Measuring Attachment Representations in Middle Childhood in Japan: Validation of the Child Attachment Interview

<p>Although various assessment tools have been developed for measuring attachment in infancy and adulthood, there are no established measures for assessing attachment in middle childhood and adolescence. Thus, this study employed the semistructured Child Attachment Interview (CAI) to assess the mental representations of attachment in middle childhood. Specifically, it examined the psychometric properties of the Japanese version of the CAI with a nonreferred sample of 93 Japanese children (46 boys, mean age＝9.83 years), who completed the CAI, Kerns Security Scale, and subtests for verbal and performance intelligence quotient. Meanwhile, the children's parents completed the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire. The results largely replicated those of prior validation studies, while the distribution of secure/insecure attachment patterns corresponded to the expected distribution. Moreover, although the CAI scales showed the expected correlations with the self-reported attachment measures, they did not correlate with the children's temperament. Overall, our findings support the CAI's concurrent and discriminant validities for Japanese school-aged children.</p><p>【Research Impact】</p><p>The CAI is a semistructured interview designed to assess children's mental representations of attachment in the age range referred to as the “measurement gap.” This study is the first to test the crosscultural adaptation of the CAI in a Japanese context. The findings support further research regarding this promising tool and its potential applications in clinical settings.</p>