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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Secure base scripted knowledge and preschoolers' social competence in samples from Mexico and Peru
Magaly Nóblega1, Patricia Bárrig-Jo1, Lucía Gonzalez1
1a Department of Psychology , Pontifical Catholic University of Peru , Lima , Peru.
Childhood attachment security, specifically secure base scripts, positively predicts social competence in preschoolers. This finding supports attachment theory and highlights pathways linking early relationships to social skills development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Attachment Theory
- Social-Emotional Learning
Background:
- Attachment theory posits that early child-mother relationships influence children's social competence.
- Understanding the specific mechanisms linking attachment security to social skills is crucial for intervention and theory refinement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between preschoolers' secure base representations (attachment scripts) and their social competence.
- To examine this relationship in diverse cultural contexts (Mexico and Peru).
Main Methods:
- Preschoolers' attachment representations were assessed using the Attachment Story Completion Task.
- Social competence was measured through teacher (Mexico) and mother (Peru) questionnaires.
- The study included samples from Mexico and Peru.
Main Results:
- Secure base representations, operationalized as attachment scripts, were significantly associated with children's social competence in both samples.
- This predictive relationship held across different cultural contexts.
Conclusions:
- Attachment scripts serve as a key pathway linking child-mother relationship security to social competence.
- Findings support and extend attachment theory, emphasizing the role of representational processes in social development.
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