The influence of attachment representations and co-parents’ scripted knowledge of attachment on fathers’ and mothers’ caregiving representations

Elia Psouni

doi:10.1080/14616734.2019.1582598

Abstract

ABSTRACTDespite increased engagement of men in parenting, paternal caregiving representations have not been investigated, and potential gender differences in the links between parents’ attachment representations and their caregiving representations are unexplored. The present study investigated fathers’ and mothers’ (N = 77) representations of caregiving, and links to their own and their co-parents’ current mental representations of attachment. Parents were interviewed with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and the Parental-Caregiving Attachment Interview (P-CAI), and co-parents’ attachment scripts were measured with the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA). Our results demonstrate several similarities between mothers’ and fathers’ caregiving representations, but gender differences emerged in probable rejecting and neglecting parental behaviors. For both fathers and mothers, we found systematic differences in caregiving-specific state of mind dimensions on the P-CAI, depending on the parent’s attachment classification on the AAI. Importantly, co-parent attachment security, but not parent gender was associated with the likelihood of being classified as autonomous with respect to caregiving.

Highlights

Revisiting the role of the father in parenting is an important component of recent societal changes in most Western societies
Our results demonstrate several similarities between mothers’ and fathers’ caregiving representations, but gender differences emerged in probable rejecting and neglecting parental behaviors
Classification distributions did not differ for fathers, as compared to mothers, neither with respect to the Attachment Interview (AAI) (Likelihood exact ratio G(2, 1) = 1.4, p = .49) nor regarding the ParentalCaregiving Attachment Interview (P-CAI) (Likelihood exact ratio G(2, 1) = 2.4, p = .31)

Summary

Introduction

Revisiting the role of the father in parenting is an important component of recent societal changes in most Western societies. While there appear to be systematic differences between fathers and mothers in some aspects of caregiving behavior (e.g., Hazen, McFarland, Jacobvitz,&Boyd-Soisson, 2010; Murphy, Gallegos, Jacobvitz, & Hazen, 2017), it is still unclear whether there may be systematic differences in what is suggested to underlie these behaviors, namely the parent’s thoughts, feelings and strategies for processing information in the parent–child relationship, i.e. mental representations of caregiving (George & Solomon, 1996) To address this issue, the present study investigated whether and how fathers’ and mothers’ representations of caregiving may be linked to their own current mental. More recent findings highlight unique developmental benefits from the child’s attachment to father (Groh et al, 2014; Kochanska & Kim, 2013; Lucassen et al, 2015), while meta-analysis indicates that the mother’s and father’s adult attachment representations based on their upbringing are associated to the child’s attachment security (Verhage et al, 2018)

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Discussion

Conclusion