Infant attachment configurations with mothers and fathers: Implications for triadic interaction quality and children's parental preferences

Abstract

Positive and cohesive mother-father-child triadic interactions have substantial benefits for socio-emotional growth in early childhood. Nonetheless, the joint contributions of infant-mother and infant-father attachment relationships to triadic interaction quality are not well understood. The present study examined associations between attachment configurations with mother and father in infancy (i.e., double secure, double insecure, or discordant) and observed triadic interaction quality in early childhood, as well as the possible mediating role of children's preferences for one parent over the other during the triadic interaction. Infant-mother and infant-father attachment quality were assessed in laboratory procedures at one year of age in a predominantly White and middle-class sample (N = 67) of American families. Triadic family interaction quality and children's parental preferences were assessed from semi-structured observations at age 3. Results indicated that double secure families exhibited significantly better triadic interaction quality than both double insecure and discordant families, with no differences between the latter two groups. Children in discordant families were disproportionately likely to show a preference for one parent over the other. In turn, stronger parental preferences were related to less cohesive, less affectively positive, and more disengaged triadic interactions, and mediated links from attachment discordance to both lower cohesiveness and greater disengagement. Findings speak to the importance of incorporating observational assessments of dyadic and triadic family interactions involving both mothers and fathers to elucidate family system influences on early development.