Olivia Nichols - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Olivia Nichols

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing and quantifying the secure base script from narratives produced by preschool age children: justification and validation tests

Building on aframework presented by Bretherton and associates, Waters and associates argued that ... more Building on aframework presented by Bretherton and associates, Waters and associates argued that interaction sequences relevant to children's access to and use of asecure base for exploration during infancy/toddlerhood become internalized as scriptlike representations. For adults, these scripted representations are readily assessed using word-prompt lists d to elicit attachment relevant narratives. However, this method is not appropriate during early childhood. Waters and associates used stories from Bretherton's Attachment Story Completion Task for this purpose. However, the method they used to score secure base script use is not efficient for larger samples (e.g. over 50), and new approaches for scoring have been designed. We describe two approaches to story selection and scoring for access to and use of the secure base script. The two scoring methods show substantial and significant overlap and also have significant associations with other methods of measuring attachment security during early childhood.

Research paper thumbnail of Preschoolers' secure base script representations predict teachers' ratings of social competence in two independent samples

Associations between attachment security, assessed as a secure base script (SBS), and teachers' s... more Associations between attachment security, assessed as a secure base script (SBS), and teachers' social competence ratings were examined in two samples (one from the Midwest region and the other from the Southern region of the United States). Consistent with previous reports, significant associations between domains were obtained in both samples and after combining the two samples, r = .33, p < .001. The associations remained significant when child sex, age, and verbal intelligence were controlled. Findings are discussed with reference to relations between SBS scores and the covariates. Regarding sex differences, an existing literature suggests that girls, compared with boys, may be advantaged with respect to skills that could support higher scores on the task used to assess secure base scripts. In both samples, teachers rated girls as somewhat higher on scales of social competence and controlling for sex reduced the magnitude of associations between SBS and social competence, but the results remained significant in all tests. organization of secure base behavior during the infancy and toddler years is co-constructed by the child and the attachment figure and guides the formation of the child's mental model of their attachment relationship. This internal working model of attachment also influences the child's construction of internal working models of self, of the self in relation to others in her/ his social world (including peers), who are not necessarily attachment figures, and of models of a wider social world that may, or may not, be benign with respect to the child's well-being. As a consequence of this cascade of internal representations emergent from the attachment relationship, attachment theory assumes that there should be coherence of adaptive functioning across salient social contexts, reflecting the history of

Research paper thumbnail of Scripted attachment representations and adaptive functioning during early childhood

Attachment theorists have characterized children's internal working models, forged from early att... more Attachment theorists have characterized children's internal working models, forged from early attachment relationship histories, as the link between earlier and later manifestations of competence. In this study, working models of attachment were measured as access to and use of the secure base script (SBS) to organize children's attachment relevant narratives (N = 139). Study goals were to assess relations between SBS use and a range of adaptive functioning domains including peer social competence, teacher/ child relationships, effortful control, executive function, and verbal intelligence. Simultaneous path analyses using structural equations indicated that SBS use was significantly associated with each of these outcome domains. Findings were reproduced when effects of verbal intelligence, sex and age were controlled, except for effortful control. Results suggest that children's internalized attachment representations are intertwined with adaptive functioning during early childhood.

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing and quantifying the secure base script from narratives produced by preschool age children: justification and validation tests

Building on aframework presented by Bretherton and associates, Waters and associates argued that ... more Building on aframework presented by Bretherton and associates, Waters and associates argued that interaction sequences relevant to children's access to and use of asecure base for exploration during infancy/toddlerhood become internalized as scriptlike representations. For adults, these scripted representations are readily assessed using word-prompt lists d to elicit attachment relevant narratives. However, this method is not appropriate during early childhood. Waters and associates used stories from Bretherton's Attachment Story Completion Task for this purpose. However, the method they used to score secure base script use is not efficient for larger samples (e.g. over 50), and new approaches for scoring have been designed. We describe two approaches to story selection and scoring for access to and use of the secure base script. The two scoring methods show substantial and significant overlap and also have significant associations with other methods of measuring attachment security during early childhood.

Research paper thumbnail of Preschoolers' secure base script representations predict teachers' ratings of social competence in two independent samples

Associations between attachment security, assessed as a secure base script (SBS), and teachers' s... more Associations between attachment security, assessed as a secure base script (SBS), and teachers' social competence ratings were examined in two samples (one from the Midwest region and the other from the Southern region of the United States). Consistent with previous reports, significant associations between domains were obtained in both samples and after combining the two samples, r = .33, p < .001. The associations remained significant when child sex, age, and verbal intelligence were controlled. Findings are discussed with reference to relations between SBS scores and the covariates. Regarding sex differences, an existing literature suggests that girls, compared with boys, may be advantaged with respect to skills that could support higher scores on the task used to assess secure base scripts. In both samples, teachers rated girls as somewhat higher on scales of social competence and controlling for sex reduced the magnitude of associations between SBS and social competence, but the results remained significant in all tests. organization of secure base behavior during the infancy and toddler years is co-constructed by the child and the attachment figure and guides the formation of the child's mental model of their attachment relationship. This internal working model of attachment also influences the child's construction of internal working models of self, of the self in relation to others in her/ his social world (including peers), who are not necessarily attachment figures, and of models of a wider social world that may, or may not, be benign with respect to the child's well-being. As a consequence of this cascade of internal representations emergent from the attachment relationship, attachment theory assumes that there should be coherence of adaptive functioning across salient social contexts, reflecting the history of

Research paper thumbnail of Scripted attachment representations and adaptive functioning during early childhood

Attachment theorists have characterized children's internal working models, forged from early att... more Attachment theorists have characterized children's internal working models, forged from early attachment relationship histories, as the link between earlier and later manifestations of competence. In this study, working models of attachment were measured as access to and use of the secure base script (SBS) to organize children's attachment relevant narratives (N = 139). Study goals were to assess relations between SBS use and a range of adaptive functioning domains including peer social competence, teacher/ child relationships, effortful control, executive function, and verbal intelligence. Simultaneous path analyses using structural equations indicated that SBS use was significantly associated with each of these outcome domains. Findings were reproduced when effects of verbal intelligence, sex and age were controlled, except for effortful control. Results suggest that children's internalized attachment representations are intertwined with adaptive functioning during early childhood.