What counts as an attachment relationship, and who can serve as an attachment figure, has evolved considerably since the early days of attachment theory. For decades, mothers were regarded as the primary, if not exclusive, figures toward whom children formed attachment bonds. Although pioneering work by scholars such as Michael Lamb in the 1970s began to challenge this assumption, attachment relationships to fathers have remained comparatively underexamined since the inception of attachment theory. Indeed, fathers constitute only about 10% of caregivers included in attachment research, a proportion that has remained relatively stable across decades. Nonetheless, important conceptual and empirical advances in recent years have substantially deepened our understanding of father-child attachment. In this presentation, I will review the state of the father-child attachment literature. I will begin by situating this body of work within its theoretical and historical context. Next, I will review evidence demonstrating fathers' capacity for sensitive caregiving and their ability to foster secure attachment relationships with their children. I will then examine the antecedents and developmental sequelae of father-child attachment security and insecurity. Finally, I will identify persisting gaps in the literature and discuss implications for research and intervention.
Dr. Jean-François Bureau is a professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Bureau completed his Doctoral degree at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2005 under the supervision of Dr. Ellen Moss. He obtained a post-doctoral internship at Harvard Medical School where he studied family relationships and the development of psychopathologies in adolescence. He began his career at the University of Ottawa in 2007. For many years, he has focused on understanding parent-child attachment relationships, with particular emphasis on fathers and their preschool- and school-aged children. He is the lead trainer for the Preschool Attachment Coding System and is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts in this area. He has accumulated hundreds of hours of observational recordings of mother-child and father-child dyads, collected both in laboratory settings and in families' homes. He also studies the role of attachment in the development of non-suicidal self injury in youths, and more recently, the association between family dynamics and climate distress in adolescents. He is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, which have been widely cited (h-index = 42). His work has important clinical applications in the assessment of family dynamics.
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