Narrative processes and attachment representations: Issues of development and assessment.

Reviews research based on narrative assessments. Although these studies emphasize working models as determinants of children's narratives, they also rely on (1) the ease and openness in the way children communicate narratives about attachment and other emotionally evocative interpersonal themes and (2) the emotional coherence of these narratives. Interpersonal narrative/communication processes and intrapersonal aspects of cognitive development as determinants of children's narrative productions are highlighted. Theory and research in these areas have advanced to the point where they can now make contributions to the understanding of the transition from sensorimotor to mental representations and better utilize narrative attachment assessments. Recent cognitive research on the development and assessment of attachment representations from early to middle childhood are reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)