The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 2013, 174(5), 473–493 C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Copyright doi: 10.1080/00221325.2012.709201
Attachment Security, Personality, and Adjustment of Elementary School Children LIMOR GOLDNER University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel and Oranim College, Tivon, Israel MIRI SCHARF University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
ABSTRACT. Children’s development is assumed to be closely related to their attachment security and their personality. The authors’ aim was to examine the joint contribution of attachment security and personality traits to children’s adjustment by examining diverse children’s outcomes (emotional symptoms, social functioning, and behavioral problems) and using various perspectives (children, parents, and teachers). The sample comprised 247 8–12-year-old children from low socioeconomic status neighborhoods. Personality and attachment contribute to the different domains of adjustment. In cases of moderation, attachment security moderates the implications of personality traits on children’s adjustment. The findings highlight the contribution of positive personality tendencies in playing down the difficulties of insecurely attached children. Keywords: attachment security, middle childhood, personality traits, psychological adjustment
Children’s attachment security and their personality are two major paradigms that serve to explain socioemotional development. When studying children’s adjustment, researchers usually refer to these constructs as distinct, different psychological systems and examine them separately. Personality researchers focus on basic biological and psychological intrapersonal tendencies, while attachment scholars explore the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships (Szewczyk-Sokolowski, Bost, & Wainwright, 2005). Nevertheless, an overlap between the two constructs and a shared contribution to children’s adjustment are expected, as both promote survival and adaptation, and in both theories the expression of affects, thoughts and actions is dominant (Hagekull & Bohlin, 2003). To Address correspondence to Limor Goldner, University of Haifa, Graduate School of Creative Arts, Haifa, Israel 91100; [email protected] (e-mail). 473
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The Journal of Genetic Psychology
date, only few studies have examined the joint contribution of attachment and personality to adjustment, mainly among adults. Therefore, our aim was to examine the joint contribution of attachment security and personality to socio-emotional functioning of low socioeconomic status (SES) Israeli elementary school children. Personality refers to a person’s tendencies to behave, think, and feel in certain consistent ways (Shiner & Caspi, 2003). Personality traits are often determined primarily by biological and psychological structures and are generally not constructed as a product of social interactions or relationships (Caspi & Shiner, 2006). Accumulating evidence shows that the big five is a valid model for describing differences in individuals’ personalities, in children (Barbaranelli, Caprara, Rabasca, & Pastorelli, 2003) and adults. The model refers to broad dimensions of personality or dispositional tendencies, including extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Extroversion is displayed through a higher degree of sociability, assertiveness, talkativeness, and self-confidence. Agreeableness refers to being helpful, cooperative, and sympathetic toward others. Neuroticism refers to degree of emotional stability, and anxiety, depression, and anger. Openness refers to intellect and broadness of cultural interests, fantasy, and creativity. Finally, conscientiousness is exemplified by being disciplined, organized, and achievement-oriented (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Generally, findings show that more neuroticism is associated with high levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms such as sadness, anxious behavior and low levels of anti-social behavior (Markey, Markey, Ericksen, & Tinsley, 2006). More extroversion is associated with high levels of externalizing problems, anti-social behavior and participation in dangerous behavior (Prinzie et al., 2003). Similarly, high levels of neuroticism and extroversion are associated with more maladjustment (Measelle, John, Ablow, Cowan, & Cowan, 2005). Personality traits often reflect the child’s temperamental attributes. Temperament has been regarded as a direct precursor to personality (Caspi & Shiner, 2006), and is often used as an indicator of children’s personality (Bohlin, Hagekull, & Andersson, 2005). The attachment theory emphasizes that individuals’ mental health is intimately tied to relationships with attachment figures that provide emotional support and protection (Bowlby, 1969, 1973). Children who experience sensitive and responsive care develop trust in themselves and their ability to influence the environment, and they gradually develop a model of self as lovable and model of others as dependable and trustworthy. These promote the sense of agency that permits them to explore and master the environment with confidence and to receive care when in need, as well to develop self-regulation, autonomy, and a flexible balance between self-reliance and other-reliance (secure attachment; Bowlby, 1973, 1983; Bretherton & Munholland, 2008; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2004, Szewczyk-Sokolowski et al., 2005; Zhang & Hazan, 2002). In contrast, children who experience rejection or unresponsive, insensitive, or inconsistent care will not receive the support necessary to develop a sense of the self as worthy, will not develop trust in their environment or in themselves, and will perceive the
Goldner & Scharf
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attachment figure as rejecting (avoidant attachment) or unpredictable (ambivalent attachment; for a review, see Weinfeld, Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson, 2008). In other words, childhood experiences play a crucial role in the formation of adult personality. Thus, mental representations of the self and others subsequently become are major components of personality that often explain a person’s behavior in interpersonal and social encounters (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2004, 2005; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2007). A well-treated child incorporates the protecting, soothing, approving, encouraging, and coaching functions originally performed by a security-enhancing attachment figure into his or her own self-system, allowing the performance of these functions autonomously (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2007). In contrast, insecure attachment experiences in childhood may lead to profound disturbances in the self-system processes including an impaired sense of agency, volition, and control over actions, as well as low self-esteem and a sense of inner badness (Kim & Cicchetti, 2006; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2007). Children with secure attachment function better emotionally, socially, and academically than their counterparts (Weinfeld et al., 2008). They reveal better socioemotional competence and better behavioral adjustment and emotional regulation. Secure attachment was associated with peer acceptance and social competence (Kerns, Klepac, & Cole, 1996) and with less depressive symptomatology (Brenning, Soenens, Braet, & Bosmans, 2011). Moreover, attachment security facilitates resilient functioning and serves as a buffer when coping with adversities (Weinfield et al., 2008). Attachment security and personality traits, and the interplay between these factors, may affect children’s functioning (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998). Although attachment relationship is also associated with better regulation of emotion (Kerns, Abraham, Schlegelmilch, & Morgan, 2007) and better behavioral adjustment (Granot & Mayseless, 2001), attachment relationship is mainly a dyadic phenomenon. Therefore, it seems plausible that the contribution of attachment security will be more prominent in children’s socioemotional adjustment (Vaughn, Bost, & van IJzendoorn, 2008). Secure individuals have optimistic expectations and are more likely to express their emotions openly. They are inclined to adopt a supportseeking strategy in dealing with distressing situations and appraise stressful events as less threatening, which enhances their ability to cope successfully. By contrast, insecure individuals are more vulnerable to loneliness, depression and anxiety (Belsky, 2002). On the other hand, personality theory focuses mainly on endogenous processes and intrapersonal dispositions emphasizing aspects of arousal, emotions, self-regulation and attentions, which are assumed to have a biological and temperamental constitutional, rather than an interpersonal, basis (Derryberry & Rothbart, 1988; Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000; Vaughn et al., 2008). Therefore, associations between personality traits and behavioral and emotional adjustment (externalizing and internalizing) are expected, while the associations between
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The Journal of Genetic Psychology
personality traits and relational outcomes are expected to be less salient (Shiner & Caspi, 2006). Among adults the contribution of attachment security to the social realm was higher than personality dimensions, whereas the findings regarding the emotional realm were mixed. For example, the big five did not predict a unique variance of romantic relationship quality when controlling for attachment dimensions. Attachment anxiety and avoidance remained significant predictors after controlling for the big five (Noftle & Shaver, 2006). Attachment security predicted sociocultural adjustment of Dutch immigrants beyond the explained variance of the Big Five (Bakker, van Oudenhoven, & van Der Zee, 2004). Both neuroticism and attachment predicted psychological adjustment to bereavement among couples that lost a child, with neuroticism explaining greater variance than attachment dimensions (Wijngaards-de Meiji et al., 2007). Neuroticism mediated the association between resistant attachment and disordered eating (Eggert, Levendosky, & Klump, 2007). An insecure attachment style predicted body dissatisfaction when personality and depressive symptoms, body mass index, and other confounding variables were considered together (Abbate-Daga, Gramaglia, Amianto, Marzola, & Fassino, 2010). To the best of our knowledge, no study has explored the joint contribution of the two constructs to children’s adjustment. Findings from the field of temperament (Bohlin et al., 2005) are ambiguous. Both domains contribute meaningfully to a broad range of social outcomes, emotional development and behavioral adaptation, as direct effects and as a result of their interaction (Vaughn et al., 2008). Contrary to the expectation that attachment security would contribute mainly to the interpersonal area and temperament to the intrapersonal area, both attachment and temperament are important in explaining social (Bohlin et al., 2005), behavioral (Laible, Panfile, & Makariev, 2008) and emotional outcomes (Muris & Meesters, 2002). When interactions were significant, it was typically the attachment variable that moderated the effect of temperament on the outcomes, with a protective effect of attachment security (Bohlin et al., 2005; Schieche & Spangler, 2005). Given the scarcity of research addressing children, the central aim of the present study was to examine the joint contribution of attachment security and personality traits to children’s adjustment by examining positive and negative aspects of children’s functioning, and by using various perspectives (children, parents, and teachers). Moreover, identifying the possible moderating role of children’s attachment security or personality traits may help reveal their buffering effects on adjustment. We also explored the associations between attachment and personality dimensions. Findings with adults indicated that attachment insecurity was positively associated with neuroticism, negatively associated with agreeableness and in some cases negatively associated with extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness. Thus, neuroticism and agreeableness were consistently associated with attachment styles, whereas the associations with the other dimensions were less
Goldner & Scharf
477
consistent (Winjngaards-de Meij et al., 2007). Studies exploring the association between attachment security and personality among school–age children are fairly rare (Hagekull & Bohlin, 2003). Accumulating evidence from previous studies on attachment and temperament suggests that attachment security and temperament domains, at best, only partially and rarely consistently overlap, even for disorganized children. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized that children with a higher level of attachment security and those with lower levels of neuroticism; higher levels of extroversion; and higher levels of agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness would demonstrate more adaptive socioemotional functioning than their counterparts. Second, we expected the contribution of attachment security would be more prominent in children’s social adjustment, as attachment and personality traits predict children’s behavioral and emotional adjustment. Finally, we explored the moderating role of attachment security and personality on children’s adjustment. Method Participants Two hundred and forty seven children (138 boys, 109 girls) and their parents (245 mothers, two fathers), and 235 teachers participated in the study. Children were drawn from 19 elementary schools in low-SES neighborhoods in Israel. Children’s mean age was 9.70 years (SD = 1.14 years, age range = 8–12 years) and parents’ mean age was 43 years (SD = 7.30 years). A total of 53% of the children were from two-parent families, and 47% were from divorced families; 62% were born in Israel, the rest were immigrants. Average years of parents’ education was 12.03 years (SD = 3.74 years). Age of parents, parents’ years of education, children’s family status, and children’s ethnicity were examined in the analyses and were not associated with the study variables. Procedure Children and parents completed the questionnaires during home visits. Teachers completed the questionnaires in their free time. Fourteen children did not complete the full personality questionnaire and 12 teachers refused to participate in the study. No differences were found in the functioning and the background variables between these children and the rest of the sample. Measures Children’s personality. Children completed 65 items from the Big Five Questionnaire for Children (BFQ-C; Barbaranelli et al., 2003) on a 3-point Likerttype scale to measure personality (0 = not at all true, 1 = somewhat true,
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The Journal of Genetic Psychology
2 = often true). Extroversion–energy refers to activity, enthusiasm, assertiveness; and self-confidence. Agreeableness includes positive approach toward others. Neuroticism–emotional instability refers to feelings of anxiety, depression and anger. Intellect–openness tapped intellect and broadness of cultural interest, fantasy and creativity. Conscientiousness assesses dependability, orderliness, and fulfillment of commitments. Reliabilities of the scales are good, ranging from .71 to .95 (Barbaranelli, Fida, Paciello, Di Giunta, & Caprara, 2008). Reliabilities in the present study were .81 for agreeableness, .80 for conscientiousness, .76 for neuroticism, .69 for extroversion, and .65 for openness. Children’s attachment. The Attachment Security Scale (Kerns et al., 1996) assesses children’s perceptions of security in parent–child relationships. In this study children completed the questionnaires pertaining to their mothers, as they typically fulfill the role of primary attachment figure during childhood (Freeman & Brown, 2001). The scale comprises 15 items rated on a 4-point scale (e.g., “Some kids find it easy to trust their mom BUT other kids are not sure if they can trust their mom”). Children were first told to choose which statement was more characteristic of them, and then to indicate whether the statement was really true for them or sort of true for them. The scale associates with general, social, and conduct realms and academic competence (Kerns et al., 1996). Moreover, the scores correlate with the degree of emotional support received from mother, father and friends, as well as with mothers’ reports regarding their acceptance and willingness to provide a secure base for the child (Kerns et al., 1996). Test–retest reliability was .75 and internal consistency ranged from .72 to .84 (Granot & Mayseless, 2001; Kerns, Aspelmeier, Gentzler, & Grabill, 2001; Kerns, Tomich, Aspelmeier, & Contreras, 2000). Following the suggestion of Kerns et al. (1996), a score of 45 was used as a categorical cutoff point to distinguish secure child-mother attachment (more than 45 points) from insecure child-mother attachment (less than 45 points). The criterion for assigning children’s security was based on earlier studies that used the strange situation procedure to ascribe children’s security and typically found that two thirds of children in middle-class samples are securely attached (Kerns et al., 1996). This categorical cutoff point was used in previous studies in the field of attachment in middle childhood (e.g., Bauminger & Kimhi-Kind, 2008; Granot & Mayseless, 2001; Kerns et al., 1996). Cronbach’s alpha in the present study was .75. Children’s psychosocial functioning and adjustment. Twelve items from the SelfPerception Profile Competence Scale for Children (Harter, 1985) assess children’s perception regarding the social (having a lot of friends) and conduct (well behaved) realms. The measure is widely used and showed good psychometric qualities (Shapiro, Moffett, Lieberman, & Dummer, 2005). In the present study, reliabilities for social and conduct were .66 and .70, respectively
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The Children’s Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1985) includes 27 items representing varying degrees of severity of symptoms. The depression score is calculated by summing the items. The inventory is widely used (Toblin, Schwartz, Hopmeyer Gorman, & Abou-ezzeddine, 2005). Cronbach’s alpha in the original research was .86 and in the present research was .76. Parents and homeroom teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) to examine children’s emotional and social adjustment. The following five subscales, each with five items, are rated on 3-point Likert-like scale (0 = not at all, 1 = only a little, 2 = great deal): conduct problems, hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, peer problems, and prosocial behaviors. The inventory has been shown to be useful in diagnosing children’s psychiatric disorders. Internal consistency of the scales is good, with a mean Cronbach’s alpha of .73 (Stone, Otten, Engels, Vermulst, & Janssens, 2010). The present study indicates low reliability of parents’ reports, probably due to language difficulties and lack of experience in completing questionnaires. We therefore combined the two social scales into one composite scale termed social functioning. The correlations (r) between peer problems and prosocial behaviors were .32 (p < .001) for parents and .44 (p < .001) for teachers. Higher scores indicate higher levels of social functioning (Cronbach’s α = .62 for parents, .89 for teachers). Similarly, due to high levels of intercorrelations, we combined the two conduct scales into one scale termed behavioral problems. The correlations (r) between hyperactivity and conduct problems were .50 (p < .001) for parents and .60 (p < .001) for teachers. Cronbach’s alpha in the present study was .73 for parents and .88 for teachers. The emotional symptoms sub-scale remained separate as in the original version (Cronbach’s α = .58 for parents and .71 for teachers). Stone et al. (2010) also found lower psychometric properties of the inventory among parents than among teachers across 48 studies. Results Attachment and Children’s Personality To examine the relations between children’s attachment security and their personality traits, we first computed the correlation coefficients between scores on the continuous security scale and scores of the BFQ-C scales. The correlations for security score were .19 (p < .05) with extroversion, –.16 (p < .05) with neuroticism, .22 (p < .01) with openness, .35 (p < .001) with agreeableness, and .32 (p < .001) with consciousness. Attachment and Children’s Functioning To examine the role of attachment in children’s psychosocial functioning we conducted three multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tests with
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attachment security and gender serving as the independent variables and the various reports regarding psychosocial functioning (self, parents, and teachers) serving as the dependent variables. Because children’s gender was associated with their psychological adjustment, we examined this as independent variable as well. We also explored the interaction between children’s attachment security and gender based on previous findings demonstrating that insecure attachment may lead to different psychosocial outcomes for boys and girls (Turner, 1991). For example, insecurely attached boys exhibited more behavior problems than securely attached boys, whereas there was no relation between attachment security and behavior problems among girls (Lewis, Feiring, McGuffog, & Jaskir, 1984). Similarly, insecure mother–child attachment was associated with behavioral problems among boys and with passive, unassertive, and compliant behaviors among girls (Turner, 1991). The MANOVA conducted to examine children’s socio-emotional functioning revealed a significant main effect of attachment security, F(3, 239) = 38.77, p < .001, η2 = .33. Gender and interaction effects were not significant. As can be seen in Table 1, securely attached children demonstrated higher levels of social and positive conduct self-perception and lower levels of depression than insecure children. The MANOVA conducted to examine parents’ reports on children’s adjustment revealed a significant main effect of gender, F(3, 235) = 4.65, p
Attachment Security, Personality, and Adjustment of Elementary School Children LIMOR GOLDNER University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel and Oranim College, Tivon, Israel MIRI SCHARF University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
ABSTRACT. Children’s development is assumed to be closely related to their attachment security and their personality. The authors’ aim was to examine the joint contribution of attachment security and personality traits to children’s adjustment by examining diverse children’s outcomes (emotional symptoms, social functioning, and behavioral problems) and using various perspectives (children, parents, and teachers). The sample comprised 247 8–12-year-old children from low socioeconomic status neighborhoods. Personality and attachment contribute to the different domains of adjustment. In cases of moderation, attachment security moderates the implications of personality traits on children’s adjustment. The findings highlight the contribution of positive personality tendencies in playing down the difficulties of insecurely attached children. Keywords: attachment security, middle childhood, personality traits, psychological adjustment
Children’s attachment security and their personality are two major paradigms that serve to explain socioemotional development. When studying children’s adjustment, researchers usually refer to these constructs as distinct, different psychological systems and examine them separately. Personality researchers focus on basic biological and psychological intrapersonal tendencies, while attachment scholars explore the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships (Szewczyk-Sokolowski, Bost, & Wainwright, 2005). Nevertheless, an overlap between the two constructs and a shared contribution to children’s adjustment are expected, as both promote survival and adaptation, and in both theories the expression of affects, thoughts and actions is dominant (Hagekull & Bohlin, 2003). To Address correspondence to Limor Goldner, University of Haifa, Graduate School of Creative Arts, Haifa, Israel 91100; [email protected] (e-mail). 473
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The Journal of Genetic Psychology
date, only few studies have examined the joint contribution of attachment and personality to adjustment, mainly among adults. Therefore, our aim was to examine the joint contribution of attachment security and personality to socio-emotional functioning of low socioeconomic status (SES) Israeli elementary school children. Personality refers to a person’s tendencies to behave, think, and feel in certain consistent ways (Shiner & Caspi, 2003). Personality traits are often determined primarily by biological and psychological structures and are generally not constructed as a product of social interactions or relationships (Caspi & Shiner, 2006). Accumulating evidence shows that the big five is a valid model for describing differences in individuals’ personalities, in children (Barbaranelli, Caprara, Rabasca, & Pastorelli, 2003) and adults. The model refers to broad dimensions of personality or dispositional tendencies, including extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Extroversion is displayed through a higher degree of sociability, assertiveness, talkativeness, and self-confidence. Agreeableness refers to being helpful, cooperative, and sympathetic toward others. Neuroticism refers to degree of emotional stability, and anxiety, depression, and anger. Openness refers to intellect and broadness of cultural interests, fantasy, and creativity. Finally, conscientiousness is exemplified by being disciplined, organized, and achievement-oriented (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Generally, findings show that more neuroticism is associated with high levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms such as sadness, anxious behavior and low levels of anti-social behavior (Markey, Markey, Ericksen, & Tinsley, 2006). More extroversion is associated with high levels of externalizing problems, anti-social behavior and participation in dangerous behavior (Prinzie et al., 2003). Similarly, high levels of neuroticism and extroversion are associated with more maladjustment (Measelle, John, Ablow, Cowan, & Cowan, 2005). Personality traits often reflect the child’s temperamental attributes. Temperament has been regarded as a direct precursor to personality (Caspi & Shiner, 2006), and is often used as an indicator of children’s personality (Bohlin, Hagekull, & Andersson, 2005). The attachment theory emphasizes that individuals’ mental health is intimately tied to relationships with attachment figures that provide emotional support and protection (Bowlby, 1969, 1973). Children who experience sensitive and responsive care develop trust in themselves and their ability to influence the environment, and they gradually develop a model of self as lovable and model of others as dependable and trustworthy. These promote the sense of agency that permits them to explore and master the environment with confidence and to receive care when in need, as well to develop self-regulation, autonomy, and a flexible balance between self-reliance and other-reliance (secure attachment; Bowlby, 1973, 1983; Bretherton & Munholland, 2008; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2004, Szewczyk-Sokolowski et al., 2005; Zhang & Hazan, 2002). In contrast, children who experience rejection or unresponsive, insensitive, or inconsistent care will not receive the support necessary to develop a sense of the self as worthy, will not develop trust in their environment or in themselves, and will perceive the
Goldner & Scharf
475
attachment figure as rejecting (avoidant attachment) or unpredictable (ambivalent attachment; for a review, see Weinfeld, Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson, 2008). In other words, childhood experiences play a crucial role in the formation of adult personality. Thus, mental representations of the self and others subsequently become are major components of personality that often explain a person’s behavior in interpersonal and social encounters (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2004, 2005; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2007). A well-treated child incorporates the protecting, soothing, approving, encouraging, and coaching functions originally performed by a security-enhancing attachment figure into his or her own self-system, allowing the performance of these functions autonomously (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2007). In contrast, insecure attachment experiences in childhood may lead to profound disturbances in the self-system processes including an impaired sense of agency, volition, and control over actions, as well as low self-esteem and a sense of inner badness (Kim & Cicchetti, 2006; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2007). Children with secure attachment function better emotionally, socially, and academically than their counterparts (Weinfeld et al., 2008). They reveal better socioemotional competence and better behavioral adjustment and emotional regulation. Secure attachment was associated with peer acceptance and social competence (Kerns, Klepac, & Cole, 1996) and with less depressive symptomatology (Brenning, Soenens, Braet, & Bosmans, 2011). Moreover, attachment security facilitates resilient functioning and serves as a buffer when coping with adversities (Weinfield et al., 2008). Attachment security and personality traits, and the interplay between these factors, may affect children’s functioning (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998). Although attachment relationship is also associated with better regulation of emotion (Kerns, Abraham, Schlegelmilch, & Morgan, 2007) and better behavioral adjustment (Granot & Mayseless, 2001), attachment relationship is mainly a dyadic phenomenon. Therefore, it seems plausible that the contribution of attachment security will be more prominent in children’s socioemotional adjustment (Vaughn, Bost, & van IJzendoorn, 2008). Secure individuals have optimistic expectations and are more likely to express their emotions openly. They are inclined to adopt a supportseeking strategy in dealing with distressing situations and appraise stressful events as less threatening, which enhances their ability to cope successfully. By contrast, insecure individuals are more vulnerable to loneliness, depression and anxiety (Belsky, 2002). On the other hand, personality theory focuses mainly on endogenous processes and intrapersonal dispositions emphasizing aspects of arousal, emotions, self-regulation and attentions, which are assumed to have a biological and temperamental constitutional, rather than an interpersonal, basis (Derryberry & Rothbart, 1988; Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000; Vaughn et al., 2008). Therefore, associations between personality traits and behavioral and emotional adjustment (externalizing and internalizing) are expected, while the associations between
476
The Journal of Genetic Psychology
personality traits and relational outcomes are expected to be less salient (Shiner & Caspi, 2006). Among adults the contribution of attachment security to the social realm was higher than personality dimensions, whereas the findings regarding the emotional realm were mixed. For example, the big five did not predict a unique variance of romantic relationship quality when controlling for attachment dimensions. Attachment anxiety and avoidance remained significant predictors after controlling for the big five (Noftle & Shaver, 2006). Attachment security predicted sociocultural adjustment of Dutch immigrants beyond the explained variance of the Big Five (Bakker, van Oudenhoven, & van Der Zee, 2004). Both neuroticism and attachment predicted psychological adjustment to bereavement among couples that lost a child, with neuroticism explaining greater variance than attachment dimensions (Wijngaards-de Meiji et al., 2007). Neuroticism mediated the association between resistant attachment and disordered eating (Eggert, Levendosky, & Klump, 2007). An insecure attachment style predicted body dissatisfaction when personality and depressive symptoms, body mass index, and other confounding variables were considered together (Abbate-Daga, Gramaglia, Amianto, Marzola, & Fassino, 2010). To the best of our knowledge, no study has explored the joint contribution of the two constructs to children’s adjustment. Findings from the field of temperament (Bohlin et al., 2005) are ambiguous. Both domains contribute meaningfully to a broad range of social outcomes, emotional development and behavioral adaptation, as direct effects and as a result of their interaction (Vaughn et al., 2008). Contrary to the expectation that attachment security would contribute mainly to the interpersonal area and temperament to the intrapersonal area, both attachment and temperament are important in explaining social (Bohlin et al., 2005), behavioral (Laible, Panfile, & Makariev, 2008) and emotional outcomes (Muris & Meesters, 2002). When interactions were significant, it was typically the attachment variable that moderated the effect of temperament on the outcomes, with a protective effect of attachment security (Bohlin et al., 2005; Schieche & Spangler, 2005). Given the scarcity of research addressing children, the central aim of the present study was to examine the joint contribution of attachment security and personality traits to children’s adjustment by examining positive and negative aspects of children’s functioning, and by using various perspectives (children, parents, and teachers). Moreover, identifying the possible moderating role of children’s attachment security or personality traits may help reveal their buffering effects on adjustment. We also explored the associations between attachment and personality dimensions. Findings with adults indicated that attachment insecurity was positively associated with neuroticism, negatively associated with agreeableness and in some cases negatively associated with extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness. Thus, neuroticism and agreeableness were consistently associated with attachment styles, whereas the associations with the other dimensions were less
Goldner & Scharf
477
consistent (Winjngaards-de Meij et al., 2007). Studies exploring the association between attachment security and personality among school–age children are fairly rare (Hagekull & Bohlin, 2003). Accumulating evidence from previous studies on attachment and temperament suggests that attachment security and temperament domains, at best, only partially and rarely consistently overlap, even for disorganized children. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized that children with a higher level of attachment security and those with lower levels of neuroticism; higher levels of extroversion; and higher levels of agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness would demonstrate more adaptive socioemotional functioning than their counterparts. Second, we expected the contribution of attachment security would be more prominent in children’s social adjustment, as attachment and personality traits predict children’s behavioral and emotional adjustment. Finally, we explored the moderating role of attachment security and personality on children’s adjustment. Method Participants Two hundred and forty seven children (138 boys, 109 girls) and their parents (245 mothers, two fathers), and 235 teachers participated in the study. Children were drawn from 19 elementary schools in low-SES neighborhoods in Israel. Children’s mean age was 9.70 years (SD = 1.14 years, age range = 8–12 years) and parents’ mean age was 43 years (SD = 7.30 years). A total of 53% of the children were from two-parent families, and 47% were from divorced families; 62% were born in Israel, the rest were immigrants. Average years of parents’ education was 12.03 years (SD = 3.74 years). Age of parents, parents’ years of education, children’s family status, and children’s ethnicity were examined in the analyses and were not associated with the study variables. Procedure Children and parents completed the questionnaires during home visits. Teachers completed the questionnaires in their free time. Fourteen children did not complete the full personality questionnaire and 12 teachers refused to participate in the study. No differences were found in the functioning and the background variables between these children and the rest of the sample. Measures Children’s personality. Children completed 65 items from the Big Five Questionnaire for Children (BFQ-C; Barbaranelli et al., 2003) on a 3-point Likerttype scale to measure personality (0 = not at all true, 1 = somewhat true,
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2 = often true). Extroversion–energy refers to activity, enthusiasm, assertiveness; and self-confidence. Agreeableness includes positive approach toward others. Neuroticism–emotional instability refers to feelings of anxiety, depression and anger. Intellect–openness tapped intellect and broadness of cultural interest, fantasy and creativity. Conscientiousness assesses dependability, orderliness, and fulfillment of commitments. Reliabilities of the scales are good, ranging from .71 to .95 (Barbaranelli, Fida, Paciello, Di Giunta, & Caprara, 2008). Reliabilities in the present study were .81 for agreeableness, .80 for conscientiousness, .76 for neuroticism, .69 for extroversion, and .65 for openness. Children’s attachment. The Attachment Security Scale (Kerns et al., 1996) assesses children’s perceptions of security in parent–child relationships. In this study children completed the questionnaires pertaining to their mothers, as they typically fulfill the role of primary attachment figure during childhood (Freeman & Brown, 2001). The scale comprises 15 items rated on a 4-point scale (e.g., “Some kids find it easy to trust their mom BUT other kids are not sure if they can trust their mom”). Children were first told to choose which statement was more characteristic of them, and then to indicate whether the statement was really true for them or sort of true for them. The scale associates with general, social, and conduct realms and academic competence (Kerns et al., 1996). Moreover, the scores correlate with the degree of emotional support received from mother, father and friends, as well as with mothers’ reports regarding their acceptance and willingness to provide a secure base for the child (Kerns et al., 1996). Test–retest reliability was .75 and internal consistency ranged from .72 to .84 (Granot & Mayseless, 2001; Kerns, Aspelmeier, Gentzler, & Grabill, 2001; Kerns, Tomich, Aspelmeier, & Contreras, 2000). Following the suggestion of Kerns et al. (1996), a score of 45 was used as a categorical cutoff point to distinguish secure child-mother attachment (more than 45 points) from insecure child-mother attachment (less than 45 points). The criterion for assigning children’s security was based on earlier studies that used the strange situation procedure to ascribe children’s security and typically found that two thirds of children in middle-class samples are securely attached (Kerns et al., 1996). This categorical cutoff point was used in previous studies in the field of attachment in middle childhood (e.g., Bauminger & Kimhi-Kind, 2008; Granot & Mayseless, 2001; Kerns et al., 1996). Cronbach’s alpha in the present study was .75. Children’s psychosocial functioning and adjustment. Twelve items from the SelfPerception Profile Competence Scale for Children (Harter, 1985) assess children’s perception regarding the social (having a lot of friends) and conduct (well behaved) realms. The measure is widely used and showed good psychometric qualities (Shapiro, Moffett, Lieberman, & Dummer, 2005). In the present study, reliabilities for social and conduct were .66 and .70, respectively
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The Children’s Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1985) includes 27 items representing varying degrees of severity of symptoms. The depression score is calculated by summing the items. The inventory is widely used (Toblin, Schwartz, Hopmeyer Gorman, & Abou-ezzeddine, 2005). Cronbach’s alpha in the original research was .86 and in the present research was .76. Parents and homeroom teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) to examine children’s emotional and social adjustment. The following five subscales, each with five items, are rated on 3-point Likert-like scale (0 = not at all, 1 = only a little, 2 = great deal): conduct problems, hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, peer problems, and prosocial behaviors. The inventory has been shown to be useful in diagnosing children’s psychiatric disorders. Internal consistency of the scales is good, with a mean Cronbach’s alpha of .73 (Stone, Otten, Engels, Vermulst, & Janssens, 2010). The present study indicates low reliability of parents’ reports, probably due to language difficulties and lack of experience in completing questionnaires. We therefore combined the two social scales into one composite scale termed social functioning. The correlations (r) between peer problems and prosocial behaviors were .32 (p < .001) for parents and .44 (p < .001) for teachers. Higher scores indicate higher levels of social functioning (Cronbach’s α = .62 for parents, .89 for teachers). Similarly, due to high levels of intercorrelations, we combined the two conduct scales into one scale termed behavioral problems. The correlations (r) between hyperactivity and conduct problems were .50 (p < .001) for parents and .60 (p < .001) for teachers. Cronbach’s alpha in the present study was .73 for parents and .88 for teachers. The emotional symptoms sub-scale remained separate as in the original version (Cronbach’s α = .58 for parents and .71 for teachers). Stone et al. (2010) also found lower psychometric properties of the inventory among parents than among teachers across 48 studies. Results Attachment and Children’s Personality To examine the relations between children’s attachment security and their personality traits, we first computed the correlation coefficients between scores on the continuous security scale and scores of the BFQ-C scales. The correlations for security score were .19 (p < .05) with extroversion, –.16 (p < .05) with neuroticism, .22 (p < .01) with openness, .35 (p < .001) with agreeableness, and .32 (p < .001) with consciousness. Attachment and Children’s Functioning To examine the role of attachment in children’s psychosocial functioning we conducted three multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tests with
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attachment security and gender serving as the independent variables and the various reports regarding psychosocial functioning (self, parents, and teachers) serving as the dependent variables. Because children’s gender was associated with their psychological adjustment, we examined this as independent variable as well. We also explored the interaction between children’s attachment security and gender based on previous findings demonstrating that insecure attachment may lead to different psychosocial outcomes for boys and girls (Turner, 1991). For example, insecurely attached boys exhibited more behavior problems than securely attached boys, whereas there was no relation between attachment security and behavior problems among girls (Lewis, Feiring, McGuffog, & Jaskir, 1984). Similarly, insecure mother–child attachment was associated with behavioral problems among boys and with passive, unassertive, and compliant behaviors among girls (Turner, 1991). The MANOVA conducted to examine children’s socio-emotional functioning revealed a significant main effect of attachment security, F(3, 239) = 38.77, p < .001, η2 = .33. Gender and interaction effects were not significant. As can be seen in Table 1, securely attached children demonstrated higher levels of social and positive conduct self-perception and lower levels of depression than insecure children. The MANOVA conducted to examine parents’ reports on children’s adjustment revealed a significant main effect of gender, F(3, 235) = 4.65, p
