1. Internal structure and reliability of the Attachment Insecurity Screening Inventory (AISI) for children age 6 to 12
- Author
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Geert Jan J. M. Stams, Nelleke Polderman, Inge B. Wissink, Cristina Colonnesi, Charlotte Barning, Anouk Spruit, Marc J. Noom, L. Willems, Forensic Child and Youth Care (RICDE, FMG), and Developmental Psychopathology (RICDE, FMG)
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Parents ,Future studies ,lcsh:RC435-571 ,Child Behavior ,Mothers ,Attachment ,050109 social psychology ,Primary care ,Assessment ,Middle childhood ,Fathers ,Cronbach's alpha ,lcsh:Psychiatry ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Measurement invariance ,Parent-Child Relations ,Child ,Reliability (statistics) ,Mental Disorders ,05 social sciences ,Reproducibility of Results ,Object Attachment ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Parent report ,AISI ,Female ,Psychology ,Foster parents ,050104 developmental & child psychology ,Clinical psychology ,Research Article - Abstract
Background The aim of the present study was to examine the internal structure and reliability of the Attachment Insecurity Screening Inventory (AISI) 6–12. The AISI 6–12 years is a parent-report questionnaire for assessing the parents’ perspective on the quality of the attachment relationship with their child aged between 6 and 12 years. Methods The sample consisted of 681 mothers and fathers reporting on 372 children (72.3% adoption parents, 14.9% non-biological primary care takers including foster parents, and 12.8% biological parents). The internal structure was assessed with multilevel confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and the reliability of the scores with Cronbach’s and ordinal alphas. Results Multilevel CFA confirmed a three-factor model of avoidant, ambivalent/resistant and disorganized attachment. Multi-group CFA indicated full configural and metric measurement invariance, and partial scalar and strict measurement invariance across mothers and fathers. Reliability coefficients were found to be sufficient. Conclusions This study showed the potential of using parental reports in the initial screening of attachment related problems, especially considering the practical approach of parental reports. However, further development of the AISI 6–12 years seems important to increase the validity of the AISI 6–12 years. In addition, future studies are necessary to replicate the current findings, and to strengthen the evidence that the AISI 6–12 years is appropriate for the use in middle childhood and validly assesses the parents’ perspective on attachment insecurities in their child. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-018-1608-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Published
- 2018