Father-child Attachment in transition to middle childhood: what do children say in story telling?

Attachment to father in middle childhood gained significant importance for child development, due to more involvement of father’s figure in social, cultural and economic changes in current society. Literature showed that security of attachment to father is predictive of children’s behavioral and developmental outcomes. To our knowledge, however, no study investigated possible differences in children’s attachment representations according to father attachment. This study aimed at assessing whether paternal attachment styles would predict children’s attachment security. Under the permission of the Deans, the project was presented at schools to teachers, parents and children. Fathers gave written informed consent for their and for children’s participation in the study. Questionnaires were collected by the responsible of the project once they were filled out. Children were tested at school, individually and the administration session lasted approximately 30-40 minutes. The sample was composed of 120 6- years-old children and their fathers. Children were administered the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST; Green et al., 2000) in order to assess attachment representations to father; fathers filled out the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Feeney et al., 1994) in order to assess their attachment style. Results suggested that paternal avoidance and ambivalence –as assessed by the ASQ- were associated to children’s ability to tell more coherent and less disorganized story, similarly to children of fathers with secure attachment (F (21,41) = 1.26, p > .05, η2 = .73). Moreover fathers’ security of attachment was negatively correlated with children’s disorganization. These findings suggest that paternal insecurity, both in the form of avoidance or ambivalence, represent a risk factor for attachment disorganization.