Representations of attachment relationships, the self, and significant others in middle childhood.

INTRODUCTION This research examines the interrelations of attachment security, feelings towards the self, and attributions about others in middle childhood. METHODS Five-to nine-year-old children (n=176) completed the Separation Anxiety Test, which provided a measure of attachment security and a puppet interview was used to assess feelings towards the self. A subset of 89 participants received vignettes of social situations with ambiguous outcomes to assess the emotional valence of children's attributions. RESULTS Secure children saw themselves more positively than insecure children. Children who were secure made more positive attributions about the intentions of others, regardless of whether the protagonist was a peer, parent, or teacher. CONCLUSION The results suggest that attachment style is related to feelings about the self and attributions about the social behavior of others, and thus may provide a foundation for generalized social expectations that underlie working models of social behavior of significant others.