Article

Analysis of Characteristics and Types of Attachment Represented in Young Children’s Narratives

Author

Han Jihyeon,Lee Jin Suk

Information

pp. 89~105 / 2017 Vol.24 No.4

Abstract

This study attempted to classify types by clustering based on narrative content analysis to analyze thecharacteristics of attachment representation of young children. The subjects of this study were 101children(42 boys and 59 girls) who were 4-6 years old and were attending childcare center or kindergartenin Jeonbuk J city. Attachment representations as expressed by the young children were assessed using theAttachment Story Completion Task (ASCT), developed by Bretherton, Ridgeway and Cassidy(1990). Basedon various coding guidelines, content analysis coding manuals were constructed and scored, after which acluster analysis was conducted. The results were classified into six clusters. The clusters were given thefollowing names: ‘nurturing and sympathetic group’, ‘self-reliance group’, ‘separate anxiety group’,‘avoidant group’, ‘resistant group’, and ‘disorganized group’. After comparing the typical attachment typesand the attachment clusters of this study, we found relatively high agreement rates in secure attachmentand insecure attachment types. This study is meaningful in establishing a coding system that can gaugethe attachment characteristics of Korean young children and in verifying the utility of this new attachmenttype classification method.

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