International Journal of Behavioral Development # 2002 T he International Society for the

2002, 26 (5), 397409 Study of Behavioural Development

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pp/01650254.html DOI: 10.1080/01650250143000328

School competence in young adolescence: Links to early

attachment relationships beyond concurrent self-
perceived competence and representations of
relationships*

Ora Aviezer Abraham Sagi

Oranim Teachers College, Israel University of Haifa, Israel

Gary Resnick Motti Gini

WESTAT , Rockville, MD, USA University of Haifa, Israel

Predictive associations of infant attachment to mothers and fathers with later school functioning,
beyond the contribution of contemporaneous representations of relationships and circumstances of
caregiving, were examined in 66 young adolescents who were raised in infancy in Israeli kibbutzim
with collective sleeping. The Strange Situation Procedure was used to evaluate early attachment to
mother and father, the Separation Anxiety Test was used to assess contemporaneous representation
of relationships, and teachers reports evaluated school functioning. Circumstances of caregiving
included parental reports of quality of marital relations and a change from collective sleeping to home
sleeping for children. Results showed that infant attachment to mother, but not to father, contributed
signicant additional variance to the prediction of childrens scholastic skills and emotional maturity
beyond the contribution of concurrent representations of relationships and changes in circumstances
of caregiving. T he results support the secure base construct as an organising concept of longitudinal
investigations of attachment.

Effective performance at school is among the most salient
developmental tasks in childhood and adolescence. It involves
academic and social competencies as well as behavioural
conduct (Masten et al., 1995), and it is inuenced by the
affective atmosphere between parents and children. Empirical
evidenc e indicates that appropriate parental involvement and
disciplinary measures (Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Ro-
berts, & Fraleigh, 1987 ; Steinberg, Lamborn, Darling,
Mounts, & Dornbusch, 1994 ; Wentzel, Feldman, & Weinber-
ger, 1991), as well as perceived parental supportiveness (e.g.
T oth & Cicchetti, 1996 ; Wentzel, 1998), are associated with
school-oriented interests, academic achievement, and general
school adaptation. In addition, adolescents school adjustment
is related to the extent that their family milieu is sensitive to
their changing needs (Eccles, Lord, & Buchanan, 1996), while
self-perceived attachment to parents is related to self-perceived
competence in transition to junior high school (Papini &
Roggman, 1992) and to academic motivation in high school
(Learner & Kruger, 1997).
Such connections between affective home environmen t and
school functioning in childhood and adolescence are congruent
with the secure base construct (Bowlby, 1988 ) that views
parent-child relations as a basis for childrens adjustment at all
ages because the representational models that mediate devel-
opmental continuity are grounded in early attachment experi-
ences. Thus, experiencing early secure attachment
relationships allows children to develop a sense of autonom y
that enables them to seek new information freely and explore
away from the safety of the relationship. Attachment insecur-
ity, however, leads children to ineffective exploration (Breth-
erton, 1997) because of their ways of directing attention and
behaviour, which restrict the type of information that is made
available to them through memory or attentiveness to the
environmen t (Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985). Hence, the
secure base construct has been postulated to be a useful
organisational anchor for understanding the balance between
attachment and exploration in the study of long-term adaptive
consequences of early attachment patterns (Waters & Cum-
mings, 2000).
Several prospective studies have found predictive associa-
tions between infant attachment relations and a variety of
salient developmental adaptations in early and middle child-
hood (e.g., Arend, Gove, & Sroufe, 1979 ; Freitag, Belsky,
Grossmann, Grossmann, & Scheuerer-Englisch, 1996 ;

Correspondence should be addressed to Ora Aviezer, Center for the
study of child development, Rabin Bldg. # 6035, University of Haifa,
Haifa, 31905, Israel. E-mail: aviezer@ research.haifa.ac.il.
T his study was supported by the United States-Israel Binational
Science Foundation (BSF) grant no. 90489 to Abraham Sagi, Gary
Resnick, and Ora Aviezer. Portions of these data were presented at the
biennial meeting of the Society for Researc h in Child Development,
Albuquerque, NM, 1999 . We thank Dr Michael Nathan, Dr Arza
Avrahami, and Yehudit Binyamin of the Institute for Researc h on
Kibbutz Education at Oranim Teachers College for help in recruiting
the participants and Dr Miri Scharf for coding the SAT. We would also
like to thank Professor Rachel Seginer for her helpful comments.
Special thanks are extended to the children, parents, and teachers as
well as the educational coordinator in the kubbutzim, who so
generously gave us of their time and cooperation.
* This paper was accepted during the editorial term of Rainer K.
Silbereisen.
398 AVIEZER ET AL. / SCHOOL COMPETENCE AND EARLY ATTACHMENT
Oppenheim , Sagi, & Lamb, 1988 ; Sroufe, Carlson, & Shul-
man, 1993; Sroufe, Egeland, & Kreutzer, 1990 ) as well as in
late adolescence (Roisman, Bahadur, & Oster, 2000). Such
associations correspond to a general expectation that individual
differences in attachment security predict later adjustments
across developmental domains (Weineld, Sroufe, Egeland, &
Carlson, 1999). The present research set out from a similar
prospective approach. It focused on school adjustment in early
adolescence and examined the predictive contribution of early
attachment relations to school functioning.
Among long-term adaptations that are pertinent to school
adjustment are cognitive and metacognitive functioning, which
were postulated to be different for individuals who experienced
different quality of early attachment security (Main, 1991 ;
Moss, Parent, Gosselin, & Dumont, 1993). Most studies of
cognitive functioning associated with attachment quality were
carried out with infants and toddlers. Thus, for example,
secure infants were more free to attend to the environmen t
compared to resistant infants who spent more time monitoring
the mother (Cassidy, 1986). Also the exploration of secure
toddlers was more independen t and was less restricted (Hazen
& Durrett, 1982), whereas resistant children showed less
positive affect and task persistence during play (Frodi, Bridges,
& Grolnick, 1985). In addition, mothers of secure children
were rated higher on supportive presence and quality of
assistance in collaborative problem-solving tasks (Frankel &
Bates, 1990 ; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978).
Moreover, Main (1991) reported pilot data that linked early
attachment security to higher metacognitive functioning in
children 6 and 10 years old. Likewise, higher level of
metacognitive competence was displayed by secure pre-
schoolers during a collaborative task with mother and stranger,
which was paralleled with their mothers higher cognitive
sensitivity compared to mothers of insecure children (Moss,
Gosselin, Parent, Rousseau, & Dumont, 1997). Based on these
ndings, the lower cognitive and metacognitive functioning of
insecure children was explained in terms of fewer resources for
exploratory activity and metacognitive processes because of
their need to monitor the caregivers accessibility (Main, 1991 ;
Moss et al., 1997).
Previous assessments of the links between early attachment
representations and school adaptations in adolescence have
been rather scarce. Jacobsen and Hofmann found that
adolescents cognitive functioning (Jacobsen, Edelstein, &
Hofmann, 1994), as well as teachers rated school competence
and grade point average (Jacobsen & Hofmann, 1997), were
signicantly inuenced by attachment representations at age 7
after IQ, attention problems, and perspective-taking skills were
controlled for. Though these ndings are consistent with the
secure base construct of attachment theory, it is necessary to
consider infancy attachment in order to evaluate the connec-
tions of individual differences in early relationships to
individual differences in adolescence.
Another prospective longitudinal study (T eo, Carlson,
Mathieu, Egeland, & Sroufe, 1996 ) constructed early psycho-
social history as a composite variable that indicates childs
adaptation in the rst 3 years, including infant mother
attachment. This composite variable, along with cumulative
maternal life stress and childs earlier socioemotional school
adjustment, were used to predict math and reading achieve-
ment at age 16. Impressive associations between early history
and high school achievement were found after controlling for
IQ and earlier school achievement. However, these ndings
may result from indirect paths of inuence in which early
attachment relations are linked with factors such as home
atmosphere, which in turn supports school performance
(Weineld et al., 1999). Alternatively, intercorrelated features
of early experience, such as parental sensitivity, may foster
attachment security along with other aspects of developmen t
(Belsky & Cassidy, 1994). Therefore, it has been argued that
future studies need to specify the developmental domains in
which early attachment inuences later functioning and to
clarify the nature of associations between early relationships
and mastery of later developmental tasks (Belsky & Cassidy,
1994 ; Thompson, 1999).
It has been argued further that such longitudinal investiga-
tions need to include concurrent representations of relation-
ships, because their associations to adaptive functioning are
stronger in comparison to longitudinal associations, and thus
may outweigh the effects of early attachment on later
adjustments (Thompson, 1999). Unfortunately, research on
attachment representations during the transition from child-
hood to adolescence has not been abundan t (Rice, 1990). T he
Separation Anxiety Test (SAT; Hansburg, 1980), which in
previous attachment research was modied to be used with
young children (Kaplan, 1985; Klagsbrun & Bowlby, 1976),
was originally designed for adolescents in order to identify
separation disorders. T hus, it seemed to be a viable alternative
for exploring young adolescents representations of relation-
ships. SAT responses were concurrently associated to separa-
tion reunion responses in early childhood (Shouldice &
Stevenson-Hinde, 1992 ; Slough & Greenberg, 1990), and
were longitudinally associated to infancy attachment (Main et
al., 1985). Hence, consistent with Thompsons (1999)
recommendations, the present study used the SAT as an
assessment of relationships representations within an investi-
gation of teachers ratings of school adaptations and their
associations to early attachment relations.
T he study was carried out with Israeli children, whose
infant attachment relations to parents and caregivers were
assessed with Ainsworth et al.s Strange Situation Procedure
and who were raised in kibbutzim that practised collective
sleeping (Sagi et al., 1985). Thus, in addition to the
prospective nature of this study, the present sample was
characterised by several unique attributes. First of all,
availability of infant attachment classications to both parents
allows a prospective evaluation of the relative contribution of
relations with different caregivers to later functioning. Past
analyses of developmental adaptations in kindergarten found
that secure infant attachment to the caregiver rather than to
parents was the strongest predictor (Oppenheim et al., 1988),
yet best prediction was achieved by a secure network of
relations (Van IJzendoorn, Sagi, & Lambermon, 1992).
Although different approaches have been used to evaluate
the integrated impact of multiple attachments on later
outcomes (Howes, 1999; Van IJzendoorn et al., 1992), it is
also possible that children form qualitatively different relation-
ships with each caregiver. For example, it has been found that
relationships with mother and father each inuences different
domains of functioning in 5-year-old children and that neither
caregiver played the dominant role in predicting childrens
future functioning (Verschueren & Marcoen, 1999).
Second, the distribution of infant attachment data in this
sample was marked by an over-representation of ambivalent
classications and an under-representation of avoidant classi-
cations among insecure infants (Sagi et al., 1985), similar to
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT , 2002, 26 (5), 397409
other Israeli samples and different from the global distribution
(Van IJzendoorn & Sagi, 1999). In contrast to avoidant infants,
who attempt to minimise attachment needs by expressing
interest in the environment, ambivalent infants have been
described as focused on the relationship with the attachment
gure, displaying an exaggerated need for care and attention
and minimising interest in exploration (Cassidy & Berlin,
1994). Since most studied samples are characterised by an
over-representation of avoidant classication among insecure
infants, there is very little prospective data about the
associations between ambivalent coping with infancy attach-
ment needs and adaptive strategies for coping with later
developmental tasks. Thus, in this study it may also be possible
to explore the long-term adaptive consequences of ambivalent
attachment in infancy.
Finally, collective sleeping represents a considerable devia-
tion from what attachment theory considers to be desirable for
healthy emotional developmen t (see Aviezer, Van IJzendoorn,
Sagi, & Schuengel, 1994, for a description and review).
Empirical evidence shows that this child-rearing ecology was
marked by higher rates of insecure relationships with mothers
but not with fathers (Sagi et al., 1985 ; Sagi, Van IJzendoorn,
Aviezer, Donnell, & Mayseless, 1994), as well as by interfered
interactive processes between children and mothers (Aviezer,
Sagi, Joels, & Ziv, 1999). Yet over the years since the
collection of infancy data (Sagi et al., 1985), many of the
kibbutzim, but not all of them, abandoned collective sleeping
and instituted home sleeping for children, which increased
parental involvemen t in childcare and changed family life
(Lavi, 1982). Consequently, for some of our participants
collective sleeping was terminated during early childhood,
whereas for others the experienc e of collective sleeping
continued well into their middle childhood and as late as into
early adolescence.
This state of affairs presents a rare opportunity to explore
systematically, in an otherwise rather homogeneou s sample,
how variations in the caregiving context, i.e., sleeping
arrangements, affect later adaptations. In this respect two
competing hypotheses can be formulated. Based on previous
indications that collective sleeping had deleterious effects on
the early relationships of mothers and children, one hypothesis
states that compared to longer exposure to collective sleeping,
its early termination is associated with an improved school
adjustment. T he alternative hypothesis states that adversity
associated with collective sleeping will be mostly evident in
infancy, which is prone to its deleterious effects, but no effects
of sleeping arrangements will be evident later in young
adolescence.
The major purpose of this study, therefore, was to evaluate
how infancy attachment to parents contributes uniquely to
school adaptive functioning in early adolescence. Concurrent
assessments of IQ, perceived competence, and representations
of relationships along with consideration of past life events and
the ecology of sleeping arrangements allow for a stricter test of
early attachments inuence. Thus, it was rst hypothesised
that infancy attachment to mother and father will contribute
uniquely to the variance in school adaptation of young
adolescent children after considering concurrent representa-
tion of relationships, life events since infancy, and childrens
sleeping arrangement experience. Second, it was hypothesised
that contemporaneous associations will be found in early
adolescence between representations of relationships and
school adjustment after considering IQ and self-perceived
399
competence which in previous research accounted for a
signicant portion of the predicted variance in school
functioning (Jacobsen et al., 1994 ; Teo et al., 1996). In
addition, given that SAT has been suggested to be an
attachment-related measure of representation in early adoles-
cence, longitudinal associations between SAT responses and
early attachment relations were examined . Finally, two
competing hypotheses were evaluated with respect to the
effects of sleeping arrangements on various aspects of school
functioning in kibbutz children. One hypothesis postulated
better school adjustment for young adolescents for whom
collective sleep was terminated by early childhood whereas the
second hypothesis postulated no effect of sleeping arrange-
ments in young adolescence.
Method
Participants
Sixty-six children (33 girls and 33 boys) from the Sagi et al.
(1985) study were relocated during early adolescence (mean
age 11;10, range 11;412;6) and participated in this study
along with their parents and homeroom teachers (n 31; some
teachers had more than one participant in their classroom,
range 19). Consent was obtained from parents and children.
This sample constitutes 78% of the original sample of 85
infants. T en families of the original sample (12%) were out of
the country or left no forwarding address, eight families (9%)
refused to participate, and one child was seriously ill. Of the
children who participated in the study 7 children (11%) no
longer lived in a kibbutz, 3 moved to a different kibbutz, and
the parents of 11 children (17%) were divorced. Thus, this
sample is primarily constituted of kibbutz-raised children and
does not deviate signicantly from the original sample.
Most of the participants (89%) attended kibbutz schools,
which were district schools for a number of neighbouring
kibbutzim. Compared to non-kibbutz schools, these schools
were characterised by smaller-size classes and less formal
relations between teachers, students, and parents, as most
teachers were kibbutz members (Liebermann, 1999). Typically
in these schools, learning was conducted in the same classroom
(homeroom ) and one teacher (the homeroom teacher)
taught most subjects and also oversaw childrens progress in
those subjects that were taught by specialists (e.g. maths,
science). Despite these unique characteristics kibbutz district
schools became more similar to the Israeli school system in
their focusing on academic achievement, use of grades, and
teaching methods (Liebermann, 1999).
Procedure and measures
Data collection was conducted on site, in each kibbutz or
hometown, both in infancy and in early adolescence, and
involved three sources of information: children, parents, and
teachers. Four sets of measures from the larger longitudinal
study were used in this investigation: (1) infant attachment
classications and relationships representations of young
adolescents; (2) parental reports about life events since
infancy; (3) young adolescents IQ and self-reports of
perceived competence; and (4) teachers reports on young
adolescents school functioning. Infancy data were collected in
each kibbutz when participants were 1315 months old (see
Sagi et al., 1985 for further details). Young adolescence data
were collected on site in two visits. In the rst visit (a) childrens
400 AVIEZER ET AL. / SCHOOL COMPETENCE AND EARLY ATTACHMENT
representation of relationships was assessed, (b) they were
administered a standardised test of intelligence, and (c) they
responded to Perceived Competenc e Scales. In addition
parents reported on life events since their childs infancy.
The second visit took place in participants schools at the end
of the school year and homeroom teachers, who were
acquainted with the children for at least 1 year, were
interviewed about each participant.
Measures
Infant attachment classi cations. Infant attachment to mother,
father, and professional caregiver was observed in the Strange
Situation Procedure (SSP; Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall,
1978). Participants were classied into the traditional ABC
attachment categories with each of the three attachment gures
(see Sagi et al., 1985 , for detailed descriptions). No classica-
tions of disorganisation are available for this sample. Since the
particular caregivers that were responsible for infant care were
not involved in the care of these children after age 2, only
attachment classications with mother and father were used in
this study. Due to technical problems in the original infancy
study, Strange Situation data are missing for several partici-
pants. Thus, with regard to attachment to mother, four were
classied as insecure-avoidant, 35 were classied as secure,
and 24 as insecure-resistant (infancy data for 3 children were
missing). Respective gures for infant-father attachment
classications were 6, 41, and 18 (infancy data for 1 child
were missing). The distribution of attachment classications
(ABC) with mothers and fathers in the present sample did not
differ signicantly from the distributions that were reported in
the original sample (Sagi et al., 1985), suggesting that
participant attrition was unrelated to the quality of attachment
relationships. Due to the small sample size the avoidant and
resistant classications were considered as a single insecure
group in the analyses.
Separation Anxiety Test (SAT). The SAT (Hansburg, 1980 )
is a semi-projective test designed to evaluate individuals
responses to separation and loss. It is constituted of pictures
depicting separation between a child and a caregiver in
different contexts where the childs emotional expression is
ambiguous. Though originally intended for use with adoles-
cents, in attachment research the SAT was mostly employed
with younger children and the stimulus pictures were modied
accordingly (Klagsbrun & Bowlby, 1976 ; Shouldice & Ste-
venson-Hinde, 1992 ; Slough & Greenberg, 1990). Given that
the present study targeted young adolescents, some of
Hansburgs (1980) original separation pictures for older
children and adolescents were used. T hus, similar to Kaplan
(1985), six pictures depicting mild and severe separations were
chosen from Hansburgs original set and were presented to all
participants in ascending order of separation distress that was
veried in a pilot study.
The mild separation pictures used in this study depict the
following situations:
1. Parents go away for 2 weeks leaving the adolescent with a
sitter.
2. The adolescent is being transferred to a new school.
3. The family is moving out of the kibbutz (a modication
of the picture moving to a new neighbourhood ). discussions of the pictured events, which received low scores.
T he severe separation pictures depicted the following
situations:
4. T he adolescent moves to live with his grandparents for
good.
5. T he adolescent is running away from home.
6. A parent is being taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Similar to Scharf (2001), a modied procedure of admin-
istration was adopted that was rst suggested by Klagsbrun
and Bowlby (1976) and was later employed by Kaplan (1985)
and Resnick (1992). Thus, instead of choosing a response from
a list of possible reactions, participants were asked to respond
to two open-ended questions that probed for (a) the feelings of
the teenager in the pictured situation (how feels?), and
(b) the pictured teenagers actions following the described
event (what does next?). The latter included attempts to
prevent the separation, constructive activities such as getting in
touch with the caregiver, passivity, or destructive actions. T he
entire interview lasted about 20 minutes. It was audiotaped
and transcribed verbatim.
T hough in previous research attachment classications
were assigned based on SAT responses (e.g., Shouldice &
Stevenson-Hinde, 1992 ; Slough & Greenberg, 1990), this
approach was more valid when used with younger children as
compared with adolescents (Kroger & Haslett, 1988 ; Rice,
1990 ; Scharf, 2001). In order to assess individual differences in
the representation of relationships in the context of imagined
separations, three 9-point rating scales were employed in this
study: Coping with Separations, Emotional Openness, and
Coherence of T ranscript. Similar to Scharf (2001), scoring of
the rst two scales was based on a system developed by Kaplan
(1985) and modied by Resnick (1992) for adolescents,
whereas the nal scale was scored based on the guidelines of
Main & Goldwyn (1994).
More specically, childrens strategies of coping with
separation from parents or familiar people were coded from 1
to 9 according to their adequacy as a solution to the problems
presented in the pictured episodes in terms of a exible balance
between self-reliance and the ability to turn to others for
assistance. Thus, for example, active seeking of information
and comfort from alternative close gures is rated as more
constructive and received higher scores than passive solutions,
such as not knowing what to do. Lowest levels of coping
involve self-destructive solutions such as self-isolation or even
considering self-hurt. Childrens ability to express openly
feelings of vulnerability with regard to separations and missing
of loved ones, such as sadness, loneliness, fear, and anger, was
evaluated from 1 to 9 on the Emotional Openness scale. Open
and appropriate expressions of vulnerability in the context of
separation from parents earns the adolescent a higher score on
this scale because such expressions indicate that he or she is
emotionally affected by the pictured situations without being
overwhelmed . T ense and conictual responses with regard to
such feelings are scored lower as they indicate difculty with
emotional openness about separation and loss. Finally, the
organisation, clarity, and internal consistency of childrens
responses to the pictured separation episodes were evaluated
from 1 to 9 on the Coherence of T ranscript scale. Clear,
emotionally coherent, and appropriately justied responses to
the pictures earn the adolescent a high score on coherence of
transcript as opposed to nonrelevan t responses or incomplete
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT , 2002, 26 (5), 397409
A single rater who was blind to the infancy data and
uninvolved with other parts of this study rated SAT transcripts.
Another rater independently scored 38% of the data for the
purpose of reliability rating. Using agreemen t within 1 scale
point as a match between two independen t observers,
interrater agreement was 88%, 76%, and 85% (for Coping,
Emotional Openness, and Coherence of Transcript scales,
respectively). In addition, interrater reliability was assessed by
means of intraclass correlations and was .84, .80, and .89 for
Coping, Emotional Openness, and Coherence of Transcript
scales, respectively. However, SAT scales were highly inter-
correlated (intraclass r .95). Thus, in order to avoid
collinearity problems in the analysis, a mean SAT score was
computed from the three SAT scales. Such a score would
reect an overall evaluation of the childs representations with
regard to separations from close people, similar to categorical
classications used in assessments such as the Adult Attach-
ment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1994).
Life Event Questionnaire (LEQ). T he LEQ was administered
to the parents in order to document the participants life
experiences since infancy. T his questionnaire is based on Life
Experiences Survey (Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978 ) and on
the Israel PERI Life Events Scale (Levav, Krasnoff, &
Dohrenwend, 1981), which was adapted for use in Israel by
Eisikovits, Sagi, Guttman, and Sela (1988) and was adjusted to
accommodate this sample of kibbutz-raised children. It is a
self-report that marks events in life domains such as marital
relationship, parenting and childcare, work, education, loss,
and trauma, as well as uctuations in health, habits, and free-
time activities. The LEQ was separately administered to each
participants mother and father, who marked occurrence or
nonoccurrence of each item. In this context it is important to
note that a high degree of homogeneit y in socioeconomic and
educational status characterised the kibbutz population, which
was dictated by kibbutz collective ideology. For example, 77%
of kibbutz people had 1215 years of schooling compared to
54% in the Jewish population at large (Meron, 1994). T hus,
socioeconomic and educational status were presumed to
inuence outcome variables less, compared to life events that
were captured by LEQ.
Due to the overinclusive nature of this questionnaire, many
of the LEQ items were not relevant to the questions raised in
this study. However, it was thought that those events that may
inuence childrens functioning and representations are likely
to involve characteristics of childcare experience (e.g., insuf-
cient help in childcare, joining a different group of children) as
well as parents marital relationships (e.g., parental separation,
change in amount of arguments between the spouses), losses in
the family (e.g., a stillbirth, death of a family member), and
changes to parents health, capabilities, and habits. Corre-
spondingly, those LEQ items that referred to events in these
content domains were aggregated into four separate clusters:
parenting and childcare, marital relations, trauma and loss, and
parental transitions. Based on an assumption that a reported
event occurred even if it was only reported by one of the
parents, each reported life event was marked once whether it
was reported by one of the parents or both. Consequently, four
life event clusters were constructed for each participant based
on parents reports. Sufciently high alpha reliabilities were
obtained only for the childcare/parenting cluster (11 items,
alpha .67) and the marital relationship cluster (9 items,
alpha .79). Thus, only these two clusters, which marked
401
(a) childcare quality (i.e., number of changes and uctuations
pertinent to childcare arrangements) and (b) quality of marital
relations (i.e., perturbations in the spouse relations) were used
in subsequent analyses.
Sleeping arrangements. In addition, we marked for each
participant whether the transition to home sleeping took place
before age 6 (home sleeping) or after age 6 (collective
sleeping).
Wechsler Intelligence Test (WISC-R). Participants were tested
individually on an abbreviated version of the WISC-R
(Wechsler, 1974) that consisted of two verbal subtests
(vocabulary and comprehension) and two performance sub-
tests (block design and picture completion). T hese subtests
were selected based on their high correlations to overall IQ
(Liblich, Ben Shachar-Segev, & Ninio, 1976).
Perceived Competence Scales (PCS). Children completed the
PCS (Harter, 1982 , 1985), which have been translated into
Hebrew and were found to replicate the factor structure
delineated by Harter (Assor, Flum, & Meir, 1987). Each
questionnaire item was scored from 1 (low perceived compe-
tence) to 4 (high-perceived competence). Item scores were
averaged to form six orthogonal subscales tapping the
following competencies: academic, social acceptance, athletic,
appearance, behavioural, and general self-worth. Alpha reli-
abilities for these scales were .87, .31, .71, .67, .75, and .65,
respectively. Consequently the social acceptance scale was
omitted from further analyses.
Outcome measures
Teachers ratings of school functioning. Each participants
homeroom teacher was interviewed at school in the end of
the school year. They reported on childrens achievemen t and
behaviour and evaluated it in comparison to an average 6th
grade child. T eachers used a set of rating scales (from very
poor to excellent) to evaluate participants learning compe-
tence and habits (e.g., task persistence, efcient use of time,
verbal skills, curiosity, motivation), interpersonal relations (e.g.
liked by children, behaviour with peers), and disciplinary
problems (e.g., interruptive behaviour, need for disciplinary
measures). Consequently, two dimensions were identied:
academic functioning (9 items) and social-emotional function-
ing (10 items). Items were standardised and were submitted to
two separate exploratory factor analyses to conrm this
structure of the data (T insley & Tinsley, 1987), one for each
dimension. Analysis 1 tested the loading of academic
functioning items on two hypothesised factors: scholastic skills
and scholastic attitude, whereas analysis 2 tested the loading of
social-emotional functioning items on two hypothesised
dimensions: social competence and behavioural difculties.
Using a principal component factor extraction with varimax
rotation, analysis 1 extracted two factors for academic
functioning and analysis 2 extracted three factors for social
emotional functioning. T hus, overall the hypothetical factor
structure was conrmed. Following this analysis, item scores
were summed to create the following dependen t measures of
school adaptation: scholastic attitude, scholastic skill, social
competence, emotional maturity, and behavioural difculties.
Table 1 presents factor loading and alpha reliabilities for each
factor as well as percentage of explained variance and
402 AVIEZER ET AL. / SCHOOL COMPETENCE AND EARLY ATTACHMENT

Table 1
Measures of childrens competence at school derived from teachers questionnaire

Factor % of
Measure loading variance Eigenvalue

Analysis I: Academic functioning

Scholastic attitude (alpha reliability .91) 61 5.37
T ask persistence .90
Motivation .89
Efcient use of time .87
Attention span .68
Attitude to school .67
Enthusiasm .66
Scholastic skills (alpha reliability .83) 13 1.24
Oral verbal skills .88
Curiosity .84
Writing skills .72

Analysis II: Social emotional functioning

Social competence (alpha reliability .81) 43 4.34
Children like him .84
Has social skills .84
Able for group work .69
Behaves emotionally with peers .67
Emotional maturity (alpha reliability .82) 14 1.38
Works independently .86
Copes with difculties .79
Handles criticisms .75
Behavioural difculties (alpha reliability .69) 13 1.32
Needs disciplinary measures .81
Interruptive behaviour in class .79
Responds nonconstructively to failure .58

Eigenvalues , separately for each analysis. T wo additional
dependen t measures for each participant were grade point
averages (GPA), which were obtained from the schools, as well
as teachers overall evaluation of participants academic
progress on a 6-point scale from poor to excellent, compared
to a 6th-grade child.
Statistical analyses
In the rst step, correlational analyses were performed to
determine the relations of predictor variables to measures of
school functioning. In the second step, a series of simultaneous
multiple regressions was conducted in which school function-
ing measures were simultaneously regressed on predictor
variables to assess their relative contribution to the variance
in outcome measures. In the third step, hierarchical multiple
regression analyses were performed, in which infancy attach-
ment was entered last in order to assess its unique contribution
to the prediction of young adolescents adaptive school
functioning over and above the contribution of control
variables, representation of relationships in young adolescence,
and past life events.
Results
Analysis step 1: Intercorrelations between predictor
variables and outcome measures
The correlations between predictor variables and outcome
variables are presented in T able 2. As expected, moderately
high positive correlations were found between perceived
academic competence as well as IQ to all outcome measures
that are academically oriented and to emotional maturity. In
addition, teachers ratings of behavioural difculties were
negatively correlated to participants perceived academic
competence and were unrelated to their IQ. Furthermore,
teachers rating of behavioural difculties showed a moderately
high negative correlation to perceived behavioural competence.
However, perceived appearance, athletic competence, and
general self-worth were not correlated to any outcome measure
and were therefore omitted from further analyses. It is
important to note that the associations between measures of
school adaptations and scales of perceived competence
probably reect interdependen t relations between self-concept
and adaptive functioning. However, in order to expose the
unique contribution of infancy attachment to young adoles-
cents school adaptation, it was necessary to control for the
variance explained by relations to concurrently assessed
variables. Similar to perceived academic competence, SAT
showed positive, low to moderate correlations to all measures
of school adaptation except for behavioural difculties. Thus,
representations of relationships in early adolescence as marked
by SAT were correlated to academic as well as socioemotional
outcome variables. It is interesting to note that teachers rated
social competence in this sample was unrelated to both IQ and
perceived academic competence.
Furthermore, a moderate signicant correlation was found
between infancy attachment to mother and scholastic skills and
a moderate, but only marginally signicant, correlation was
found between infancy attachment to mother and emotional
maturity. Contrary to expectations, infancy attachment to
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT , 2002, 26 (5), 397409 403

Table 2
Correlations of infant attachment SAT scale, sleep, life event clusters, IQ, and perceived competence scales, and gender to school
adaptation measures

Outcome measures of school competence

Scholastic Scholastic Emotional Social Behaviour General

attitude skills maturity competence dif culty progress GPA
a
Attachment
Mother .19 .29* .23y .05 .07 .06 .18
Father .12 .16 .09 .08 .10 .02 .08
LEQ
Childcare .03 .02 .09 .02 .07 .02 .02
Spouse relation .28* .11 .22y .22y .20 .00 .05
Sleeping b .14 .09 .28* .10 .20 .08 .08
SAT scale .26* .50** .22y .30* .14 .26* .32**
IQ .23y .48** .40** .17 .09 .46** .37**
Perceived competence
Academic .50** .57** .54** .15 .28* .65** .56**
Conduct .24y .24y .24y .13 .46** .14 .15
Appearance .17 .08 .14 .12 .15 .08 .08
Athletic .13 .02 .11 .05 .19y .06 .02
Self-esteem .04 .05 .08 .03 .02 .04 .03
Gender .10 .09 .00 .10 .11 .14 .12
a
1 insecure, 2 secure.
b
1 collective, 2 home.
y p 5 .10; * p 5 .05; ** p 5 .01; All signicance levels are two-tailed.

father was not correlated to any outcome measure. With regard
to the relations between preceding life events and school
adaptation, Table 2 shows a signicant negative correlation
between perturbations in spouse relations and scholastic
attitude, as well as marginally signicant negative correlations
between this life event variable and emotional maturity and
social competence. Unexpectedly, uctuations in childcare
were not correlated to any measure of school adaptation, thus
the LEQ childcare cluster was omitted from further analyses.
However, a signicant correlation was found between sleeping
arrangements and emotional maturity. This correlation sug-
gests that participants who moved to home sleeping by early
childhood were more emotionally mature. Finally, Table 2
shows that child gender was not correlated to any outcome
measures, thus it was not entered into further analyses.
Before conducting data analysis the intercorrelations of
predictor variables were examined. No signicant correlations
were found for infancy attachment to mother nor for SAT
scores with the other predictor variables (life events cluster,
sleeping arrangements, self-perceived competence scales, and
IQ). The correlation between infancy attachment to mother
and SAT score was only marginally signicant (r .21, p 5
.10), indicating a tendency for discontinuity between early
attachment classications and later ratings of relationships
representations. Also, even though SAT was not correlated
with overall IQ, the question may be raised about possible
confounding of SAT scores with verbal skills. The Hebrew
WISC-R manual (Liblich et al., 1976) shows that Vocabulary
is the verbal subtest with the best psychometric qualities and
highest intercorrelations with Verbal IQ. Yet, no signicant
correlations were found between Vocabulary score and SAT
scales score, thus suggesting that SAT scores were not
confounded with Verbal IQ. Finally, in our data self-perceived
academic competence and self-perceived conduct competence
were moderately correlated (r .41, p 5 .01). However, in the
absence of consensus about the size of intercorrelations among
predictor variables that create multicollinearity (Pedhazur,
1982), these two variables were entered to the analyses.
Analysis Step 2: Simultaneous multiple regressions of
school adaptation measures on predictor variables
In order to determine that infancy attachment relations and
sleeping arrangements exerted unique effects on outcome
measures, it was necessary to establish that these variables did
not interact with any other predictor variables with regard to
the outcome measures. T herefore, initial analyses computed a
series of linear regressions for all school adaptation measures
by entering infancy attachment to mother and one other
predictor variable (IQ, perceived competence, SAT, LEQ
clusters, and sleeping arrangements) together with their
interaction term. A similar procedure was carried out for the
sleeping arrangements variable and infancy attachment to
father. In addition, it was established that none of the
dichotomous predictor variables (infancy attachment to
mother, infancy attachment to father, and sleeping arrange-
ments) interacted with regard to the outcome measures by
means of a set of 2 (secure, insecure) (collective, home) and
a set of 2 (secure, insecure) 2 (secure, insecure) two-way
ANOVAs. These initial analyses yielded only one interaction
effect for the prediction of social competence, in which infant
attachment security to mother interacted with the LEQ cluster
of spouse relations. In this interaction effect, high perturba-
tions in parents spouse relations were related to lower social
competence score primarily for adolescents who were inse-
curely attached to mother in infancy. Therefore, this interac-
tion effect was incorporated into the regression equation of
social competence. T he absence of interaction effects between
infancy attachment to mother and infancy attachment to father
indicates no compensation effects for insecurity in either
relationship. Consequently infancy attachment to father was
omitted from further analyses.
404 AVIEZER ET AL. / SCHOOL COMPETENCE AND EARLY ATTACHMENT

Table 3 summarises the simultaneous multiple regression SAT accounted for signicant portions of the variance in
analyses of school adaptation measures on predictor variables. addition to controlling for IQ and perceived academic
The regression equations that were obtained for school competence. The regression of social competence on the linear
adaptation measures were all signicant, but hypothesised combination of SAT , LEQ spouse relation cluster, and an
predictor variables (infancy attachment to mother, SAT score, interaction term of LEQ spouse relation cluster and infancy
or sleeping arrangements) contributed signicant portions of attachment to mother was also signicant, with multiple R
the variance only in some outcome measures. Thus, the .44, R2 .19, F(3, 57) 4.43, p 5 .007. Both SAT and the
regression equation for emotional maturity was signicant with interaction term of infancy attachment to mother by LEQ
multiple R .72, R2 .52, F(7, 52) 7.95, p 5 .000, and the spouse relations contributed signicant portions of the
predicted variance was accounted for by infancy attachment to variance in this outcome measure.
mother, SAT, and sleeping arrangements in addition to For general progress, multiple R .73, R2 .54, F(3, 58)
controlling for IQ and perceived academic competence. 22.48, p 5 .000, whereas for GPA multiple R .64, R2 .44,
Similarly, the regression equation for scholastic skills was F(3, 53) 12.43, p 5 .000. In both regression equations SAT
signicant with multiple R .80, R2 .64, F(5, 52) 19.07, contributed a signicant portion of the variance in addition to
p 5 .000, and both infancy attachment to mother as well as perceived academic competence. It is interesting that IQ
contributed signicantly to the predicted variance in general
progress, but not in GPA. Finally, though the regression
Table 3 equation of scholastic attitude was signicant with multiple R
Simultaneous multiple regression of school adaptation measures on .58, R2 .55, F(6, 51) 4.20, P 5 .002, the variance in this
predictor variables measure was primarily accounted for by perceived academic
competence. The contributions of infancy attachment to
Beta Total R2
mother and SAT to the variance in scholastic attitude were
Academic oriented variables short of signicance. Similarly, though the regression equation
Scholastic attitude (N 57) .55** of behaviour difculties was signicant with multiple R .52,
Infancy attachment to mother .199y R2 .27, F(4, 58) 5.32, p 5 .001, the variance in this
LEQSpouse Relationship .161 variable was primarily accounted for by perceived behavioural
SAT .215y competence.
IQ .011
Perceived adademic competence .444***
Perceived behavioural competence .019 Analysis Step 3: Hierarchical multiple regression of
Scholastic skill (N 57) .65*** school adaptation measures on predictor variables
Infancy attachment to mother .282** controlling for IQ and perceived competence
SAT .437***
IQ .241** For those outcome measures in which simultaneous regression
Perceived academic competence .456*** equations showed that infancy attachment, SAT, and sleeping
Perceived behavioural competence .007 arrangements contributed signicantly to the predicted var-
General progress (N 61) .54*** iance, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted
SAT .192* in order to determine that these predictor variables contributed
IQ .256** uniquely to outcome measures, beyond and above the
Perceived academic competence .569*** contribution of IQ and perceived competence. Accordingly,
Grade point average (N 54) .44***
the model of hierarchical multiple regressions followed a
Infancy attachment to mother .137
chronological rule in which variables to be controlled for and
SAT .287**
IQ .168 concurrently assessed with outcome measures were entered
Perceived academic competence .490*** earlier, whereas variables for which their unique contribution
needed to be determined and happened earlier in participants
Socioemotional variables life were entered later. Thus, IQ and perceived competence
Emotional maturity (N 58) .52*** scales were entered rst in one block. SAT was entered second
Infancy attachment to mother .258** because it was assessed concurrently with outcome measures
LEQSpouse relationship .131 and was, thus, likely to give a major contribution to the
Sleeping arrangement .368*** predicted variance in outcome measures. Past life events (LEQ
SAT .199*
spouse relations cluster) and sleeping arrangements, which
IQ .208*
marked life events that predated assessment of school
Perceived academic competence .416***
Perceived behavioural competence .023 functioning and thus may mediate the inuence of early
Social competence (N 60) .19** attachment, were entered together in the third block. Infancy
Infancy attachment to mother spouse .486** attachment to mother was entered last in order to examine
relationship whether it had a unique contribution to the predicted variance
LEQSpouse relationship .503** in school adaptation, beyond and above all other predictor
SAT .254* variables.
Behavioural difculties (N 59) .27*** T able 4 summarises the results of the hierarchical multiple
LEQSpouse relationship .147 regression analyses, which showed that SAT contributed
Sleeping arrangement .170
signicantly to the prediction of scholastic skill, R 2 change
Perceived academic competence .102
.15, F(1, 54) 19.47, p 5 .000, General Progress, R2 change
Perceived behavioural competence .390**
.04, F(1, 58) 4.48, p 5 .04, and GPA, R 2 change .08,
y p 5 .10; * p 5 .05; ** p 5 .01; *** p 5 .001. F(1, 52) 7.11, p 5 .01, over and above IQ and perceived
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT , 2002, 26 (5), 397409 405

Table 4
Hierarchical multiple regression of school adaptation measures on predictor variables

Academic oriented variables Total R2 R2 change Socioemotional variables Total R2 R2 change

Scholastic Attitude (N 57) Emotional Maturity (N 58)

a. IQ a. Perceived academic competence .32*** .269***
Perceived academic competence .23*** .234*** IQ .051*
Perceived behavioural competence Perceived behavioral competence
b. SAT .28*** .046y b. SAT .35*** .027
c. LEQSpouse relationship .29*** .014 c. Sleeping arrangement .45*** .106**
d. Infancy attachment to mother .33*** .036y LEQSpouse relationship
Scholastic skill (N 57) d. Infancy attachment to mother .50*** .048*
a. Perceived academic competence .315*** Social competence (N 60)
IQ .42*** .101** a. SAT .06* .064*
Perceived behavioural competence b. Infancy attachment to mother X .08y .013
b. SAT .57*** .155*** LEQSpouse relationship
c. Infancy attachment to mother .65*** .076** c. LEQSpouse relationship .19** .112**
General progress (N 61) Behavioral dif culties (N 59)
a. Perceived academic competence .50*** .426*** a. Perceived academic competence .21***
IQ .076** Perceived behavioral competence .210***
b. SAT .54*** .036* b. Sleeping arrangement
Grade point average (N 54) LEQSpouse relationship
a. IQ
Perceived academic competence .31*** .310***
b. SAT .39*** .083**
c. Infancy attachment to mother .42*** .024

y p 5 .10; * p 5 .05; ** p 5 .01; *** p 5 .001.

academic competence. However, only a marginally signicant
unique contribution of SAT was found for scholastic attitude,
R2 change .045, F(1, 55) 3.54, p 5 .07. Unexpectedly,
SAT had no unique contribution to emotional maturity.
Sleeping arrangements had a unique contribution, over and
above control variables and SAT , to emotional maturity only,
R2 change .10, F(1, 55) 10.64, p 5 .002. Finally, when
entered last after most of the predicted variance was accounted
for, infancy attachment to mother still added a signicant
unique portion to the predicted variance of young adolescents
scholastic skills, R2 change .08, F(1, 53) 11.48, p 5 .001,
and emotional maturity, R2 change .05, F(1, 54) 5.22, p 5
.026.
Since social competence was not interrelated with control
variables, SAT was entered rst in the regression equation of
this variable, the interaction term of infant attachment by LEQ
spouse relation cluster was entered next, and LEQ spouse
relation cluster was entered last. Thus, it is not surprising that
SAT , which was entered in the rst block, contributed
signicantly to the predicted variance in social competence,
R2 change .06, F(1, 59) 4.03, p 5 .05. T he interaction
term of infancy attachment by LEQ spouse relation did not
contribute signicantly to the predicted variance of social
competence, however, LEQ spouse relation cluster contrib-
uted signicantly to the variance of social competence, R2
change .11, F(1, 57) 7.89, p 5 .007, when entered last
after SAT s contribution was accounted for.
Thus, it can be summarised that SAT contributed uniquely
to scholastic skills, general progress, and GPA and showed a
trend in scholastic attitude, over and beyond IQ and perceived
academic competence. Sleeping arrangements contributed
uniquely to the predicted variance of emotional maturity, over
and beyond IQ and perceived academic competence, whereas
the LEQ spouse relations cluster contributed uniquely to the
variance in social competence. Furthermore, infancy attach-
ment to mother contributed uniquely to the predicted variance
of scholastic skills and emotional maturity, over and above the
contribution of all predictor variables.
Finally, to clarify the relations of the ndings to early
ambivalent attachment relations rather than to early attach-
ment insecurity, step 3 analyses were repeated without the
participants who were classied as avoidant in infancy. Despite
considerable reduction in sample size, the overall pattern of
ndings was preserved, even though some of the effects were
reduced. Thus, SAT, R2 change .11, F(1, 43) 10.91, p 5
.002, and infancy attachment to mother, R2 change .08,
F(1, 42) 9.25, p 5 .004, contributed uniquely to the
variance in scholastic skills (N 47), over and beyond the
inuence of IQ and perceived academic competence. Similarly,
the unique contribution of SAT to the predicted variance in
general progress, N 49; R2 change .05, F(1, 46) 5.13, p
5 .03, and GPA, N 44; R 2 change .06, F(1, 41) 4.48, p
5 .04, over and above the contribution of control variables,
was preserved. With regards to the variance in emotional
maturity (N 49), it was still signicantly predicted by
sleeping arrangements, R2 change .08, F(1, 46) 5.13, p 5
.05; however the contribution of infancy attachment was
reduced to a trend, R 2 change .035, F(1, 42) 2.91, p 5
.095.
Discussion
Results of this study showed that school adaptation in early
adolescence was concurrently linked to representations of
relationships as well as longitudinally associated to infancy
attachment and to changes in the context of caregiving, beyond
concurrently assessed IQ and self-perceived competence.
406 AVIEZER ET AL. / SCHOOL COMPETENCE AND EARLY ATTACHMENT
Although self-perceived competence and sometimes IQ, when
entered rst, contributed the largest amount of explained
variance in all the dimensions of school adaptation except
social competence, signicant portions of the variance were
still explained by representations of relationships and infant
attachment security. As expected with regard to contempora-
neous connections, young adolescents whose representations
of coping with separation and loss were coherent, emotionally
regulated, and constructive were also rated by their teachers as
competent in most academic domain variables of school
functioning, beyond IQ and self-perceived competence. Find-
ing that representations of relations were signicantly asso-
ciated to GPA, general academic progress, and scholastic skills
is congruent with previous research (Jacobsen & Hoffman,
1997), and it indicates that such representations of relation-
ships may support childrens fuller engagemen t with academic
tasks.
The large effects of self-perceived academic competence on
school adaptation are congruent with the notion that self-
perceived competence and school adaptation may be part of
feedbac k loops between self-perceived control and actual
outcome that constitute self-conrming cycles (Skinner,
Zimmer-Gembeck, & Connell, 1998). Furthermore, according
to this motivational model, underlying childrens perception of
control are two dimensions of the social context; structure, and
involvemen t that together resemble the sensitivity construct in
attachment research (Skinner et al., 1998). T hus, it may be
argued that in challenging interpersonal situations of coping
with separations and loss a sense of higher control is reected
in constructive, coherent, and emotionally regulated represen-
tations, which allows children to deal with academic tasks more
effectively.
With regard to longitudinal connections between early
adaptations dened in terms of infancy attachment security
that was entered last into the regression analyses and later
school adjustment, the proposed predictive associations have
been partly conrmed. Young adolescents who were securely
attached to mother in infancy received higher scores on
scholastic skills, which were evident in higher teachers ratings
of curiosity and verbal abilities, beyond the inuence of control
variables and concurrent representations of relationships. In
addition, these adolescents received higher scores on emotional
maturity, which were manifested in higher ratings of ability to
work independently and cope with frustrations and criticisms,
beyond the inuence of control variables and changes in
caregiving circumstances.
These ndings are concordant with previous research that
found predictive links from secure representations to cognitive
functioning, GPA, and school behaviou r (Jacobsen et al.,
1994 ; Jacobsen & Hofman, 1997). In addition, these results,
along with the ndings of T eo et al. (1996), underscore the
importance of considering adaptations in infancy for predic-
tions of later adjustments in addition to more current
circumstances. Moreover, nding that early attachment to
mother contributed signicantly to predictions of scholastic
skills and emotional maturity after concurrently assessed, more
proximal variables have been entered implies that in predicting
aspects of school adaptation early experience still adds to later
assessments (Sroufe, Carlson, Levy, & Egeland, 1999). More
specically, scholastic skills and emotional maturity may be
viewed as dimensions of school adaptation that reect
exploration in its broad sense, which includes organised
behaviour, interest, and motivation (Ainsworth et al., 1978).
T he links of school adjustment in early adolescence to
concurrent representations of relationships as well as to
attachment security in infancy are congruent with the notion
of a secure-base control system (Ainsworth et al., 1978;
Bowlby, 1988). Thus, childrens condence in a relationship
allows them to explore away from a secure base and master
successfully ordinary environments such as schools (Waters &
Cummings, 2000). Accordingly, variations in adaptive school
functioning in early adolescence may mirror the secure-base
control systems children had set up with their mother, based
on their attachment experiences during infancy. However, as
underscored by Waters and Cummings, because the establish-
ment of set goals for the secure base system is unlikely to be
nalised in infancy without further learning and modications,
it is necessary to consider the continued inuence of
caregiving.
In this study caregiving was only indirectly addressed by
considering the ecological context of childcare in terms of
collective versus home sleeping arrangements and the quality
of marital relations. With regard to sleeping arrangements, two
competing hypotheses were considered. The data did not
support the hypothesis that the deleterious effects of collective
sleeping were restricted to infancy. In this study, young
adolescents who were exposed to collective sleeping beyond
early childhood were rated as less emotionally mature in the
school context compared with young adolescents who slept
with parents. T hus, though not encompassing all school
adaptation domains, the adversity associated with collective
sleeping appeared to be cumulative and particularly inuential
on young adolescents ways of managing their schoolwork.
T hese nding are concordant with suggestions that changes in
caregiving context may alter childrens experience with parents
and consequently inuence their functioning and internal
representations of relationships (Lewis, Feiring, & Rosenthal,
2000 ; Weineld, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2000).
T he change in sleeping arrangements from collective to
home sleeping may also underlie the absence of associations
between early attachment security and SAT representations. It
is possible that the interference to dyadic interactive processes
suggested for the collective sleeping ecology (Aviezer et al.,
1999 ) was alleviated with the change to home sleeping.
Furthermore, even though no interaction effect of sleeping
arrangemen t by SAT was revealed, nding long-term pre-
dictive associations between earlier home sleeping and later
emotional maturity in the school context suggests that
childrens relations with parents may have been experienced
differently in the two sleeping arrangements ecologies.
In a similar vein, nding predictive association between
high perturbations in parents marital relations and later
lower social competence indicates a possible link between
satisfactory marital relationships and aspects of caregiving
quality that manifested themselves in childrens social
competence at school. T his nding is concordant with
evidence that linked satisfactory marital relationships to
supportive caregiving and secure attachment (Belsky, 1999).
T hus, different aspects of the child-rearing context may exert
long-term effects on developmental outcomes by inuencing
the parent-child relations and childrens experiences with
their parents.
Previous research marked close relationships as the main,
theoretically coherent, outcome domain that is inuenced by
early attachment experiences (Thompson, 1999 ; Weineld et
al., 1999). However, the results of this study suggest additional
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT , 2002, 26 (5), 397409
outcome domains that are longitudinally correlated with infant
attachment security. According to Cassidy and Berlin (1994),
ambivalently attached individuals are characterised by con-
strained autonom y and restricted exploratory competence. In
this study ambivalenc e was over-represented among infant
insecure classications and the results were largely maintained
even when analyses compared only youngsters with ambivalent
and secure attachment to mother in infancy. T hus, it may be
speculated that the signicantly lower ratings of scholastic skills
and emotional maturity that were found in young adolescents
who as infants were insecure with mothers are associated with
ambivalenc e in infancy.
Although several studies found lower cognitive and
metacognitive functioning among insecure individuals who
were predominantly avoidant (e.g., Frankel & Bates, 1990;
Lutkenhaus, Grossmann & Grossmann, 1985; Main, 1991;
Matas et al., 1978 ; Moss et al., 1997), most of these studies
were conducted with younger children. Previous studies with
older children showed only few associations between early
attachment security and later curiosity and autonomous
approach to tasks. This may reect the difculty of
distinguishing the exploratory behaviou r of secure individuals
who are driven by a genuine sense of autonomy from the
exploratory behaviour of avoidant individuals who are driven
by defensive manoeuvers against attachment needs. On the
other hand, ambivalent individuals dependenc y tendencies,
exaggerated attachment needs, and decreased explorations are
likely to stand out in comparison to the autonomy and
readiness to explore away from attachment gures that
characterise secure individuals. Therefore, our nding of
lower scholastic skills and emotional maturity for adolescents
whose infancy attachment to mother was insecure reect the
over-representation of ambivalence among insecure infants in
our sample and support the discriminant validity of early
attachment patterns. In addition, these ndings support
Sroufe et al.s (1999) arguments for the special role of early
experience as paving specic pathways of long-term develop-
mental progression and adaptations.
Childrens rated social competence and behaviour difcul-
ties at school were not signicantly linked to early attachment
security and were only marginally inuenced by contemporary
representation of relationships. T his was unexpected in view of
prior theory and research that suggested an early attachment
inuence in the domain of social behaviour and peer relation-
ships (T hompson, 1999). The lack of associations between
early attachment and teachers rated social competence may
have resulted from teachers focusing on general tendencies of
behaviour in social contexts rather than on close personal
relationships. It has been argued that teachers ratings of social
relations with peers may not be linked closely to child parent
attachment (Schneider, Atkinson, & Tardif, 2001), as teachers
may be more able raters of students capabilities in school-
related tasks and less skilful in observing students competence
in peer relations. In addition, previous research concerned with
association of attachment relations to behavioural problems
has been inconclusive, possibly because in normal samples
behavioural difculties are determined by multiple factors
(Thompson, 1999). Jacobsen and Hofmann (1997) reported
similar nding with regards to teachers ratings of social
behaviour and behaviou r disruptions. Our ndings, along with
their ndings, suggest that teacher rating may be unsuitable as
an evaluation of these behavioural characteristics of adjustment
to school. In addition, further research is needed to determine
407
whether early attachment relations interact with specic age-
related tasks, such as adjustment to the transition into
adolescence, to produce behavioural difculties in some
children.
Contrary to expectations, early attachment to father did not
have any predictive associations to school functioning in early
adolescence. The absence of longitudinal associations between
infant-father attachment and later adjustments resembles
Freitag et al.s (1996) ndings in which infant-father attach-
ment did not contribute to later adaptations in the domain of
peer relations. These ndings are perplexing, because fathers
sensitivity during play with toddlers was associated with less
avoiding styles of coping during adolescence (Zimmermann &
Grossmann, 1997). In addition, competent functioning at
school may be viewed as epitomising the exploration side of the
attachment-exploration balance in which fathers have been
postulated to be particularly supportive (Grossmann, Gross-
mann, & Zimmerman, 1999). However, it is important to note
that even though the participants were extensively exposed to
other caregivers, mothers were considered as the primary
caregivers in kibbutzim and spent more time with children than
fathers (Aviezer et al., 1994). Thus, children may have
experienced their relations with each parent differently and
our ndings suggest that the dynamics of attachment relation-
ship with mothers and fathers may be associated with different
longitudinal meanings. Given the dearth of longitudinal
research that had examined the developmental consequences
of infant-father attachment relations it is suggested that further
research is needed to focus specically on attachment relations
in infancy.
Before concluding, it should be noted that in the absence of
reliable and valid assessments of attachment representations in
young adolescents an adaptation of Kaplans (1985) scoring
scheme of the SAT was used in this study. However, given that
this semi-projective measure was not originally devised to
assess attachment representations and that the available
scoring schemes have been geared to young children, it may
require further validation to become an assessment of
attachment internal representations that is suitable for young
adolescent children. Despite these reservations the ndings
indicate some overall continuity from infancy to early
adolescence in established set-goals for the secure base system
with mothers that was not overshadowed by changes in
contextual circumstances or contemporaneous representations
of relationships. In particular this study indicates that coping
with later developmental tasks epitomises earlier strategies that
may have been developed for coping with infancy attachment
needs.
Finally, it is necessary to keep in mind that this study was
conducted with a unique sample with specic characteristics,
namely kibbutz children who come from a unique ecological
background. In addition this sample is unique in the
prevalenc e of ambivalence among infancy-insecure classica-
tions. Thus, caution is required when the ndings are
examined and generalised. Nonetheless, considering the 10-
year time lag between assessments in this study and complete
independenc e of the measurements used in infancy and
young adolescence, these results present an intriguing picture
of longitudinal associations that imply positive inuences
from infant-mother attachment security to later school
competence.
Manuscript received December 2000
Revised manuscript received May 2001
408 AVIEZER ET AL. / SCHOOL COMPETENCE AND EARLY ATTACHMENT
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