Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2013

ISSN 2345-2633

Study of the Relationship between Attachment

and Social Skills and Coping Skills
Leili Madah
Abstract The present study aims to investigate the relationship between attachment and social skills and coping skills. The statistical
community in this study comprises all preschool children in Qom pre-province. The statistical sample of this study is 72 people who have
been chosen and studied with cluster random sampling method. Data collection tool include attachment quality assessment and semistructured interview with mothers as well as child-mother observation and interaction and social skills and coping skills evaluation and also
Social Adjustment Inventory. Stepwise regression analysis, variance analysis as well as Chi-square statistical method have been used to
analyze data. The conclusions obtained indicate that there is a significant relationship between child-mother attachment quality and social
skills and the method of coping with stress.
Index Terms Secure Attachment, Social Skills, Coping with Stress.

1 INTRODUCTION

formed, Paterson Preaver and Filed (1995) indicated that there

is a significant relationship between adolescent's attachment
quality to their parents and being utilized of their support
with one's coping abilities (Paterson Preaver and Filed, 1995).
Mico Leseenber (1998) showed in his study that those who are
known as securely attached are more quickly adapted and
have problem-focused coping strategy and also seek other's
help in the time of occurring problems (Mico Leseenber, 1998).
Sekanda (1994) indicated that the girl's experiences of attachment with her father cause that her abilities to have a healthy
and an efficient relationship is formed in the adulthood
(Sekanda, 1994). Accordingly, given the present study aiming
to determine the relationship between attachment and social
skills and coping skills, it has been attempted in this study to
show that:
- Is there a relationship between mother-child attachment
quality and the development of social skills in the child?
- Is there a relationship between mother-child attachment
qualities with the type of stress?
- How much is the power of predicting social skills in terms of
attachment quality?

newborn baby is ready to divulge the kind of behaviors

that is neither the result of pre-learnt materials nor is
based on reduced drives. According to revolutionary
theory of these patterns, they have much value in terms of
compatibility (Balbi, 1969). According to Balbi, the main conclusion of the interaction between mother and child is creating
a kind of emotional state between mother and child which is
called attachment (Balbi, 1969). Enizoreth et.al (1978) indicated
that it is the maternal emotional relationship that causes the
child follows comfort resulted from his/her mother, especially
when he/she feels cowardice and insecurity (Enizoreth et.al,
1978). Theoreticians maintain that all normal children have
feelings of attachment and it forms the bases of healthy emotional and social development in the adulthood. On the other
hand, being socialized is also a process in which one's norms,
skills, motives and behaviors are shaped in order for his/her
present or future roles in a suitable society is recognized. This
process is began since the child is born in which some individuals and groups of people as well as some organizations
have key role. However, due to the fact that maternal role in
forming the initial development of the child is generally more
than others, the main steps for the child to be socialized are
taken by his/her mother (Kean-translated by Fadaie, 1997).
Obtaining the social skills is also one of the components of
being social in all cultures in this regard which is mainly divided into three cognitive, behavioral and emotional branches
(Dehghan, 1997). By coping skills, it means the efforts undertaken to control and monitor evaluated as dangerous and
stressful situations (Lazarous and Folkman, 1984). Lazarous
and Folkman identified two main forms of coping skills: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. The studies
conducted regarding the relationship between coping methods and stress and mental adjustment indicate that the adolescents who have problem-focused coping methods are faced
with less crises and have less emotional and adjustment problems (Lazarous and Folkman, 1984). In their studies per-

2 RESEARCH METHOD
The current study has been conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between attachment quality and
social skills and also coping skills. The statistical sample of this
research includes 72 people who have been selected with cluster random sampling method out of Qom province's kindergartens.

3 RESEARCH TOOL
To determine mother-child attachment quality, semistructured interview with the subject's mothers and observing
the first reaction of the child in the mother's reunion with the
child in the time of going out of kindergarten have been used.
The tools used to assess social skills and coping skills are as
follows:

Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research

Branch, Karaj, Iran

54

Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2013

ISSN 2345-2633
Bond
ing

Statistical analysis method: multivariate variance analysis statistical method and stepwise regression analysis have been
used to investigate the relationship between attachment quality and the development of children's social skills. Chi-square
statistical method has been used to study the relationship between mother-child attachment quality and the type of coping
with stress.

Cooperation

Disregarding

TABLE 1
descriptive data associated with attachment quality and various levels of subject's social skills
Behavioral
categories/attachment quality and nature
Boy
Secured
Nonsecured
Total

Bond seeking

Girl

Secured
Nonsecured
Total
Secured
Nonsecured
Total

cooperation

Disregarding

Aggression
Aggression

Attachment

0.503

62.7

0.000

0.503

62.7

0.000

Gender

0.572

40.73

0.000

0.069

9.81

0.003

Mutual
impact
Attachment

0.573

26.85

0.000

0.001

0.188

0.666

0.463

54.29

0.000

0.463

54.26

0.000

Gender

0.480

28.58

0.000

0.017

2.01

0.16

Mutual
impact
Attachment

0.493

19.77

0.000

0.013

1.6

0.21

0.291

29.94

0.000

0.292

25.94

0.000

Gender

0.344

16.25

0.000

0.052

4.94

0.03

Mutual
impact
Attachment

0.345

10.7

0.000

0.001

0.114

0.736

0.266

22.84

0.000

0.266

22.84

0.000

Gender

0.551

37.97

0.000

0.285

39.25

0.000

Mutual
impact

0.569

26.85

0.000

0.019

2.62

0.11

18.9
9.8

4.2
4.2

6.8
2.1

2.3
2.24

4
7.5

3
3

8.4
14.4

3.5
3.4

14.3

4.17

4,46

2.23

5.7

11.4

3.4

21.8
13.6

4.18
4.16

7.2
3.8

2.2
2.25

5.2
9.5

3
3

4
7.4

3.46
3.37

17.7

4.17

5.49

2.3

7.34

5.68

3.38

20.3
11.7

4.48
4.33

6.69
2.99

2.3
2.3

4.6
8.46

3.13
3.07

6.2
10.9

3.54
3.5

Coping/
attachment
Secured

Problemfocused
25

Emotionfocused
10

15.76

6.23

5.08

3.17

6.11

3.6

9.5

5.04

Nonsecured
Total

13

17

38

65

TABLE 5
relationship between coping with stress methods and attachment quality

Cooperation between predictor variables (quality, attachment and gender) and criterion variables.

X=5.25 df=1

TABLE 2
Mean and Standard deviation of components of Mental Health
Inventory
Predictor/criterion

Cooperation

Disregarding

Aggression

Attachment

Bondseeking
0.07*

0.68*

-0.638*

-0.54*

Gender

-0.247*

-0.133

0.191

-0.53*

Mutual impact

0.339*

0.437*

-0.365*

-0.147*

Test name
0.799

value
pillais

F
44.624

Hotelling

3.984

44.624

Willks

0.201

44.624

Roy

3.984

44.624

The results achieved from analyzing research data:

Table 1: descriptive indicators:
According to descriptive data (table 1), the mean of obtained
marks for the children involved in secured attachment and
those in non-secured attachment in all levels of social skills
show that there is a significant difference in the performance
of secured and non-secured skills.
The calculation of Pearson correlation coefficient between
predictor variables and various levels of criterion variable
conducted and its results have been presented in table 2. There
is a significant difference (p<0.01) between attachment and
social skills. There is a significant relationship between the
mutual impacts of attachment and gender with the behaviors
of cooperation, bond seeking, disregarding and aggression
(P<0.01). Results of multivariate variance analysis and the
main impact of attachment on various levels of criterion variable (social skills) have been presented in Table 3. All four
tests presented indicate the significance of main impact of attachment in multivariate variance analysis (P<0.01). To respond this question whether there is a relationship between
mother-child attachment quality and social skills development, attachment variable for each level of social skills have
been involved in the equation separately. The results achieved
are as follows:
Regarding bond seeking behavior, R2=0.503 and P<0.001), in
which 50% of the total variance of bond seeking are predicted
out of attachment. Gender variable has been involved in the
equation in the next step and shows that bond seeking behav-

sig
0.00
0
0.00
0
0.00
0
0.00
0

TABLE 4
stepwise regression of the various levels of social skills on attachment, gender and mutual impacts of attachment and gender
Predictor
variable

R2

Sig

DR2

DF

P<0.05

4 FINDINGS

TABLE 3
Summary of multivariate variance analysis on the main impact of correlation

Criterion

seek-

Sig

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Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2013

ISSN 2345-2633

behavior (P<0.001), and almost 30% of the total disregarding

variance can be predicted out of attachment. Disregarding
behavior in boys is less than those in girls. There is a significant relationship between attachment and aggressive behaviors. The results of the analysis showed that there is a direct
and significant relationship between child's gender and aggressive behaviors (P<0.001). Dehghan (1999) indicated in his
study that there is a significant relationship between attachment quality and social skills in pre-school children. In other
words, it has been shown that securely attached children divulged more bond seeking and cooperation and less disregarding and aggression (Dehghan, 1999).
These points indicate that to strengthen people's abilities in
interpersonal relationships, training social skills and the type
of coping methods influencing stress is required, but not
enough. More effective tackle is that mothers are taught, in
training their children and the practices of how to respond the
needs of their children, behave in such a way that secured attachment be formed in their children.

ior can be predicted to some extent based on gender

(Dr2=0.69, P<0.001).
The mutual impact of attachment and gender being involved
in the equation and the obtained R2 has been increased to
0.573 which increases the prediction of bond seeking variance
only to 0.001 which this variable is not significant.
The results achieved for cooperation behavior (table (4))
shows that R2 related to attachment and cooperation is significant (R2=0.46, P<0.001). Therefore, the behavior of child's cooperation can be predicted out of attachment. The entrance of
r2 gender is increased to 0.48 and the changes obtained are not
significant.
Also, regarding the mutual impacts of attachment and gender
being involved in the equation and increased r2 into 0.493, the
behavior of cooperation cannot be predicted independently
out of the mutual impacts of attachment and gender.
The results obtained from disregarding behavior have been
presented in Table 4, and it has been shown that r2 related to
attachment and cooperation is significant (P<0.001, r2=0.292).
Therefore, disregarding behavior can be predicted out of attachment quality.
Results of Chi-square for the comparison of coping practices
based on children's attachment quality in Table 5 showed that
there is a significant difference between coping method used
by securely attached children and non-securely attached children (x2=5.25, P<0.05). This point means that there is a significant relationship between attachment and the type of coping
with stress. In other words, securely attached children use
more problem-focused coping methods.

REFERENCES
[1]

Etkinson, Rita. L; Etkinson, Richard, S; Edward, E; Darile and Houkesma, "the

context of Hilgard psychology", translated by Muhammad Taghi Barahani,
et.al (1999), Tehran, Roshd Publications.
[2] Estora (1991), "pressure and stress, new diseases in the cilization, translated by
Parirokh Dadsetan (1999), Tehran, Roshd Publications.
[3] Pourafkari, Nosratollah (1993), "comprehensive encyclopedia of Psychologypsychiatry (Vol 1 and 2). Tehran, Maaser Dictionary.
[4] Dehghan, Nahid (1997), "study of the mother-child attachment style and its
relationship with the development of social skills (interaction with peers) in
preschool children of Tehran city, MA thesis, University of Tehran.
[5] Masen, Henry; Kigan, Jerome, Houston, Carrol and Kanjeh, "children's personality development", translated by Mahshid Yasaie (1997), mental health,
Tehran, Arasbaran Publications.
[6] Mansour-Mahmoud and Dadestan, Parirokh (1997), "genetic psychology
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[10] Krean, William, C, "Pioneers on Developmental Psychology", translated by
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5 RESULTS ANALYSIS
regression correlation coefficients and regression analysis
have been conducted between attachment and various levels
of social skills. It has been observed in the studies that there is
a direct and significant relationship between attachment and
the behavior of bond seeking (P<0.001). The results achieved
also showed that there is an inverse relationship between children's gender and the behavior of bond-seeking (P<0.001). In
other words, bond seeking in boys is more than girls. It seems
that parents and society have different expectations from boys
and girls. Heazen and Sheaver (1990) indicated, citing Harvi,
that attachment pattern of the children predicts the behavior
one will have in the adulthood at their society and workplace
(Heazen and Sheaver (1990).
Regarding the fact that one's relationship in the adulthood is
mostly involved in the bond seeking categories, the significant
relationship obtained for the attachment style of these categories is compatible with the result of this research.
Also, it has been obtained in this study that there is a direct
and significant relationship between attachment and cooperation with their peers (P<0.001); that is to say, securely attached
children have shown more cooperation in the comparison
with non-secured children. Torner (1991) found that securely
attached boys and girls have more social desirability, acceptance and cooperation, and secured children have less aggressive attention behaviors and anti-social behaviors than
those of non-secured attachment style (Torner, 1991). There is
an inverse relationship between attachment and disregarding
56