Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3062 PA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec H3A 0G4, Canada.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 Nov;247:106044. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106044. Epub 2024 Sep 3.
Insecure-attached adults are more likely to lie. However, it is unknown whether infant-parent attachment quality relates to lie-telling in early childhood. As in adults, lie-telling in early childhood might be related to attachment insecurity. However, a competing hypothesis might be plausible; lie-telling might be related to attachment security given that lie-telling in early childhood is considered an advancement in social-cognitive development. The current study is the first to investigate the link between insecure/secure and disorganized/non-disorganized attachment and lie-telling behavior in early childhood. Because lie-telling is studied in the context of cheating behavior, the association between cheating and attachment is additionally explored. A total of 560 Dutch children (287 girls) from a longitudinal cohort study (Generation R) were included in the analyses. Attachment quality with primary caregiver (secure/insecure and disorganized/non-disorganized attachment) was assessed at 14 months of age in the Strange Situation Procedure, and cheating and lie-telling were observed in games administered at 4 years of age. The results demonstrated no relationship of attachment (in)security and (dis)organization with cheating and lie-telling. Results are interpreted in light of evidence that lie-telling in early childhood is part of normative development. Limitations are discussed, including the time lag between assessments, the fact that lie-telling was measured toward a researcher instead of a caregiver, and the conceptualization of attachment in infancy versus adulthood. Attachment quality does not affect early normative lie-telling, but how and when it may affect later lying in children remains to be explored.
不安全依恋的成年人更有可能说谎。然而，目前尚不清楚婴儿-父母依恋质量是否与幼儿期的说谎行为有关。与成年人一样，幼儿期的说谎行为可能与依恋不安全感有关。然而，一个竞争假说可能是合理的；鉴于幼儿期的说谎行为被认为是社会认知发展的一个进步，因此，说谎行为可能与依恋的安全性有关。本研究首次调查了幼儿期不安全/安全和非组织/非组织依恋与说谎行为之间的联系。由于说谎行为是在欺骗行为的背景下进行研究的，因此还探讨了欺骗行为与依恋之间的关系。共有 560 名荷兰儿童（287 名女孩）参与了一项纵向队列研究（Generation R），这些儿童的依恋质量（与主要照顾者的安全/不安全和非组织/非组织依恋）在 14 个月大时通过陌生情境程序进行评估，在 4 岁时通过游戏观察欺骗和说谎行为。研究结果表明，依恋（安全/不安全和非组织/非组织）的质量与欺骗和说谎行为之间没有关系。研究结果根据幼儿期说谎行为是正常发展一部分的证据进行了解释。讨论了研究的局限性，包括评估之间的时间滞后、说谎行为是针对研究人员而不是照顾者进行测量以及婴儿期和成年期依恋的概念化。依恋质量不会影响早期正常的说谎行为，但它如何以及何时可能会影响儿童以后的说谎行为仍有待探索。
