Maternal Secure Attachment to a Child Aged 2–4 Years Scale Test
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
- Always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
- Always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
Maternal Secure Attachment to a Child Aged 2–4 Years Scale Test - Description and methodology of the test
Parents who want to examine how everyday responses may support closeness, autonomy, and emotional security can use the Maternal Secure Attachment to a Child Aged 2-4 Years Scale Test as a structured self-reflection exercise. It is intended for mothers considering how they respond to a young child’s wishes, distress, independence, and behavior. As a maternal attachment assessment, it summarises these situations in an overall score for reflection rather than a judgment based on one interaction.
What This Assessment Explores
The questionnaire examines secure attachment between mother and child aged 2-4 through caregiving situations. Items address noticing changes, listening to wishes, comforting crying, accepting the child, and allowing age-appropriate choices. Others explore obedience, control, irritation, independence, and expectations of competence.
One result, Maternal Secure Attachment to a Child Aged 2-4 Years (0-100), is divided into Low 0-49, Moderate 50-74, and High 75-100. Higher levels represent greater secure attachment and are associated with the child’s emotional stability and well-being. The result can also highlight relationship features relevant to psychological support.
The questions cover these practical themes:
- Responsiveness shows how the mother notices signals and reacts to change.
- Comfort and acceptance show how distress is met and individuality is valued.
- Guidance and autonomy show how limits, help, choice, and independence are balanced.
Methodology and Scientific Basis
Each statement describes a caregiving belief or response, with choices from Always through Often, Sometimes, Rarely, and Never. This frequency format requires self-report, covering comfort, control, support, and independence.
The online mother-child attachment questionnaire produces one numerical score, but it does not specify response weights or reverse-scored items. Do not infer points from wording or categories; read the result as a pattern across the questionnaire, not a verdict from one statement.
Its closest named source is the Maternal Secure Attachment Questionnaire (Nikolaeva & Merenkova, 2014). Vereshchagina and Nikolaeva (2009) provide a related maternal-attitude comparison, not direct evidence for children aged 2-4. The questionnaire is conceptually consistent with these works, not demonstrably a direct adaptation. Its focus also fits the attachment framework associated with Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall (1978).
The online form reports no norms, reliability estimates, or validation data for its scoring, so categories are descriptive rather than confirmed clinical cutoffs. Scores can shift with current stress, self-perception, and socially desirable responding; read them alongside concrete interaction patterns and, when needed, broader professional assessment.
- Elena I. Nikolaeva and Vera S. Merenkova. Mother and Healthy Child: A Monograph. Yelets: Bunin Yelets State University, 2014. 160 pp.
- N. V. Vereshchagina and E. I. Nikolaeva. Test-Questionnaire Assessing a Mother’s Attitude Toward a Child During the First Two Years of Life. Issues of Psychology, no. 4, 2009, pp. 151-159. ISSN 0042-8841.
- Mary D. S. Ainsworth, Mary C. Blehar, Everett Waters, and Sally Wall. Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978. 10.4324/9781315802428.
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