Assessment of preschoolers’ attachment security using the Attachment Q-set and the Attachment Story Completion Task.

Among the methods developed for assessing attachment security, the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS) and the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT) are the only ones designed for preschoolers, other than the Strange Situation Procedure and its coding systems. This study employed the French versions (Fr-) of these instruments with 121 preschoolers displaying externalising behaviour. The main objective was to analyse the correspondence between the two
instruments, since both were designed to assess attachment security. Correspondence was appraised by completions obtained for the same sample, and
from relations with variables known to have (or not have) significant relations
with attachment (i.e. age, gender, cognitive abilities and parenting). The results
suggest that the Fr-AQS and the Fr-ASCT are not interchangeable measures of attachment. They have to be employed according to their methodological properties and constraints. These results are discussed in terms of validity concerns and recommendations for the administration of the two procedures.