Preliminary stages in the development of the 'loss scale' : a measurement of security of attachment in pregnant women.

Research findings concerned with the importance of attachment to the development and stability of children and its continuity across the life-cycle were reviewed, with particular reference to the measurement of adult attachment and the intergenerational transmission of insecure attachment patterns from mothers to their babies. The aim of the study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Loss Scale, a self-report measure of attachment developed by the writer to measure attachment status in pregnant women, through their responses to four scenaria involving separation or loss. The current study reports the first stage in the development of the Scale, which is intended to discriminate women at the ante-natal stage who are at risk of the transgenerational transmission of insecure attachment to their babies. The results of the analyses of the findings did not support the utility of the Loss Scale in its current form. There were technical and methodological difficulties that required rectification before the Scale could be developed further. The most important of these was that responses to the Loss Scale were heavily weighted towards scenario-specificity, so that no overall measure of attachment competence was possible. Given this limitation, recommendations for further research included that a future Loss Scale should comprise scenaria which were concerned with the woman’s relationship with her own parents.