NARRATIVES & NURTURE: SECURE ATTACHMENT THEMES IN CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS ACROSS CULTURES

Abstract

This quantitative analysis served to explore whether secure attachment and secure attachment related themes are present in children’s picture books across cultures and to examine how the secure attachment relationship is depicted in multicultural children’s literature. This study explored multicultural children’s picture books centered around family through the lens of attachment theory. It utilized secure attachment priming and secure base scripts as an analytic tool to create a coding system to explore the secure attachment relationship from a narrative, thematic, and visual point of view. Additionally, it is considered the representation of caregivers across cultures. Research on the nuances of the secure attachment relationship across cultures and in children’s picture books is lacking. Research supports the argument that secure attachment can be strengthened through quality reading time with parent and child, highlighting the importance of exploring the content of the books that may be present during reading time. 250 children’s picture books (appropriate for ages 3-5) from 5 different cultures (Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native, and White) were randomly selected, analyzed, and how the secure attachment relationship was depicted in the books was coded. The findings revealed that there was no significant difference between the average secure attachment score of each cultural group, indicating that the secure attachment relationship is consistently present. When looking at the categories, the data reveals that there is a significant difference between in secure attachment words between Black culture when compared to Asian, Hispanic, and White culture. The results of this study expand research surrounding the representation of the secure attachment relationship across cultures and begins to lead research toward creating more sophisticated and nuanced frameworks for measuring the attachment relationship.