The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment?Revised (IPPA-R) for children: a psychometric investigation

TLDR

Attachment theory is important in developmental research, yet no valid tools exist to assess attachment beyond infancy and before late adolescence. The study revises and evaluates the Inventory for Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) to provide a reliable measure for children aged 9–15. The revised IPPA‑R was administered with the Parental Bonding Inventory and the Coopersmith Self‑Esteem Inventory to two samples of youth (118 children aged 9–11 and 163 adolescents aged 14–15). The IPPA‑R demonstrated reliable and valid measurement, confirming it as a useful tool for assessing parent and peer attachment in youth aged 9–15. © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Despite the importance of attachment theory in developmental research, there is an absence of valid and reliable tools with which to assess attachment beyond infancy and prior to late adolescence. To address this issue the present investigation reports on the revision and psychometric evaluation of the Inventory for Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA, Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), a measure of attachment developed for use with older adolescents and young adults. The simplified revised measure (IPPA-R) was administered along with the Parental Bonding Inventory (PBI; Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979) and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) to two samples of youth: 118 youth aged 9–11 years; 163 youth aged 14–15 years. Our findings provided support for the reliability and validity of the revised measure. It was concluded that the IPPA-R constitutes a useful tool for the assessment of both parent and peer attachment in youth aged between 9 and 15 years. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.