Children's internal representations of attachment relationships comprise the underlying cognitive structure that reflects regularities in patterns of early relationships with attachment figures. Internal representations of these patterns of early relationships heavily influence how children interpret and respond to the world around them, making the study of internal representations in early childhood critical. Further, because children from economically-vulnerable homes are at higher risk for less optimal developmental outcomes, identifying attachment-related patterns of children's internal representations as they relate to early parenting is highly salient to promoting early parenting strengths and positive developmental trajectories. The purposes of this study were to: (1) identify different typologies of children's internal representations of attachment relationships via story stem narrative responses (MacArthur Story Stem Battery: Bretherton, Oppenheim, Buchsbaum, Emde, & the MacArthur Narrative Group, 1990) at 5 years of age; (2) examine early parenting predictors of children's internal representation typologies; and (3) examine the effects of typologies of children's internal representations on their later externalizing behavior problems and academic outcomes. Data were drawn from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP), which sampled 3,001 low-income families with children up to 12 months of age at time of enrollment through kindergarten entry, when children were transitioning from preschool to kindergarten, and when children were in the 5th grade. Primary methods of analysis included Multilevel Latent Class Analysis. Results confirmed four hypothesized typologies of children's internal representations: Secure, Resistant, Anxious, and Dysregulated. Early parenting predictors were studied by examining typologies of parenting behaviors (parent supportiveness, parent intrusiveness, and dyadic mutuality/ connectedness), maternal psychosocial stressors (maternal depressive symptoms, maternal stress, and family conflict) and the home environment (physical environment and social-emotional environment). Parenting typologies included Competent, Controlled, and Distressed, and were significant predictors of children's internal representation typologies. Further, child internal representation typologies in early childhood predicted externalizing behavior problems and academic outcomes (math and reading performances) when children were 10 years of age.
Read
