Children's Attachment Representations Based on the Narrative Method: The Relationship to mother-child interactions and perceptions of family through a comparison of clinical samples vs. non-clinical samples
AUTHOR : 진미경
INFORMATION : page. 63~78 / 2011 Vol.18 No.4
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical application of children's attachment representations based on the narrative method. This was done in order to analyze the relationship of these attachment representations to mother-child interactions and perceptions of family through a comparison of clinical samples vs. non-clinical samples. The clinical samples used for this study consisted of 62 pairs of mothers and children, who visited K university hospital. The non-clinical samples consisted of 53 pairs of mothers and children attending Kindergartens and schools in Seoul. The Manchester attachment story task was used to measure the attachment classification. Mother-child interactions were observed through the emotional availability scale (EAS) while family drawings were evaluated through Fury's family drawing scale. The results of the analysis are as follows. On the basis of comparing the attachment classification with the clinical samples and non-clinical samples, the non-clinical samples revealed a higher proportion of secure attachment classifications than the clinical samples did. In the same context, the non-clinical samples presented a lower proportion of insecure attachment classifications than clinical samples did. In the secure attachment group, the mothers from the non-clinical samples presented higher non-intrusive scores than the clinical samples did. Regarding the perception of family, in the secure attachment group, the clinical samples demonstrated higher scores in emotional distance and role reversing than the non-clinical samples did. In the insecure attachment group, the clinical samples demonstrated higher scores in emotional distance than the non-clinical samples did.