About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 12. Methods, History, Theory

Abstract

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Secure versus insecure attachment reflects different levels of knowledge about how care-related interactions unfold. This is called Secure Base Script Knowledge (SBSK) which guides help-seeking behavior, needed to be protected against the maladaptive influence of distress (Waters & Waters, 2006). The type of stressors and the nature of the interactions that constitute secure base interactions differ across various age groups. Moreover, research suggests that SBSK gets acquired over the course of a developmental phase and requires new learning in subsequent developmental phases (Bosmans, 2016). One understudied age phase is Emerging Adulthood (EA; 18 – 25). To investigate SBSK in EA, we adjusted the widely used Attachment Script Assessment (ASA) (Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh, 2001; Waters & Waters, 2006) for EA. The ASA is a prompt word outline test designed to assess one’s understanding of the SBS and has been developed for children, adolescents and adults. We designed an ASA-EA which we administered to 100 participants (37% men, 61% women, 2% non-binary, Mage = 21.95, SDage = 1.72) together with the already existing adolescent and ASA-Adult to investigate its correlations with earlier validated versions of the ASA in adjacent age periods and to run t-tests to test whether the level of SBSK differs across versions. Results suggest a positive correlation of the ASA-EA with the ASA-Adolescent (r = .612; p < .01) and the ASA-Adult (r = .330; p < .01). Furthermore, t-tests showed that for the EA group, the SBSK was higher in the ASA-Adolescent (p < .05, d =.90) and lower in the ASA-Adult (p < .05, d =.73). Additionally, r-to-z-transformations revealed that ASA-EA scores correlated more highly with ASA-Adolescent scores than with ASA-Adult scores (p < .01). These findings support the validity of the ASA-EA and suggest that EA can be considered a unique developmental phase in SBSK development supporting the use of a developmentally sensitive tool to investigate SBSK.

Author information

Author	Role
Miss Nele Bergers, KULeuven	Presenting author
Marlies Wintmolders (MSc), KU Leuven	Non-presenting author
dr. Nadia van der Spek, Amsterdam UMC	Non-presenting author
prof. Theo Waters, New York University Abu Dhabi	Non-presenting author
Evelien Carlier (MSc), Psychiatric Hospital Asster	Non-presenting author
Ilse Devacht (MSc), Psychiatric Hospital Asster	Non-presenting author
prof. Claudi Bockting, Amsterdam UMC	Non-presenting author
prof. Guy Bosmans, KU Leuven	Non-presenting author

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