Document Type

Poster

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Research On Capitol Hill 2014

Publication Date

1-30-2014

Faculty Mentor

Susan Talley

Abstract

Most of the research on attachment relationships focuses on mothers as the primary attachment figure (Cherlin, 2013). As a society, we are seeing an increase of intergenerational caregiving for children. Mothers and Fathers are increasingly seeking their parents’ help to care for their children. Further, fathers are taking a larger role in the primary care for their children. As a result, ongoing questions about the quality of attachment relationships for multiple caregivers are beginning to rise to the top of our list of understanding attachment in general (Ireland and Pakenham, 2012). We approached 108 children coming from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and asked them how they view their quality of attachment relationships using the Separation Anxiety Test (SAT) and the Security Scale (Kerns, Klepac, and Cole, 1996). We also asked them how confident they feel that they could perform acts of prosocial behavior. Preliminary results suggest that there is some evidence to support a specific link between secondary caregivers and feeling confident for performing prosocial behaviors. These results indicate that the secondary attachment relationships may be as important as investigating the role of mothers.

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