Essentials when studying child-father attachment: A fundamental view on safe haven and secure base phenomena

ABSTRACT

The most relevant functions of an attachment figure for a child from evolutionary, cultural, and individual perspectives are being a safe haven and secure base for the child. The concepts of behavioral systems and emotional security are delineated. Central to a child’s emotional security is her smooth transition between seeking a safe haven when distressed and a secure base when at ease with her attachment figures. The special quality of the child-father attachment relationship is marked by an emphasis on supporting the child’s exploration and her emotional intensity during agitated play. Systematic analysis of child-father attachment requires careful, realistic, and lengthy natural, ethological observations of behaviors that indicate the child’s attachment to father. Such observations would result in a fuller understanding of the infants’ or children’s contribution to their development of psychological security.

KEYWORDS:

• child-father attachment
• secure base function
• save haven function
• behavioral systems
• desiderata for future research on child-father attachment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Parts of this longitudinal study were supported by Stiftung Volkswagenwerk, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft und die Köhler Stiftung im Stifterverband.