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Assessing Attachment to Parents and Peers in Middle Childhood: Psychometric Studies of the Portuguese Version of the People in My Life Questionnaire

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Abstract

The People in My Life questionnaire (PIML) is one of the few available self-report measures for assessing children’s representations of the relationship with attachment figures (parents and peers) in middle childhood. The current study presents validation studies of the PIML in a sample of Portuguese children aged between 8 and 12 years (N = 314) and adolescents aged between 13 and 18 years (N = 281). The original factor structure, composed of a second-order factor of attachment and three first-order factors (Trust, Communication, and Alienation), was confirmed for both scales (Parents Attachment and Peers Attachment) in the sample of children and replicated in the sample of adolescents using confirmatory factor analyses. The Portuguese version of the PIML showed adequate internal consistency and correlated as expected with measures of intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning (internalizing and externalizing problems, prosocial behavior, quality of life, self-compassion, and emotion regulation strategies). The PIML proved to be a psychometrically robust measure of children’s representations of their relationships with parents and peers, representing an important advance in the measurement of attachment in middle childhood.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under Grant SFRH/BPD/70063/2010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive-Behavioural Center for Research and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Helena Moreira, Ana Fonseca & Maria Cristina Canavarro

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  1. Helena Moreira
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  2. Ana Fonseca
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  3. Maria Cristina Canavarro
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Correspondence to Helena Moreira.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. In addition, the study was approved by the Portuguese Data Protection Authority and the Board of Directors of the School Units.

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Informed consent was obtained from all the parents or legal representatives of children.

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Moreira, H., Fonseca, A. & Canavarro, M.C. Assessing Attachment to Parents and Peers in Middle Childhood: Psychometric Studies of the Portuguese Version of the People in My Life Questionnaire. J Child Fam Stud 26, 1318–1333 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0654-3

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