Similarity Between Infant-Mother and Infant-Father Attachments.

Abstract

Infant-parent attachments of 132 first-born, one-year-olds were classified from Ainsworth's strange situation to investigate the similarity between infant-mother and infant-father attachments. In addition, the joint influence of infant attachments to mother and father was considered in relation to the infant's friendliness with strangers. The study found that 69% of the infants held qualitatively similar attachments with their mothers and fathers. However, only male infants held attachments with their mothers and fathers that were significantly similar. It was argued that this could be a product of higher paternal involvement with boys than with girls. In addition, infants of nonemployed mothers held qualitatively similar attachments to their parents more often than infants of employed mothers. These results also could have stemmed from greater father participation in the families of nonemployed mothers, since recent data indicated that fathers interact less with their infants when mothers are employed. Measurement of father involvement found that fathers participated in the childcare of their daughters more when attachments were similar to mother and father than when attachments were dissimilar. When parents perceived their infants as more difficult than easy, the infant's attachment to the parent tended to be secure rather than insecure. This finding was important to an hypothesis that father participation in childcare influences the development of similar qualities of infant attachment to mother and father. It was argued that similar perceptions of infant temperament could result from similar experiences with the baby as a consequence for father's participation in childcare. The particular nature of those temperament perceptions would influence whether the similar attachments were secure or insecure. Infants with similar attachments (whether secure or insecure with both parents) were more sociable than infants who were dissimilarly attached. It was suggesed that infants who were attached similarly with both parents may have been sociable than the dissimilarly attached infants for reasons other than the security of attachment. The father's involvement, for example, was a potential influence. The importance of a family perspective in the study of infant experience was stressed in discussion.