Brenda L. Volling

Attachment theory posits that early child-caregiver relationships shape socioemotional development. Social competence has received particular attention both because it is theoretically expected to be shaped by early attachment relationships and due to its well-established associations with children’s mental health and adjustment. However, most research has examined a single child-parent relationship, typically the child-mother dyad, overlooking the simultaneous attachment relationships many children form with other significant caregivers. In this study, we used individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis to test whether mother-child and father-child attachment configurations uniquely predict children’s social competence. This pre-registered two-step IPD meta-analysis included studies that assessed child attachment relationships with both mothers and fathers using observational measures, and children’s social competence using parent, teacher, or observer reports. Effects computed for 16 studies, comprising 1,585 children, were synthesized using multilevel random-effects models. Children with two insecure attachment relationships showed significantly lower social competence compared to those with one or two secure attachments (g = 0.20, 95% CI [0.04, 0.35]). No difference was observed between children with one versus two secure attachment relationships. We found no evidence that the number of disorganized attachment relationships predicted social competence. Across attachment configurations, mother-child and father-child attachment relationship quality did not differentially predict social competence. The presence of at least one secure attachment relationship, whether with the mother or father, may buffer against the risks of having two insecure attachments for children’s social competence. These findings add to the growing evidence that attachment relationships with mothers and fathers are similarly important in predicting key developmental outcomes. In contrast, organized versus disorganized attachment configurations were not reliably associated with social competence, raising both methodological and conceptual questions.

The transition to siblinghood represents a period of adjustment for parents and firstborn children, influencing child-parent attachment relationships and children's emotional development. This study examined the longitudinal bidirectional relations between firstborn children's emotion understanding and their attachment security to their mothers and fathers during this transition. Firstborn children (N = 230, 55% girls/45% boys, 86% White, 5% Black, 3% Asian, 4% Latinx, and M_age = 29.75 months) completed the Emotion Understanding in Early Childhood scale, and both mothers and fathers completed the Attachment Q-Set at three time points: prenatal, 4, and 12 months after the birth of an infant sibling. Structural equation modeling revealed that firstborn children's attachment security to mothers was associated with their emotion understanding before the sibling's birth. However, we found no evidence of bidirectional relations between children's emotion understanding and their attachment security to either fathers or mothers over time. These findings suggest that the older siblings' emotion understanding in the year following the birth may be due to other family-level dynamics during the transition besides the security of mother-child and father-child attachment, including early interactions with their baby sibling. Future work would benefit from including early sibling interactions as well as the broader family context when accounting for growth in the older sibling's emotion understanding after the birth of a new sibling. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Secure infant-father and infant-mother attachments are associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in childhood. The attachment network underscores relationships with both fathers and mothers to form four distinct configurations of attachment security (e.g., both secure, both insecure). This exploratory study had three aims: (a) to confirm the four classifications of the attachment network with fathers and mothers, (b) to examine whether longitudinal trajectories of toddler behavior problems differed as a function of the attachment network from 18 to 36 months, and (c) to test whether the attachment network would predict toddler behavior problems when other family risk factors (interparental conflict, older siblings' behavior problems) were added as predictors. Participants were 184 second-born, 12-month olds (55.9% girls) who participated in the strange situation procedure with fathers and mothers and were classified into four attachment configurations: both secure, both insecure, secure-mother/insecure-father, insecure-mother/secure-father. Longitudinal linear mixed models were conducted on a subsample of 150 families with both parent reports on externalizing and internalizing behavior problems when toddlers were 18-, 24-, and 36-month old, and interparental conflict and the older siblings' behavior problems when toddlers were 12-month old. Results revealed no effects of attachment in predicting toddlers' behavior problems; only the older siblings' behavior problems predicted toddler behavior problems from 18 to 36 months. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Significant progress has been made in studying and recognizing fathers’ contributions to children’s development. However, fathers remain underrepresented in parenting research relative to mothers. Logistical challenges are often cited as barriers to the successful recruitment, participation, and retention of fathers. The current study sought to better understand successful strategies to overcome barriers and include fathers in parenting research. We conducted a qualitative study that utilized in-depth interviews with fatherhood scholars across the globe (N = 30) to identify (1) efficient practices for recruiting fathers and (2) effective strategies for retaining fathers in longitudinal research. We used thematic analysis to generate major and minor themes. Six themes emerged, four related to successful recruitment practices (the composition of the research team; the location/method of recruitment; recruiting fathers, not parents; and being flexible with testing) and two related to challenges of recruiting fathers (mothers acting as gate-closers; the restrictions applied by some institutional research ethics boards). The analysis identified two successful retention practices: developing rapport with participating fathers and maintaining contact between waves of data collection. These themes provide insights into how to include fathers in parenting research successfully. Recommendations for conducting father-inclusive research are presented as well as best practices for including fathers in research.