Attachment at school age and academic performance.

The association between attachment and school-related cognitive functioning was longitudinally examined for a French Canadian sample of 108 school-age children. The affective quality of mother-child interaction patterns, child cognitive engagement, and quality of child attachment to mother were evaluated during a laboratory visit that included a separation-reunion procedure occurring when the children were approximately 6 years of age. Children's mastery motivation and academic performance were assessed 2 years later (at age 8). Analyses indicated that secure children had higher scores than their insecure peers on communication, cognitive engagement, and mastery motivation. Controlling children were at greatest risk for school underachievement, with the poorest performance on all measures except mastery motivation. Avoidant and ambivalent children were lowest on mastery motivation. Results of mediational analyses support the salience of mother-child interactional processes and child cognitive engagement at school age in explaining relations between attachment and cognitive functioning in school.

[1]  J. Bates,et al.  Mother-toddler problem solving: antecedents in attachment, home behavior, and temperament. , 1990, Child development.

[2]  P. Cowan,et al.  Mothers' and fathers' working models of childhood attachment relationships, parenting styles, and child behavior , 1992, Development and Psychopathology.

[3]  M. Greenberg,et al.  Emotional regulation, self-control, and psychopathology: The role of relationships in early childhood. , 1991 .

[4]  N. Busch-Rossnagel,et al.  Mothers and others: The role of the socializing environment in the development of mastery motivation. , 1995 .

[5]  M. Greenberg,et al.  Attachment in preschoolers with disruptive behavior: A comparison of clinic-referred and nonproblem children , 1990, Development and Psychopathology.

[6]  Adriana G. Bus,et al.  MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTIONS, ATTACHMENT, AND EMERGENT LITERACY - A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY , 1988 .

[7]  D. Cicchetti,et al.  Attachment in the preschool years , 1991 .

[8]  Jude Cassidy,et al.  Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. , 1985 .

[9]  J. Stevenson-Hinde,et al.  Maternal Interactions and Self‐Reports Related to Attachment Classifications at 4.5 Years , 1995 .

[10]  E. Waters,et al.  Growing points of attachment theory and research , 1985 .

[11]  D R Pederson,et al.  Maternal sensitivity and patterns of infant-mother attachment. , 1988, Child development.

[12]  S. Parent,et al.  Correlates of attachment at school age: maternal reported stress, mother-child interaction, and behavior problems. , 1998, Child development.

[13]  R. Emde,et al.  Relationship Disturbances In Early Childhood: A Developmental Approach , 1992 .

[14]  E. Moss,et al.  Attachment and Joint Problem‐Solving Experiences During the Preschool Period , 1997 .

[15]  J. Bowlby.  Attachment and loss: retrospect and prospect. , 1982, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[16]  Thérèse Bouffard,et al.  The impact of goal orientation on self‐regulation and performance among college students , 1995 .

[17]  J. Solomon,et al.  Defining the caregiving system : Toward a theory of caregiving , 1996 .

[18]  Kay Donahue Jennings,et al.  Mothers' Interactional Style and Children's Competence at 3 Years , 1989 .

[19]  Richard M. Ryan,et al.  When achievement is not intrinsically motivated: A theory of internalization and self-regulation in school. , 1992 .

[20]  E. Carlson.  A prospective longitudinal study of attachment disorganization/disorientation. , 1998, Child development.

[21]  Ross A. Thompson,et al.  Early attachment and later development. , 1999 .

[22]  Phillip R. Shaver,et al.  Handbook of attachment : theory, research, and clinical applications , 1999 .

[23]  D. A. Cohn.  Child-mother attachment of six-year-olds and social competence at school. , 1990, Child development.

[24]  G. W. Rever.  Attachment and Loss. Vol. 1. Attachment , 1972 .

[25]  Mastery motivation in early childhood : development, measurement, and social processes , 1993 .

[26]  R. Harmon,et al.  Infants' preferential response for mother versus an unfamiliar adult. Relationship to attachment. , 1979, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry.

[27]  M. A. Easterbrooks,et al.  Psychosocial risk, attachment, and behavior problems among school-aged children , 1993, Development and Psychopathology.

[28]  P. Pintrich,et al.  Students' motivational beliefs and their cognitive engagement in classroom academic tasks. , 1992 .

[29]  L. Sroufe,et al.  Continuity of Adaptation in the Second Year: The Relationship Between Quality of Attachment and Later Competence , 1978 .

[30]  W. Edelstein,et al.  A longitudinal study of the relation between representations of attachment in childhood and cognitive functioning in childhood and adolescence. , 1994 .

[31]  J. Solomon,et al.  The measurement of attachment security in infancy and childhood. , 1999 .

[32]  C. M. Parkes,et al.  The Place of attachment in human behavior , 1982 .

[33]  A. Lieberman,et al.  Disorders of attachment and secure base behavior in the second year of life: Conceptual issues and clinical intervention. , 1990 .

[34]  Carole A. Ames,et al.  Achievement Goals in the Classroom: Students' Learning Strategies and Motivation Processes , 1988 .

[35]  K. Grossmann,et al.  Infant-mother attachment at twelve months and style of interaction with a stranger at the age of three years , 1985 .

[36]  M. Rutter,et al.  Implications of attachment theory for child care policies. , 1999 .

[37]  Thane S. Pittman,et al.  Achievement and motivation : a social-developmental perspective , 1992 .

[38]  M. Ainsworth,et al.  Origins of the Sense of Security. (Book Reviews: Patterns of Attachment. A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation) , 1978 .

[39]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[40]  E. Carlson,et al.  A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Predictors of Achievement. , 1996 .

[41]  L. Sroufe,et al.  The relationship between quality of attachment and behavior problems in preschool in a high-risk sample. , 1985, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[42]  M. Main,et al.  Procedures for identifying infants as disorganized/disoriented during the Ainsworth Strange Situation. , 1990 .

[43]  K. Lyons-Ruth,et al.  Infant attachment strategies, infant mental lag, and maternal depressive symptoms: predictors of internalizing and externalizing problems at age 7. , 1997, Developmental psychology.

[44]  Infant attachment strategies, infant mental lag, and maternal depressive symptoms: predictors of internalizing and externalizing problems at age 7. , 1997 .

[45]  S. Parent,et al.  Attachment and teacher-reported behavior problems during the preschool and early school-age period , 1996, Development and Psychopathology.

[46]  Dante Cicchetti,et al.  Internalizing and externalizing expressions of dysfunction , 2014 .

[47]  J. Sattler,et al.  Assessment of Children's Intelligence , 1974 .

[48]  R. Ryan,et al.  Parent Styles Associated with Children's Self-Regulation and Competence in School. , 1989 .

[49]  L. Vygotsky.  Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes: Harvard University Press , 1978 .

[50]  I. Bretherton,et al.  Attachment theory: Retrospect and prospect. , 1985 .

[51]  J. Belsky,et al.  Interactional synchrony and the origins of infant-mother attachment: a replication study. , 1991, Child development.

[52]  J. Belsky,et al.  The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, III: The origins of individual differences in infant-mother attachment: maternal and infant contributions. , 1984, Child development.

[53]  J. Eccles.  Expectancies, values and academic behaviors , 1983 .

[54]  J. Cassidy.  Child-mother attachment and the self in six-year-olds. , 1988, Child development.

[55]  G. Morgan,et al.  Mastery motivation : origins, conceptualizations, and applications , 1995 .

[56]  S. Parent,et al.  Disorganized attachment and developmental risk at school age. , 1999 .

[57]  M. Main.  Metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive monitoring, and singular (coherent) vs. multiple (incoherent) model of attachment: Findings and directions for future research. , 1991 .

[58]  K. Grossmann,et al.  Attachment Patterns at Age Six in South Germany: Predictability from Infancy and Implications for Preschool Behavior. , 1994 .

[59]  J. Meece,et al.  Student Perceptions in the Classroom , 1992 .

[60]  J. Cassidy,et al.  The insecure/ambivalent pattern of attachment: theory and research. , 1994, Child development.

[61]  M. Main,et al.  Categories of response to reunion with the parent at age 6: Predictable from infant attachment classifications and stable over a 1-month period. , 1988 .

[62]  W. Grolnick,et al.  Correlates of mastery-related behavior: a short-term longitudinal study of infants in their second year. , 1985, Child development.

[63]  R. W. White.  Motivation reconsidered: the concept of competence. , 1959, Psychological review.

[64]  J. Solomon,et al.  Attachment and caregiving: The caregiving behavioral system. , 1999 .

[65]  J. Bowlby.  Attachment and loss: retrospect and prospect. , 1969, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[66]  M. Lewis,et al.  Infant, mother, and mother-infant interaction behavior and subsequent attachment. , 1989 .

[67]  Karlen Lyons-Ruth,et al.  Attachment disorganization: Unresolved loss, relational violence, and lapses in behavioral and attentional strategies. , 1999 .

[68]  T. Jacobsen,et al.  Children's attachment representations: longitudinal relations to school behavior and academic competency in middle childhood and adolescence. , 1997, Developmental psychology.

[69]  J. Cassidy.  The ability to negotiate the environment: An aspect of infant competence as related to quality of attachment. , 1986 .

[70]  K. Lyons-Ruth,et al.  Infants at social risk: maternal depression and family support services as mediators of infant development and security of attachment. , 1990, Child development.

[71]  B. Repacholi,et al.  Disorganized attachment behavior in infancy: Short-term stability, maternal and infant correlates, and risk-related subtypes , 1991, Development and Psychopathology.

[72]  M. Perlmutter.  Development and policy concerning children with special needs , 1983 .

[73]  S. Harter,et al.  Development perspectives on the self-system , 1983 .

[74]  D. Pederson,et al.  Expressions of the attachment relationship outside of the strange situation. , 1996, Child development.

[75]  R B Cairns,et al.  Early school dropout: configurations and determinants. , 1989, Child development.

[76]  B. Repacholi,et al.  Disorganized infant attachment classification and maternal psychosocial problems as predictors of hostile-aggressive behavior in the preschool classroom. , 1993, Child development.

[77]  E. Bates,et al.  RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COGNITION, COMMUNICATION, AND QUALITY OF ATTACHMENT , 1979 .

[78]  D. Cicchetti,et al.  Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention. , 1990 .

[79]  R. Pianta,et al.  Observing mother and child behavior in a problem-solving situation at school entry: Relations with academic achievement ☆ , 1996 .

[80]  J. Solomon,et al.  Children classified as controlling at age six: Evidence of disorganized representational strategies and aggression at home and at school , 1995, Development and Psychopathology.

[81]  A. Kaufman.  Factor analysis of the WISC-R at 11 age levels between 61/2 and 161/2 years. , 1975 .