The Evaluation of Social Competence and Internalizing and Externalizing Problem Behaviors of French and Turkish Children by their Attachment Representations

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between attachment representations of preschool children living in different cultures and their social competence, and between their attachment representations and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. The participants of this study were 44 children:20 French and 24 Turkish. The data were collected from Besancon, France and Ankara, Turkey in the academic year 2011-2012. Two measurement instruments (Attachment Story Completion Task and Preschool Socioaffective Profile) were used for data collection.The research findings reveal that the rate of secure attachment is higher in girls compared to boys, and that nationality does not play a determining role in the attachment styles.In Turkish children, anger-aggression scores and anxiety-withdrawal scores do not differ significantly by the attachment style, whereas social competence differs significantly by the attachment style.In French children, externalizing behavior problems scores do not differ significantly by the attachment style, whereas social competence and internalizing behavior problems scores differ significantly by the attachment style.