Validation of the School-age Assessment of Attachment in a short-term longitudinal study

Abstract

This study tested the validity of the School-aged Assessment of Attachment (SAA) in terms of matches from the well-validated Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA) to the SAA 6 months later. It also addressed validity in terms of mental health services and measures of stress, depression and anxiety. Hypotheses: Children’s SAA classifications were predicted to match their 6 months’ previous PAA classifications and indicators of maternal, child and family stress. The study used a two-group comparative design, involving normative and clinical children and their mothers. Method: The participants were 50 children between 5.5 and 5.9 years of age. Each child participated with his or her mother in a PAA, and then 6 months later each child responded to the SAA story cards as well as self-report assessments of stress, anxiety and depression. Results: Concordance of A, B, C and A/C attachment classifications was found between the PAA and SAA in 34 of 48 children. There was a strong relation between referral status (clinical or normative) and both PAA and SAA attachment classifications. In every non-matching case, a normative child had an attachment classification indicative of risk, indicating that the direction of errors was false positives as opposed to false negatives. Conclusions: This evidence supports the validity and clinical utility of the SAA.