Analysis of Characteristics and Types of Attachment Represented in Young Children’s Narratives
AUTHOR : 한지현,이진숙
INFORMATION : page. 89~105 / 2017 Vol.24 No.4
ABSTRACT
This study attempted to classify types by clustering based on narrative content analysis to analyze the
characteristics of attachment representation of young children. The subjects of this study were 101
children(42 boys and 59 girls) who were 4-6 years old and were attending childcare center or kindergarten
in Jeonbuk J city. Attachment representations as expressed by the young children were assessed using the
Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT), developed by Bretherton, Ridgeway and Cassidy(1990). Based
on various coding guidelines, content analysis coding manuals were constructed and scored, after which a
cluster analysis was conducted. The results were classified into six clusters. The clusters were given the
following names: ‘nurturing and sympathetic group’, ‘self-reliance group’, ‘separate anxiety group’,
‘avoidant group’, ‘resistant group’, and ‘disorganized group’. After comparing the typical attachment types
and the attachment clusters of this study, we found relatively high agreement rates in secure attachment
and insecure attachment types. This study is meaningful in establishing a coding system that can gauge
the attachment characteristics of Korean young children and in verifying the utility of this new attachment
type classification method.