School of Health in Social Science, Clinical Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Scand J Psychol. 2020 Apr;61(2):243-252. doi: 10.1111/sjop.12611. Epub 2020 Jan 16.
The aim of the current study was to examine the factorial structure of the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST), using a father doll to address the child's attachment representation to father. While the MCAST, a doll story completion task measuring attachment representations in early childhood, has been validated for use with a mother doll, its use for assessing attachment to father is relatively unexplored. Thus, an additional aim was to compare the factorial structure of the child's attachment representation to father and mother, respectively. We analyzed data from 118 first-grade children who underwent counterbalanced administration of the MCAST with a mother and father doll, respectively, within a period of three months. Exploratory factorial analysis revealed similar, three-factor solutions for attachment to father and mother, with a first factor capturing the child's (scripted) knowledge of secure base/safe haven and a second factor reflecting intrusive and conflict behavior. The third factor was different in the father and mother representations, capturing self-care and role-reversal in attachment to father and disorganization in attachment to mother. Findings support the potential usefulness of the MCAST for exploring the father-child relationship and highlight a need for further research on early attachment representations to father.
本研究旨在检验曼彻斯特儿童依恋故事任务（MCAST）的因子结构，使用父亲玩偶来探讨儿童对父亲的依恋表现。虽然 MCAST 是一种用于测量儿童早期依恋表现的玩偶故事完成任务，已经过验证可用于母亲玩偶，但用于评估对父亲的依恋的应用相对较少。因此，本研究的另一个目的是分别比较儿童对父亲和母亲的依恋表现的因子结构。我们对 118 名一年级儿童进行了分析，这些儿童在三个月内分别接受了 MCAST 与母亲和父亲玩偶的平衡管理。探索性因子分析显示，对父亲和母亲的依恋具有相似的三因子解决方案，第一个因子捕捉了儿童对安全基地/安全港湾的（脚本化）知识，第二个因子反映了侵入性和冲突行为。第三个因子在父亲和母亲的表现中有所不同，在对父亲的依恋中捕捉自我照顾和角色反转，而在对母亲的依恋中则捕捉混乱。研究结果支持 MCAST 在探索父子关系方面的潜在有用性，并强调需要进一步研究对父亲的早期依恋表现。
