The Role of Touch and Parental Depression in the Development of the Mother-Infant and Father-Infant Attachment Relationship

Abstract

Attachment refers to the relationship that the infant forms with their mother and father in regards to trusting their caregiver to meet their needs. Past research has primarily focused on the mother-infant dyad when observing attachment, with little to no research conducted with the father-infant dyad. A component of attachment is sensitivity, which refers to the parent being able to notice and understand an infant's cues and responding in a timely manner. One factor of sensitivity is touch, since it can help regulate the child's emotions and be a way for the parent to communicate to their infant. This study was conducted to better understand how fathers form attachment with their infants, and to see if there was any difference in touch that mothers and fathers use when participating in the Still Face Paradigm. Both mothers and fathers were studied to see if depressed mothers and fathers interacted with their infant differently from those who are not clinically depressed. Infants (n = 101) at the age of six months and both their parents participated in the Still Face Paradigm. Touch was coded on a second by second coding system during the free play and reunion episode. The results revealed that depressed mothers performed more active accompaniment and attention getting touch during the reunion episode, while depressed fathers performed more active accompaniment touch attention getting touch in the free play episode. Other results revealed that resistant infants received more utilitarian touch and attention getting touch from their mothers during the free play episode. This demonstrates that touch can differ depending on attachment style and that depressed parents do not perform less touch or negative touch behaviors as previous research has thought.