Narrative story stems with high risk six year-olds: Differential associations with mother- and teacher-reported psycho-social adjustment

Children's responses on a Narrative Story Stem Technique (NSST) were coded using scales reflecting essential attachment constructs, specifically, attachment, exploratory, sociability, and caregiving behavioral systems, as originally conceived by Bowlby (1973 Bowlby, J. 1973. Attachment and loss, Vol. II: Separation: Anxiety and anger, New York: Basic Books. [Google Scholar], 1982 Bowlby, J. 1982. Attachment and loss, Vol. I: Attachment , (2nd ed.), New York: Basic Books. [Google Scholar]) and elaborated upon by his followers (Cassidy, 2008 Cassidy, J. 2008. “The nature of the child's ties”. In Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications , (2nd ed., Edited by: Cassidy, J. and Shaver, P. R. 3–22. New York: Guilford Press. [Google Scholar]). NSST responses were examined in relation to both mother- and teacher-reported psycho-social adjustment and risk using the MacArthur Health & Behavior Questionnaire (HBQ). Forty-six children participated (average age 6 years 10 months), 19 of whom had high-risk backgrounds, and the rest demographically matched. Findings indicate that NSST scales were associated with behavior on certain HBQ scales, in expected directions. NSST responses appeared to differentiate socially competent children from children with the specific psycho-social risks of externalizing behavior problems and social isolation, according to mother-reports, on the one hand, and peer vulnerability and internalizing problems, according to teacher-reports, on the other. Implications for clinical applications are discussed.