Validating the Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures Scale among Chinese Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures (ECR–RS) scale is designed to capture attachment among diverse relational contexts (e.g., parents, friends). Although the ECR–RS has begun to be applied to children and adolescents, its psychometric properties among children and adolescents are not well-known, especially concerning second-order structural validity, measurement invariance, and longitudinal predictive validity. To fill this gap, the current research examined the ECR–RS among 3,184 Chinese students (9- to 18-year old) using cross-sectional and longitudinal (6 months) data. The results demonstrated generally acceptable composite and test–retest reliabilities, and acceptable second-order structural validity. In addition, the measurement invariance of the ECR–RS held across time, relational contexts, and school levels to varying degrees. Furthermore, using a partial invariance model, we depicted the cross-sectional trajectory of attachment scores across relational contexts and school levels. Finally, attachment was associated concurrently with the Big-Five personality traits in theoretically meaningful ways and longitudinally predicted depression, anxiety, stress, and self-esteem after controlling for age, gender, and pretest scores. In conclusion, the Chinese ECR–RS has proven to be a valuable instrument for future research among children and adolescents.

Declaration of interest statement

We do not have any conflicts of interests to disclose.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China under Grant 15ZDB139 and the China Scholarship Council (to Qingyao Zhang). This paper was written while the first author was a visiting scholar at the Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC). The first author is grateful to people at UIUC for their support.