MAIA, Joana et al. Representações de vinculação na infância: Competência verbal, estabilidade e mudança. []. , 29, 3, pp.403-424. ISSN 0870-8231.

Attempting to identify individual differences in the way children tend to enact a variety of attachment related scenarios, the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT, Bretherton & Ridgeway, 1990) has been used in various cultures, being considered a key narrative methodology in the field. Although ASCT’s both clinical and empirical value is widely acknowledged, more research seems to be needed to fully confirm its discriminative validity from measures of verbal competence, as well as to clarify reliability issues. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the instrument in the Portuguese population, especially in what concerns the potential influence of age and verbal I.Q. in participants’ performance. 159 pre-school and school age children (M=66.11, SD=9.96) participated in the study. Children’s performance in each of the stories was assessed using a continuous security scale rated by independent trained coders. No significant correlations were found between security scores and social-demographic variables, or children’s age. However, a weak positive association was found with verbal I.Q., estimated with the WPPSI-R (Wechsler, 1989) [r=.16, p(unilateral)<.05]. Temporal stability was examined in a sub-sample (n=34), after an 11 months period. Security scores were higher in the second evaluation, in terms of group’s mean [t(33)=2.50, p(unilateral)<.01, d=.49], but there was moderate stability (r=.33, p<.05, n=34) when security was considered at the intra-individual level. Data also supports the idea that, along development, there are bidirectional influences between the organization of attachment representations and children’s verbal capacities.

: Attachment representations; Narrative semi-projective measures; Temporal stability in attachment representations.

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