ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between children's attachmentrepresentation and teacher-child relationships, a long with children's socialskills and their behavior problems. The subjects were 57 children (31 boys and 26girls) from intact middle class families aged from 3 to 5 attending preschools and/orday care centers. Four instruments were used: First, Attachment Story CompletionTask for assessing children's attachment; second, Student-Teacher Relationship Scalefor identifying the teachers' perception on the quality of the relationship betweenchildren and teachers; third, Social Skill Scale from Child Behavior AssessmentInventory for assessing children's social skills; and finally, Child Behavior Scale forexamining children's behavior problem. Descriptive statistics were calculated andsimple correlation was applied for data analysis. The research results are as follows:First, the children's attachment security was significantly related to their relationshipsto teachers. Children with more secure representations of attachment and lessavoidant responses exhibited closer relationships with teachers than those with moreinsecure representations of attachment and more avoidant responses. Second, childrenwith more secure representations of attachment and less avoidant responses showedmore socially cooperative interactions and greater independence than those with moreinsecure representations of attachment and more avoidant responses. The former caseof children showed more social competency while the latter one exhibited more aggressive and hyperactive behavior

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