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Title: Early attachment to mothers and fathers: Contributions to Preschoolers' Emotional Regulation
Children acquire and develop emotional regulatory skills in the context of parent-child attachment relationships, nonetheless empirical studies have focused mainly on mother and less information is available regarding the role of both parent-child attachment relationships. Furthermore, despite its importance, there is no information regarding preschool years. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the potential influences of both mother-child and father-child attachments on preschooler’s later emotion regulation observed in the peer group. Fifty-three Portuguese nuclear families (mother, father and focal child) participated in the study; 47% of the children were boys and 53% were girls. Attachment Security was assessed at home using the Attachment Behavior Q-set when children were 3 years of age, and emotion regulation was observed in the preschool classrooms attended by the children at age 5, using the California child Q-sort to derive an Emotion Regulation Q-Scale. Results showed that the combined influence of both parent-child attachment security predicted better emotion regulation results, than did the specific contributions of each parent per se. Findings are consistent with integrative approaches that highlight the value of including both mother- and father-child attachment relationships, as well as their combined effect, when studying emotion regulation.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1651189
PAR ID:
10290178
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Frontiers in psychology
Volume:
12
ISSN:
1664-1078
Page Range / eLocation ID:
Article 660866
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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