Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire for Latency Age Children

Background:

The Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire for Latency Age Children contains 15 items, divided into three factors, which taped the Ainsworth’s three attachment patterns: secure (e.g. “I usually believe that others who are close to me will not leave me”), anxious/ambivalent (e.g. “I’m sometimes afraid that no one really loves me”), and avoidant (e.g. “I find it uncomfortable and get annoyed when someone tries to get too close to me”). The children were asked to read each item and to rate the extent to which the item described themselves on a 5-point scale, with scores ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much).

Psychometrics:

For details regarding the psychometric properties and concurrent validity of the questionnaire, see, Finzi et al., 1996; Finzi et al., 2000.

Author of Tool:

Ricky Finzi-Dottan

Key references:

Primary use / Purpose:

Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire (Finzi et al., 1996; Finzi et al., 2000): This questionnaire is an adaptation for children of the Hebrew version (Mikulincer et al., 1990) of Hazan and Shaver’s (1987) questionnaire for the classification of attachment styles in adults.

ASCQ – Ricky Finzi-Dottan Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire for Latency Age Children

(English translation of Hebrew version)

Here are 15 sentences. How true is each of the sentences for you? Everyone has his or her own answer. Try to answer only what you feel. This is not a test, and there are no right or wrong answers. Read each sentence carefully. Then choose one of the five answers in the box below. Every answer has a number. Circle the number of the answer that best describes you.

1	2	3	4	5
All wrong	Wrong	A bit wrong/a bit right	Right	Very right

1. I make friends with other children easily
2. I don’t feel comfortable trying to make friends
3. It is easy for me to depend on others, if they’re good friends of mine
4. Sometimes others get too friendly and too close to me
5. Sometimes I’m afraid that other kids won’t want to be with me
6. I’d like to be really close to some children and always be with them
7. It’s all right with me if good friends trust and depend on me
8. It’s hard for me to trust others completely
9. I sometimes feel that others don’t want to be good friends with me as much as I do with them
10. I usually believe that others who are close to me will not leave me
11. I’m sometimes afraid that no one really loves me
12. I find it uncomfortable and get annoyed when someone tries to get too close to me
13. It’s hard for me to really trust others, even if they’re good friends of mine
14. Children sometimes avoid me when I want to get close and be a good friend of theirs
15. Usually, when anyone tries to get too close to me it does not bother me

Items # for each type:

• Secure- 1 3 7 10 15
• Anxious – 5 6 9 11 14
• Avoidant – 2 4 8 12 13

Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire (Finzi et al., 1996; Finzi et al., 2000). This

questionnaire is an adaptation for children of the Hebrew version (Mikulincer et al., 1990) of Hazan and Shaver’s (1987) questionnaire for the classification of attachment styles in adults. The questionnaire contains 15 items, divided into three factors, which taped the Ainsworth’s three attachment patterns: secure (e.g. “I usually believe that others who are close to me will not leave me”), anxious/ambivalent (e.g. “I’m sometimes afraid that no one really loves me”), and avoidant (e.g. “I find it uncomfortable and get annoyed when someone tries to get too close to me”). The children were asked to read each item and to rate the extent to which the item described themselves on a 5-point scale, with scores ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). (For details regarding the psychometric properties and concurrent validity of the questionnaire, see, Finzi et al., 1996; Finzi et al., 2000).

In this study (Finzi-Dottan, R., Manor, I. & Tyano, S. (2006). ADHD, temperament, and parental style as predictors of the child’s attachment patterns. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 37, 103-114) we used the continuous method for evaluating the children’s attachment styles, which enables taping two basic dimensions of attachment organization: anxiety and avoidance (Brennan, Clark & Shaver, 1998). The decision to use this method was based on Fraley and Spieker’s (2003) that categorical measures do not provide a complete picture of variability in attachment patterns. In the present study the internal consistency for the anxious subscale was a =.80 and for the avoidant subscale a = .70. On this basis, two total scores were computed by averaging items that corresponded to each factor. Higher scores reflect higher anxiety and high avoidance. Importantly, Pearson correlations revealed that the anxiety and avoidance scores were not significantly associated (r=.32; p>.05).