Father involvement, paternal sensitivity, and father-child attachment security in the first 3 years.

To reach a greater understanding of the early father-child attachment relationship, this study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations among father involvement, paternal sensitivity, and father-child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years of age. Analyses revealed few associations among these variables at 13 months of age, but involvement and sensitivity independently predicted father-child attachment security at age 3. Moreover, sensitivity moderated the association between involvement and attachment security at 3 years. Specifically, involvement was unrelated to attachment security when fathers were highly sensitive, but positively related to attachment security when fathers were relatively less sensitive. Father involvement was also moderately stable across the two time points, but paternal sensitivity was not. Furthermore, there was significant stability in father-child attachment security from 13 months to 3 years. Secure attachment at 13 months also predicted greater levels of paternal sensitivity at 3 years, with sensitivity at age 3 mediating the association between 13 month and 3 year attachment security. In sum, a secure father-child attachment relationship (a) was related to both quantity and quality of fathering behavior, (b) remained relatively stable across early childhood, and (c) predicted increased paternal sensitivity over time. These findings further our understanding of the correlates of early father-child attachment, and underscore the need to consider multiple domains of fathers' parenting and reciprocal relations between fathering behavior and father-child attachment security.

Observed and Reported Supportive Coparenting as Predictors of Infant-Mother and Infant-Father Attachment Security.

This study examined associations between supportive coparenting and infant-mother and infant-father attachment security. Observed and parent-reported coparenting, and observed maternal and paternal sensitivity were assessed in a sample of 68 families with 3.5-month-old infants. Infant-mother and infant-father attachment security were assessed in the Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) at 12 and 13 months of age, respectively. Observed and reported supportive coparenting were associated with greater attachment security in the infant-father, but not the infant-mother, attachment relationship. The link between observed coparenting and infant-father attachment remained after accounting for paternal sensitivity. Furthermore, child gender moderated some associations between coparenting and infant-parent attachment security. Among families with boys, observed and reported supportive coparenting was related to greater infant-mother and infant-father attachment security, respectively. Coparenting was unrelated to infant-mother or infant-father attachment security among families with girls. Results highlight a possible link between the coparental and father-child relationships and the need to consider both parent and child gender when examining associations between family functioning and attachment.

Parental beliefs, infant temperament, and marital quality: associations with infant-mother and infant-father attachment.

The present research examined parental beliefs about the importance of the paternal caregiving role, mothers' and fathers' reports of infant temperament, and observed marital quality as predictors of infant-mother and infant-father attachment security, over and above the effects of parental sensitivity. Infants' attachment security to mothers and fathers were observed in the Strange Situation at 12 and 13 months, respectively (N = 62 two-parent families). Hierarchical regression models revealed that mothers who viewed the paternal caregiving role as important were less likely to have securely attached infants, but only when infant fussiness was high. In addition, fathers who viewed the paternal caregiving role as important were more likely to have securely attached infants, but only when infants' fussiness or marital quality was high.

Young Children's Self-Concepts: Associations with Child Temperament, Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting, and Triadic Family Interaction.

This study explored how children's self-concepts were related to child temperament, dyadic parenting behavior, and triadic family interaction. At age 3, child temperament, mothers' and fathers' parenting behavior, and triadic (mother, father, and child) family interaction were observed in the homes of fifty families. At age 4, children's self-concepts were assessed using the Children's Self-View Questionnaire (Eder, 1990). Analyses revealed that temperamental proneness-to-distress and triadic family interaction made independent contributions to children's self-reported Timidity and Agreeableness. In contrast, dyadic parenting behavior moderated the associations between child temperament and children's self-reported Timidity and Agreeableness, such that temperament was only associated with children's self-concepts when mothers and fathers engaged in particular parenting behaviors. Results suggest both direct and interactive influences of family dynamics and child characteristics on children's self-concept development.