My thesis focuses on the father-child attachment and its influence on teacher-student relationship and a child’s academic performances.
INTRODUCTION
Firstly, the literature about fathers in the attachment theory is less common than the literature about mothers (Le Camus, 1992 ; cited by Dubeau & Moss, 1998). His role in the child’s development has been for a long time neglected, in favor of the one of the mothers.
Paquette has suggested that instead of using “attachment relationship”, the term “activation relationship” is more suitable to mention the relationship between a father and child (Bacro & Florin, 2009). Le Camus (1995) has explained that stimulation, impulsions and incitations are as important as security and stability. Indeed, they allow children to be bolder when faced with new situations and will encourage them into taking risks (to face something, assert themselves to someone).
But his role goes beyond that. Pfiffner, McBurnett and Rathouz (2001) have highlighted that paternal implication allows for better social skills, higher popularity, higher self-esteem and less behavioral disorders. As well, Bourçois (1997) has emphasized the impact of premature father implication in a child’s social development. Moreover, many researchers like Pedersen, Rubinstein and Yarrow (1979) have proved a positive correlation between a father’s implication in child’s development and his cognitive performances.
Secondly, parental impact on a child’s academic success has been recognized for many years. Even if the father’s role in a child’s education was considered for a long time absent, now his participation to education is largely admitted as being linked to academic success (Bacro, 2012).
Nevertheless, literature have showed opposed results. Indeed, Jacobsen and Hofmann (1994) have underlined cognitive difficulties in anxious-avoidant children, compared to secure children. More recent studies have showed that secure children are more able to solve cognitive problems than insecure children and they are better in collaborative reading (Moss & St-Laurent, 2001).
As well, Danet, Vilette and Dione (2017) have highlighted that parental attachment is linked to mathematical and French acquisitions: maternal attachment is predictive to French performance and paternal attachment is predictive to mathematical performance. On the contrary, Duchesne and Larose (2007) have demonstrated no significant link between attachment quality and academic success in their research.
Just as family does, the schooling experience represents a socializing context which influences child’s development and adaptation (Liu, Li, Chen & Qu, 2015). Several researches (Hughes and al., 2001 ; Pianta and al., 1995) have underlined the importance of the quality of student-teacher relationships because of its impact on children’s future academic, social and behavioral performances. For example, the influence of the relationship between teachers and students over children’s academic success have demonstrated by Verschueren, Doumen and Buyse (2012), but this closeness would be dependent of the attachment quality developed between mother and child.
So, considering the impact of a teacher-student relationship on academic success, does the quality of this relation depend on the level of a father-child’s relationship, as it was demonstrated for mother-child relationship? Also, there isn’t consensus in literature about the link between father-child attachment and its implication on academic success. So, does a link exist?
METHODOLOGY
122 participants, from 7 to 11 years old, contributed to this research in 2 private primary schools and 2 public primary schools.
Several tools were used :
- The Security Scale by Kerns et al. (1996) to evaluate attachment (by children) and the Attachment Insecurity Screening Inventory (AISI) to measure attachment quality (by parents).
- The Academic Performance Rating Scale by Dupaul, Rapport and Perriello (1991) to estimate academic performances (by teachers)
- The Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS) by Vervoort, Doumen and Verschueren (2015) to evaluate teacher-student attachment quality (by children).
RESULTS :
We are expecting to demonstrate a link between quality of teacher-student relationship and father-child attachment quality. So, there would be a positive correlation between results at the Security Scale and the Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale. As well, we are expecting to prove that father-child attachment has an implication on children’s academic success. So, we would observe a positive correlation between results at the Academic Performance Rating Scale and the Security Scale.
REFERENCES :
Bacro, F., Florin, A. (2009). La relation père-enfant, la nature et l’organisation des relations d’attachement. Canadian Psychology. 50(4), 230-240. DOI : 10.1037/a0015445
Bacro, F. (2012). Perceived attachment security to father, academic self-concept and school performance in language mastery. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 21(6), 992-1002. DOI : 10.1007/s10826-011-9561-1
Bourçois, V. (1997). Modalités de présence du père et développement social de l’enfant d’âge préscolaire. Enfance. 3, 389-399. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/enfan.1997.3073
Danet, M., Vilette, B., Dione, A. (2017). Spécificités des liens entre représentations d’attachement et acquisitions scolaires en primaire. Retrieved (31/12/18) from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318043791_Specificites_des_liens_entre_representations_d’attachement_et_acquisitions_scolaires_en_primaire
Dubeau, D., Moss, E. (1998). La théorie d’attachement résiste-t-elle au charme des pères ? Approche comparative des caractéristiques maternelles et paternelles durant la période d’âge préscolaire. Enfance. 3, 82-102. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/enfan.1998.3118
Duchesne, S., Larose, S. (2007). Adolescent Parental Attachment and Academic Motivation and Performance in Early Adolescence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 37(7), 1501-1521. DOI : 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00224.x
Le Camus, J. (1995). Le dialogue phasique : nouvelles perspectives dans l’étude des interactions père-bébé. Neuropsychiatrie de l’enfance. 43 (1-2), 53-65.
Moss, E., St-Laurent, D. (2001). Attachment at School Age and Academic Performance. Developmental Psychology. 37(6), 863-874. DOI: 10.1037//0012-I649.37.6.863
Pedersen, F. A., Rubinstein, J. L., Yarrow, L. J. (1979). Infant development in father-absent families. Journal of Genetic Psychology. 135, 51-61. DOI : 10.1080/00221325.1979.10533416
Pfiffner, L. J., McBurnett, K., Rathouz, P. J. (2001). Father absence and familial antisocial characteristics. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 29(5), 357-367. DOI : 10.1023/A:1010421301435
Verschueren, K., Doumen, S., Buyse, E. (2012). Relationships with mother, teacher, and peers: unique and joint effects on young children’s self-concept. Attachment and Human Development. 14(3), 233-248. DOI : https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2012.672263
Words I have learned :
To neglect : negliger, manquer d’attention
To highlight = to emphasize : souligner, mettre l’accent sur
Closeness : proximité
In favor of : en faveur de