A screening measure for infant attachment: The Turkish adaptation of the Brief Attachment Scale-16

Abstract

Considering the need for a brief but valid screening measure for infant attachment, we aimed to examine the psychometric quality of Cadman et al.’s (2018) Brief Attachment Scale-16 (BAS-16) in Turkish mother-child samples. The validity of the BAS-16 Turkish was examined in two independent samples based on its associations with well-established constructs of attachment security and maternal sensitivity, child adjustment, and temperament measures, namely, the Attachment Q-Set (AQS), the Maternal Behavior Q-Set (MBQS), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Emotionality, Activity, Sociability Temperament Survey (EAS), respectively. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 supported the two-factor structure of BAS-16 Turkish. In Study 1, the BAS-16 Turkish total scores were significantly associated with the AQS security and MBQS sensitivity scores, and marginally with child externalizing problems but not with child temperament. In Study 2, aiming to cross-validate the findings of Study 1, the BAS-16 Turkish total and subscale scores strongly correlated with the AQS security scores; the BAS-16 Turkish total and Harmonious Interaction (HI) subscale scores were related to the MBQS sensitivity scores. In both samples, regression analyses showed that maternal sensitivity significantly predicted the BAS-16 Turkish total score above and beyond the effects of demographic characteristics and temperament. The findings from two studies suggest that the BAS-16 has adequate validity in assessing infant/child attachment in Turkish samples, representing a non-WEIRD cultural context, and can be used as a practical screening tool.