Attachment and play in child care centres: Reliability and validity of the attachment Q-sort for mothers and professional caregivers in Italy

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to adapt and validate the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS; Vaughn & Waters, 1990) in the Italian context of child rearing at home and in centre care, and to analyse the associations of attachment to the mother and to the professional caregiver with play behaviour of the child. The article reports on three studies. The first study describes the procedure used to create the Italian version of the Attachment Q-Sort. Fifteen Italian experts provided the AQS descriptions of the prototypical “most secure child”; moreover, 18 Italian caregivers used the AQS to describe the hypothetical “ideal child” in the context of the child care centre. The profiles of the Italian experts were very similar to those of American experts. Italian experts and Italian caregivers also strongly agreed in their descriptions, respectively, of the “most secure” and the “ideal” child. The second study reports on the reliability of the AQS data. Eighty-six children (43% male; 59%first-borns) and their mothers and caregivers participated in the research. Children’s ages ranged from 14 to 36 months ( M = 26.6; SD = 6.78). All children spent at least 30 hours per week in the child care centres. Test-retest reliability and inter-observer agreement appeared to be satisfactory. Agreement between mother/caregiver- and observer-reported security scores was less convincing. In the third study, the associations between the network of attachment and level of play were examined. Fifty children (58% male; 60% first-borns) participated. Children’s ages ranged from 14 to 36 months ( M = 25.8; SD = 6.56). Play behaviour was observed at the child care centre during free play sessions of 30 minutes and social and cognitive play categories were coded. Secure attachment led to higher cognitive levels of play. Attachment to the caregiver was generally more influential than attachment to the mother.

Cuidado materno y seguridad del apego antes del primer año de vida

“…Respecto a la confiabilidad, este mismo estudio reportó una modesta confiabilidad test-retest. La confiabilidad interobservador varía entre 0.51 y 0.95 en diferentes estudios (Bárrig, 2004;Cassibba, van IJzerdoorn, & D'Odorico, 2000;Nóblega, 2012;Posada, Gao et al, 1995;Posada et al, 2002;Posada et al, 2004;Solomon & George, 2008;Vaughn et al, 2007). Para esta investigación se filmó la interacción libre de la madre con su hijo durante una hora aproximadamente, el video fue luego calificado por dos evaluadores distintos a los que habían observado a la madre.…”

“…En el primero de ellos se obtuvo la seguridad del apego del niño a partir de la correlación entre las puntaciones del niño en los 90 ítems y las de un niño hipotéticamente seguro definido por la teoría. Esta puntuación teórica se denomina "criterio de seguridad" y ha sido validado en diferentes contextos, incluido el peruano (Cassibba et al, 2000;Nóblega, 2012;Posada, Gao et al 1995).…”

Attachment in Childcare Centers: Is it Related to Toddlers’ Emotion Regulation and Attentive Behavior?

“…Professional caregivers are responsible for keeping the child physically and emotionally safe in the absence of his parents (Goossens and Van Ijzendoorn 1990;Howes and Smith 1995). The Italian Daycare Center's guidelines state that caregivers are responsible for both the well being and care of six specific children each (Cassibba et al 2000;Pallini and Laghi 2012). Children are likely to consider stable caregivers in childcare centers as secure bases in routine play as well as in stressful situations (Barnas and Cummings 1994).…”

Recension des facteurs associés à l’établissement de relations enfant-éducateur au service du sain développement de l’enfant

“…Corroborant ces propos, les résultats de recherches menées en garderie montrent que plus un enfant possède un attachement sécurisant avec son éducateur, plus il se montre grégaire, plus il adopte des comportements prosociaux et un style de jeu complexe, et plus il est apprécié de ses pairs (Cassibba, Van Ijzendoorn et D'Odorico, 2000 ;.…”