No abstract

This study examined developmental differences in two dimensions of attachment security (parental availability and child dependency on parents) in late childhood (N = 274) and early adolescence (N = 267) and their association with peer relations. Children's perceptions of mother's availability and boys' perceptions of father's availability did not differ as a function of age. Dependency on parents, however, decreased with age. Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between parental availability and reliance on parental help when measuring attachment developmentally. Children's reports of positive friendship qualities and lack of conflict in their best friendships were related to attachment to both mother and father, whereas the presence of a reciprocated friendship and popularity were not. Father availability was a particularly important predictor of lower conflict with best friends. Findings indicate that the quality of parent-child attachment generalizes primarily to the quality of children's close peer relations.

Developmental patterns in ethnic attitudes were assessed in 232 children aged 5 to 12 years in relation to cognitive development and social desirability responding. English-speaking children assigned 10 positive attributes, 10 negative attributes, and 4 neutral attributes to either an English-speaking child, a French-speaking child, or both an English- and a French-speaking child, depicted by line drawings. Positive attributions to their own ethnic group and negative attributions to the other ethnic group were less frequent in older children. Flexibility of ethnic attitudes, that is, attributions to both groups, increased with age and were inversely related to positive own-group attributions and negative other-group attributions. High flexibility followed the attainment of concrete operational thinking, as measured by conservation but not by ethnic constancy. Flexibility was inversely related to Crandall social desirability responding and unrelated to children's conformity to the experimenter's attitude. These results indicate the importance of cognitive rather than social desirability factors in the development of children's ethnic attitudes.

No abstract

Associations between parenting style and quality of child–mother attachment in middle childhood ( n = 202; grades 4–6) and adolescence ( n = 212; grades 7–11) were investigated. Participants rated warm involvement, psychological autonomy granting, and behavioural monitoring (Lamborn et al., 1991). Attachment orientation was assessed using the Network of Relationships Questionnaire (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985), Coping Styles Questionnaire (Finnegan et al., 1996), and Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Overall, a positive association was found between authoritative parenting (higher scores on all three dimensions) and secure attachment, whereas negligent parenting (lower scores on all three dimensions) predicted avoidant attachment. Moreover, a unique pattern of associations emerged between particular dimensions of parenting and each attachment style. Findings suggests that psychological autonomy may have important implications for children’s views of self whereas warm parental involvement may play a unique role in their views of the attachment figure. Associations were largely consistent across both age groups.