The Correlation Between Children's Personal Behavioural Characteristics and Indicators of Children's Attachment to their Mother or Father, Respectively

Abstract

The paper analyzes the relationships between the quality of the child's attachment to her/his parents and the child's capacity of socializing, her/his productivity, behavioural problems, neurosis, anxiety and self‐evaluation. A study involving teachers and parents of 90 preschool children was carried out. Questionnaire on the behavioural responses of children (Horvat, 1986) was used which I expanded by adding postulates of the child's self‐evaluation. To determine the quality of the child's attachment an evaluation scale was constructed, which I validated by means of observing the child's behavior toward the parents in kindergarten. The validity of two categories (e.g. “security” and “avoidance") was confirmed. The research indicated the existence of a positive relation between the child's attachment and the way the child adapts in general. The results failed to confirm only the hypotheses regarding the phenomenon of neurotic symptoms.