Attachment at school age and academic performance

The association between attachment and school-related cognitive functioning was longitudinally examined for a French Canadian sample of 108 school-age children. The affective quality of mother-child interaction patterns, chil d cognitive engagement, and quality of child attachment to mother were eval uated during a laboratory visit that included a separation-reunion procedur e occurring when the children were approximately 6 years of age. Children's mastery motivation and academic performance were assessed 2 years later (a t age 8). Analyses indicated that secure children had higher scores than th eir insecure peers on communication, cognitive engagement, and mastery moti vation. Controlling children were at greatest risk for school underachievem ent, with the poorest performance on all measures except mastery motivation . Avoidant and ambivalent children were lowest on mastery motivation. Resul ts of mediational analyses support the salience of mother-child interaction al processes and child cognitive engagement at school age in explaining rel ations between attachment and cognitive functioning in school.