Can I use the RQ and/or RSQ with children or adolescent samples?
The four-category model of attachment was developed to describe the attachment characteristics of adult/young adult close peer relationships (Bartholomew, 1990; Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). The RQ and RSQ were not designed to assess the attachments of young children, nor were these measures designed to assess adults’ retrospective childhood attachment to their parents. However, researchers have revised these measures and created versions to use with adolescent samples. Dr. Elaine Scharfe at Trent University has adapted these measures for use with an adolescent population. Since the RSQ tends to evidence low internal consistency in both the adult and adolescent versions (see Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994 for a discussion), we suggest if you are using a self-report approach that you collect multiple measures (e.g., IPPA & RSQ) from multiple sources (e.g., child, parent, & teacher).
