Given the high number of divorces, it seems essential to think about what children’s attachment to their parents becomes when they live multiple separations because of alternating residence, or when they live with a single parent without seeing the other one. Indeed, the aim of attachment system (Bowlby, 1999) is to promote and keep proximity between the child and multiple attachment figures. The attachment system is built thanks to internal working models (Bretherton, 1990), which are mental representations of attachment figures, of the child himself and of the child’s relation with attachment figures. Solomon and Georges (1999a) find that children separated from their mother to spend nights regularly with their father are more prone to develop insecure attachment to their mother than other children. But the authors discover that when the mother is able to protect the child emotionally, the child can have a secure attachment to her. In the same way, Altenhofen, Sutherland and Biringen (2010) notice that children who are more emotionally engaged with their mother have a more secure attachment to her. That’s why the aim of our study was to observe attachment representations of children according to their method of care (alternating residence, mother’s primary custody, mother and father) according to parental alliance quality and level of parental conflict.
We hypothesized that high parental alliance quality as high level of parental conflict is bound to the security of attachment representations of children. We also considered the possibility that these two variables would be linked to the reaction to the separation of children. Finally, we thought that parental alliance quality and level of parental conflict were more related than the method of care with the quality of children attachment representations as on their reaction to the separation.
Fifty-four children aged between three and five years old, 12 of which in alternating residence, 12 of which primary custody mother, and 30 of which living with their mother and father participated to the study. They crossed the Attachment Story Completion Task (Bretherton and Ridgeway, 1990) to explore their attachment representations and reaction to the separation. Every parent (52 mothers, two fathers) filled six questionnaires, among which : sociodemographic informations, parental alliance and parental conflict.
Children in alternating residence had significantly fewer secure attachment representations and more specifically hyperactive or disorganized attachment representations. There were no significant differences between attachment representations of children who live in mother’s primary custody and those of other children. Neither the parental alliance, nor the level of parental conflict had any significant effect on attachment representations of children and on the reaction to the separation, but they modulated the effect of the residence of children on their attachment representations.
Our results were consistent with those obtained by Solomon and Georges (1999a). Even if children who spend regularly overnights with their father are more prone to develop an insecure attachment, they are more prone to have a secure attachment when their mother bring back few conflicts with the father and can reassure the child during the separations. We can maybe consider parental alliance and parental conflict as mediating variable of security of attachment.
Unfortunately, this study presented three main limits. First, our population only came from a privileged background. Second, the participating mothers were well educated (the average was sixteen years of studies). Third, our samples in primary custody mother (12 children) and in alternating residence (12 children) were too small compared to the sample of children who live with their mother and father (30 children). These were the three aspects which prevent us from obtaining significant results and prevent us from generalizing our results.
References:
Altenhofen, S., Sutherland, K., & Biringen, Z. (2010). Families experiencing divorce : age at onset of overnight stays, conflict, and emotional availability as predictors of child attachment. Journal of divorce & remarriage, 51, 141-156. doi:10.1080/10502551003597782.
Bowlby, J. (1958). The Nature of the Child Tie to his Mother. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis.
Bowlby, J. (1999). Attachement et Pertes, vol. 1 : Attachement. p. 247-249. Paris : PUF.
Bretherton, I., Prentiss, C., & Ridgeway, D. (1990). Children’s representations of family relationships in a story completion task at 37 and 54 months. Children’s perspectives on the family, 85-105.
Bretherton, I., Ridgeway, D., & Cassidy, J. (1990). Assessing internal working models of the attachment relationship : An attachment story completion task for 3-year-olds. In M. T. Greenberg, D., Cicchetti, & E.M. Cummings (Eds), Attachment in the preschool years : Theory, research and intervention (pp. 273-308). Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
Solomon, J., & George, C. (1999a). The development of attachment in separated and divorced families. Attachment & Human Development, 1(1), 2-33, doi: 10.1080/14616739900134011.
Arielle Dunais
