Origins of Secure Base Script Knowledge and the Developmental Construction of Attachment Representations

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that attachment representations take at least two forms—a secure base script and an autobiographical narrative of childhood caregiving experiences. This study presents data from the first 26 years of the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 169), examining the developmental origins of secure base script knowledge in a high-risk sample, and testing alternative models of the developmental sequencing of the construction of attachment representations. Results demonstrated that secure base script knowledge was predicted by observations of maternal sensitivity across childhood and adolescence. Further, findings suggest that the construction of a secure base script supports the development of a coherent autobiographical representation of childhood attachment experiences with primary caregivers by early adulthood.

Taxometric Analysis of Secure Base Script Knowledge in Middle Childhood Reveals Categorical Latent Structure

“…Although the ASA was developed for use with adults (Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh, 2001), other prompt-word sets have been developed for use with children. The middle childhood version of the ASA (Waters, Fraley, et al, 2015) consists of three prompt word outlines featuring mother-child dyads: Scary Dog in the Yard, At the Beach, and Soccer Game.…”

“…To date, studies examining processes related to secure base script development have primarily focused on acquisition rather than on organization or elaboration. For example, the origins of secure base script knowledge have been well documented with studies finding significant links between script knowledge and parenting quality across childhood in normative‐risk, high‐risk, and genetically unrelated parent–child dyads (Schoenmaker et al., ; Steele et al., ; Vaughn et al., ; Waters, Ruiz, & Roisman, ). Although it is clear that sensitive care plays an important role in the construction of attachment representations, questions pertaining to how secure base script knowledge is organized, generalized, and elaborated have gone mostly unexamined.…”

Multiple domains of parental secure base support during childhood and adolescence contribute to adolescents’ representations of attachment as a secure base script

“…Both Dykas et al (2006) and Steele et al (2014) found that adolescent ASA script scores were significantly correlated with established measures of adult attachment (e.g., Adult Attachment Interview, AAI, George et al, 1985; Experiences in Close Relationships–Revised questionnaire, ECR-R, Fraley et al, 2000) and had similar patterns of associations with parental sensitivity measures from infancy through early adolescence and early attachment histories as did scale scores derived from the AAI completed by these SECCYD participants. Schoenmaker et al (2015) also reported significant associations between maternal sensitivity, assessed during infancy and again at seven years of age, and attachment security at age 23, assessed using the ASA (see also Waters, Ruiz, & Roisman, in press). …”

Iv. Co‐construction of Attachment Representations and Affect‐regulating Cognitions: The Role of Maternal Attachment Security

“…Based on these expectations, we predicted that mothers with high script scores (ASA) would receive higher co-construction scores on both of our tasks. In light of work demonstrating that secure AAI narratives include significant secure base script knowledge, we also anticipated similar relations with AAI coherence scores (Waters, Ruiz, & Roisman, 2017).…”