Latent growth curve modeling was used to investigate the longitudinal link between attachment, effortful control (EC), and maladaptive development during middle childhood. In a community sample, children (Time 1: n = 157; M[subscript age] = 10.91) and their mothers were examined three times over a two-year period. Attachment was operationalized at…

There is increasing interest in attachment-related social information processing, including children's attentional processing of information regarding the attachment figure. Previous research in middle childhood revealed evidence for a stronger attentional focus toward mother in children with less secure attachment expectations. However, the…

Recent work examining the content and organization of attachment representations suggests that 1 way in which we represent the attachment relationship is in the form of a cognitive script. This work has largely focused on early childhood or adolescence/adulthood, leaving a large gap in our understanding of script-like attachment representations in…

The present study examined the role of attachment toward mother and father as a predictor of eating pathology and weight gain among preadolescent boys and girls. Self-report questionnaires and adjusted body mass index (BMI) were administered from a community sample of 601 preadolescents (8-11 years; 48% female) at baseline and once again 1 year…

This study aimed at determining whether paternal parenting behaviours (attachment and positive affection) added significant information on children's psychosocial adjustment beyond that provided by maternal reports. Five hundred and fifty-two children (fourth through sixth graders) from a non-clinical sample completed a brief measure of perceived…

To increase our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in internal working models of attachment, this study investigated the relationship between secure attachment and attentional breadth to mother using a dual task design. The content of the cues (mother vs. unfamiliar women) and the duration of the presentation of the cues (34 msec,…

The internal working model of attachment can be conceptualized as a cognitive schema to provide testable hypotheses. Thus, this study predicts a relationship between attachment and attentional bias toward the mother using an emotional modification of the exogenous cueing task. The content of the cues (mother vs. unknown women) and the duration of…