The development of father-child attachment: Associations between adult attachment representations, recollections of childhood experiences and caregiving

Laura Piazza, Nancy Hazen, Deborah Jacobvitz, Erin Boyd-Soisson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)
193 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The association between fathers' adult attachment representations and their recollections of childhood experiences with their caregiving quality with their eight-month-old infants and with father'infant attachment classification was examined in a longitudinal study of 117 fathers and their infants. Sensitive caregiving was related to secure-autonomous classification in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), hostile caregiving was related to fathers' dismissing and unresolved attachment, and emotional disengagement and role-reversed caregiving were both related to fathers' unresolved attachment. Childhood experiences of parental pressure to achieve were related to fathers' hostile and role-reversed caregiving and low sensitivity, independent of AAI classification. However, fathers' childhood experiences of maternal neglect were related to high-quality caregiving. It was also found that fathers' secure-autonomous AAI classification was related to secure father'child attachment in the Strange Situation Paradigm, and this relation was mediated by sensitive caregiving.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)701-721
Number of pages21
JournalEarly Child Development and Care
Volume182
Issue number6
Early online dateJun 2011
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

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