The associations between father’s attachment representations and his involvement in care/management and play/leisure activities: An exploratory analyses

Abstract

The main goal of this study was to explore the associations between father’s attachment representations (secure base script knowledge) and his involvement in management and childcare, as well as in play and leisure activities. Sixty-two nuclear Portuguese families, with children between 2 and 5 years of age participated. Families were middle-class from a socioeconomical perspective, and both parents worked full time. In order to assess the secure-base script the Attachment Script Representation task was used individually with the father, and both mother and father independently reported on parental involvement. Results show that fathers access the secure-base script knowledge in contexts eliciting it; that fathers participate significantly more in play/leisure activities than in management/childcare. Finally, fathers with higher secure-base script scores in adult/child stories are more involved in management and childcare, even when child’s age and father’s education are controlled for.