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Psychology Colloquia

16  October 2007

Title

"Social Competence, Social Support, and Attachment Style During Middle Childhood"
 

Speaker

Brooke Spangler, M.A. is a fourth year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program.  She is primarily interested in research on social competence during the period of middle childhood. Her academic supervisor is Dr. Paul Silverman.
 

Time & Venue

4:10pm GBB L14.
 

Abstract

The attachment style of children throughout their early years has been found to relate to social competence and social support (Marcus & Kramer, 2001).  This investigation attempts to determine whether the relationship is evident during middle childhood.  Thirty 8 to 13-year-old children and their mothers participated.  A correlational design was used.  Attachment style was assessed with the Parent/Child Reunion Inventory (Marcus, 2001), social competence was assessed with the Social Competence Inventory (Rydell, Hagekull, & Bohlin, 1997), and social support was measured with the Social Support Appraisals Scale (Dubow & Ullman, 1989).  A measure of social desirability, the Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Short Form (Reynolds, 1982), was used to assess the participants’ likelihood of responding favorably.  Correlations were conducted to determine if there was a significant relationship between attachment security, social competence and social support, but results were nonsignificant. Results show that attachment security was not an adequate predictor of either social support or social competence.  A significant correlation was found regarding high scores on the Parent/Child Reunion Inventory and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Short Form, suggesting that mothers may have responded in an unrealistically favorable way to questions concerning their relationship with their child.

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last revised October 1 2007

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