This study interviewed fathers of young infants to explore their experiences and understandings of their parental roles; comparing these with observations of them interacting with their baby, using an attachment lens. Analysis of interviews revealed key themes about fathers' experiences of being parented and in their turn, parenting, which linked…

Children who have experienced significant early life adversities and trauma are at a greater risk of developing social, emotional, behavioural and mental-health needs. This can result in stress in the carer/parent-child relationship which can have a negative impact on placement stability. Recent research and national policies have stressed the…

We hypothesized that in adolescence, maladaptive narcissism interacts with low self-esteem to predict a preoccupied attachment style ("attachment for self-affirmation hypothesis"), and with high self-esteem to predict an avoidant attachment style ("attachment for self-enhancement hypothesis"). We expected gender differences in…

We discuss oral history interviews with academics who laid the foundation of research and pedagogies in daycare for under three-year-olds in Europe and North and South America since the 1970s. Their work is clearly embedded in the social-political context of their country: the left-wing programmes for disadvantaged families in the U.S.A.;…

Parenting programs for school-aged children are typically based on behavioral principles as applied in social learning theory. It is not yet clear if the benefits of these interventions extend beyond aspects of the parent-child relationship quality conceptualized by social learning theory. The current study examined the extent to which a social…

This article reports an aspect of a life historical study which investigated the part that "love" played in mothers' decision-making about returning to work and placing their babies in day care. The article begins with a brief discussion of the context, including 21st-century policies in England to encourage mothers to return to the…

Many immigrant children might face challenges in maintaining their heritage languages--that is, continuing using their first languages (L1s) or the L1s of their parents. Factors such as pressure from schools and the desire to assimilate into the mainstream society might lead these children to learn a dominant language at the cost of losing their…

John Bowlby's theory of attachment is examined in the cultural and historical context in which it was developed. Bowlby trained as a psychiatrist in England during the 1920's and published the WHO report in 1951. Thus the origins of his theory can be related to events set in motion by the First World War and occurring during the interwar period…

This paper provides a brief overview of the origins of attachment theory and its current relevance to early childhood research and education. The empirical component of the work reported here concerns the use of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) with mothers in a multi-disciplinary, multi-functional early childhood setting, the Pen Green Centre…