment in infancy and adulthood (Ainsworth and Wittig, 1969; Ainsworth, Bleahar and Walls, 1978; Main, Kaplan and Cassidy, 1985). As already stated, attachment is considered to traverse the whole of the lifespan (Bowlby, 1969/82) and although there has been difficulty in finding an analogue to the Strange Situation in middle childhood (Shouldice and Stevenson-Hinde, 1992), attempts to capture salient behavioural information should not be abandoned. In this respect, the CAI is unique in

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that the child’s behaviour during the interview forms the background, and an important third variable along with content and form, against which the child’s representation of attachment can be inferred. The contribution of the behavioural analysis from this study was of sufiScient weight to endorse the recommendations of others who state that both the content of the narrative and the behaviour of the child needs to be taken into account (Oppenheim and Renouf, 1991; Hammond, 1993). Additionally, a research strategy that is broader, in the absence of information to the contrary, is more likely to prove fruitful.

Thirdly, it would be to difficult justify the added complications of video recording the CAI if the behaviour of the child is not specifically taken into account. If a coding system were to emerge that ignored behavioural information then the interview should be audio­ taped rather than video recorded..

Age Related Attachment Patterns

The possibility that there are different attachment patterns in middle childhood that are parallel to the Strange Situation and Adult Attachment Interview has already been addressed. However, this assumes that attachment organisation will manifest in the same ways during this period of development. It is possible that there are other patterns which are peculiar to this age group, such as activity fears; insecure interactions with peers; gender differences with associated social desirability, e.g.; boys may be more reluctant to speak about relationships in emotional terms; and transitional issues around changing schools which may be linked to an increased internal sense of independence.

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Is Attachment Unified of Person Specific?

It has been shown that a child may be classified as secure to one parent but insecure to the other This finding is in keeping with previous attachment research in infancy (Fox et al 1991; Main and Westen, 1981) but not in adulthood (Main and Goldwyn, 1994). For example, the Strange Situation procedure gives rise to an attachment classification to mother and father respectively, whereas the SAT and AAI give rise only to a global attachment classification. Theoretically, it is of great interest to know when, if at all, there is a combining of an individual’s state of mind with respect to attachment to justify only allocating a global attachment rating. The results of this part of the study would suggest that children between the ages of six and twelve years do not necessarily hold a global state of mind with respect to attachment. Instead, it appears that there is the possibility in some children of at least two states of mind with respect to attachment, one to mother and one to father, which are to some degree fi’om one another.

Attachment, Intelligence and Verbal Ability

The issue of the relationship between intelligence and verbal ability is far from straight forward and rather complicated to tease apart. It has already been stated that infants classified as “secure” in the Strange Situation are more likely to have improved cognitive abilities (Main, 1973; Matas et al. 1978) compared with those children classified as “insecure”. Therefore a central issue for this study is whether the measure of attachment has simply captured some aspect of improved functioning and labelled as “security”.

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It is not possible to determine these issues based upon the results of this study as no formal control was made for intelligence or verbal ability. Having said that, there is some suggestive evidence from this study which refutes the claim that all that is being measured is verbal ability or intelligence. Firstly, there were no gender differences with respect to classification (secure” vs. “insecure”) on the CAI. If the coding system were purely measuring verbal ability, one would predict that girl would more likely be classified as “secure” than boys.

11.10.4 Ethical Considerations

There are a number of important clinical and ethical questions that need to be raised. It is possible that the CAI could have an unsettling nature on some children and leave them with difficult thoughts following the interview. It would therefore be important that the CAI, if used for research purposes, is administered by experienced and sensitive interviewers who have been adequately trained. Furthermore, it would a minimum of good practice to offer additional help to children who were troubled as a result of the interview. However, a balance between acknowledging that it may be stressful and assuming that it will be stressful needs to be made. It is the author’s experience that children do not find this interview unduly stressful if it is administered with sensitivity and understanding.

Part 4: Discussion