Assessing Preschooler‐Parent Attachment Relationships in a Children's Museum: Preliminary Evidence Supporting the Sensitivity‐Security Link in an Ecologically Relevant Context

ABSTRACT This study explores children's museums as meaningful contexts for the observation of preschooler‐parent attachment relationships. Sixty‐seven child‐parent dyads participated when children (55.2% girls) were approximately 56.52 months of age. Most participants identified as non‐Hispanic White, and the majority of parents were mothers. Child‐parent interactions were videotaped during free play and clean‐up in two museum exhibits, which were later coded for child attachment security and parental sensitivity using modifications of the Attachment Q‐Set 3.0 and Maternal Behavior for Preschoolers Q‐Set , respectively. Findings revealed that in the museum context most children demonstrated behavior consistent with secure attachment while parents were largely sensitive. Importantly, parental sensitivity also significantly predicted child security across museum exhibits ( ß’s = 0.25 and 0.31), providing empirical support for a key assumption of attachment theory and highlighting the ecological salience of the museum as a meaningful context for assessing preschooler‐parent attachment.