ERIC Number: EJ1473044
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jul
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0163-9641
EISSN: EISSN-1097-0355
Available Date: 2025-02-09
Parent and Child Gender Effects in the Relationship between Attachment and Both Internalizing and Externalizing Problems of Children between 2 and 5 Years Old: A Dyadic Perspective
Infant Mental Health Journal: Infancy and Early Childhood, v46 n4 p424-444 2025
Acknowledging that the parent-child attachment is a dyadic relationship, we investigated differences between pairs of parents and preschool children based on gender configurations in the association between attachment and problem behavior. We looked at mother-daughter, mother-son, father-daughter, and father-son dyads, but also compared mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, and same versus different gender pairs. We employed multigroup structural equation modeling to explore moderation effects of gender in a sample of 446 independent pairs of parents and preschool children (2-5 years old) from the Netherlands. A stronger association between both secure and avoidant attachment and internalizing problems was found for father-son dyads compared to father-daughter dyads. A stronger association between both secure and avoidant attachment and externalizing problems was found for mother-son dyads compared to mother-daughter and father-daughter dyads. Sons showed a stronger negative association between secure attachment and externalizing problems, a stronger positive association between avoidant attachment and externalizing problems, and a stronger negative association between secure attachment and internalizing problems compared to daughters. These results provide evidence for gender moderation and demonstrate that a dyadic approach can reveal patterns of associations that would not be recognized if parent and child gender effects were assessed separately.
Descriptors: Parent Child Relationship, Preschool Children, Mothers, Daughters, Fathers, Sons, Attachment Behavior, Behavior Problems, Foreign Countries, Gender Differences
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Netherlands
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://github.com/MagdaMatetovici/AttachmentProblemBehavior
Author Affiliations: 1Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 2Language Development Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; 3Basic Trust, Dordrecht, The Netherlands; 4Faculty of Social Sciences, Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands