The Birds Nest Drawing and accompanying stories in the assessment of attachment security

Art therapists recognise the importance of clients’ early attachment experience. The Bird’s Nest Drawing (BND) is an attachment security measure with potential for research and practice, developed by American art therapists. The client draws a bird’s nest and writes a corresponding narrative, the latter assisting an integrative evaluation. A systematic rating procedure currently only exists for the drawings. The present study was conducted to determine the psychometric properties of the BND after adding new ratings of the BND story using data from an earlier study with university students. The current investigators established a systematic method for coding BND stories (N = 136). Content analysis yielded five ratings, which were examined in conjunction with the corresponding drawings and existing drawing ratings, and two self-report attachment questionnaires. Four of the 11 drawing rating items and the overall attachment rating had acceptable psychometric properties, as did two of the new story ratings. However, the seven items did not inter-correlate consistently, nor yield improved internal reliability. Construct validity using the established attachment scales was not established convincingly. Results suggest a need for further development of the BND taking greater account of psychometric principles of scale development, with implications for art therapy research and practice.