Attachment Security and Maternal Concepts of Ideal Children in Northern and Southern Germany

The degree of attachment security and the concept of an "ideal child" were investigated by asking 83 mothers to describe the secure-base behaviour of either their own children or of an imagined "ideal child" using a German translation of Waters' (1987) Attachment Q-Set. Additionally, 11 German experts generated a "maximally secure" criterion sort, which was virtually identical with the established US criterion sort. Attachment security is highly desirable, as shown by the similarity between the profiles of the ideal descriptions and the security criterion sort. Two subsamples from Northern and Southern Germany showed similar intercorrelations of Attachment Q-Set subscales. We identified small differences in Northern and Southern mothers' perceptions of an "ideal" child in items relating to activity and independence. However, Northern and Southern mothers' descriptions of their toddlers did not differ in attachment security or dependence.