A study of peer relationships and perception of attachment security in the daughter-father relatonship among girls in middle childhood

Abstract

This study assessed relations between children's perception of attachment security in the daughter-father relationship and the quality of their peers relationship. The participants consisted of 78 peer dyads (35 secure-secure, 20 secure-insecure, and 23 insecure-insecure), all fourth grade girls from ten public elementary schools in Saraburi province, Thailand. Average age was 9.63 years old (range = 8 to 15 years old, S.D. = 0.59). The instruments used were the Security Scale (Kerns, Klepac & Cole, 1996), the Best Friend Nomination, and the Peer Relationship Instrument. A quota-sampling ex post facto research design was used to examine the differences between three attachment dyads on the latter two instruments which were developed by the author on three aspects of peer interaction: Responsiveness, Intimacy, and Criticism of Partner.The results demonstrate that (1) secure-secure peer dyads were significantly more responsive than other groups. (2) secure-secure and secure-insecure peer dyads were significantly more intimate than insecure-insecure peer dyads. (3) secure-secure peer dyads were significantly less critical of their partner than insecure-insecure peer dyads.