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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 12, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
07:56

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Published on: September 19, 2019

AAI coherence predicts caregiving and care seeking behavior: secure base script knowledge helps explain why.

Theodore E A Waters1, Susan L Brockmeyer, Judith A Crowell

  • 1Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. tewater@emory.edu

Attachment & Human Development
|April 10, 2013
PubMed
Summary

Secure base script knowledge explains 80% of the link between Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) coherence and adult support behaviors in relationships. This finding clarifies how early experiences influence adult attachment representations and relationship dynamics.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Previous research links the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to secure base use and support in marital interactions.
  • The underlying mechanisms connecting attachment narratives and relationship behaviors remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the hypothesis that script-like attachment representations mediate the relationship between attachment narratives and caregiving behavior.
  • To elucidate the role of secure base script knowledge in explaining the correlation between AAI coherence and adult support behaviors.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 60 cases from a previous study by Crowell et al. (2002).
  • Assessment of secure base script knowledge from Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) transcripts.
  • Regression analyses to determine the proportion of variance accounted for by secure base script knowledge.

Main Results:

  • Secure base script knowledge accounted for approximately 80% of the correlation between AAI coherence and observed caregiving/care seeking behaviors.
  • This finding highlights the significant role of conceptualized attachment experiences in shaping relationship dynamics.

Conclusions:

  • Scoring secure base script knowledge from AAI transcripts is crucial for understanding the link between early experiences and adult attachment representations.
  • This approach offers insight into adults' capacity to provide and seek support within close relationships.