Preschoolers’ secure base script representations predict teachers’ ratings of social competence in two independent samples

ABSTRACT

Associations between attachment security, assessed as a secure base script (SBS), and teachers’ social competence ratings were examined in two samples (one from the Midwest region and the other from the Southern region of the United States). Consistent with previous reports, significant associations between domains were obtained in both samples and after combining the two samples, r = .33, p < .001. The associations remained significant when child sex, age, and verbal intelligence were controlled. Findings are discussed with reference to relations between SBS scores and the covariates. Regarding sex differences, an existing literature suggests that girls, compared with boys, may be advantaged with respect to skills that could support higher scores on the task used to assess secure base scripts. In both samples, teachers rated girls as somewhat higher on scales of social competence and controlling for sex reduced the magnitude of associations between SBS and social competence, but the results remained significant in all tests.

KEYWORDS:

• Secure base script
• Attachment representations
• Internal working models
• Attachment security
• Social competence

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Lisa Krzysik and London Nix for their assistance and support of the data collection for USA Sample 2.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We understand that the PPVT is not a comprehensive measure of verbal intelligence and is better characterized as a measure of receptive vocabulary. However, the PPVT standard score is a positive, significant correlate of the full-scale Stanford Binet and the verbal scales from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Tests of Intelligence and we are comfortable with referring to this score as an index of verbal intelligence.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been supported in part by National Science Foundation grant BCS-0645530, NIFA HATCH project INDO30642, the Kinley Trust, and the Purdue Research Foundation (USA Sample 1), National Science Foundation grant BCS 1251322, National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch project ALA042-1-14021 (USA Sample 2).