Revisiting the childcare–attachment question: under what conditions is childcare participation associated with mother–child attachment security?

ABSTRACT

Decades have passed since the controversy regarding the putative risks of childcare for mother–child attachment broke out. Yet, some uncertainty remains, as relevant studies have produced inconsistent evidence. Some have proposed that those conflicting findings may be due to the fact that the effects of childcare are conditioned on parenting. Accordingly, this study examined whether relations between childcare participation and mother–child attachment vary according to maternal sensitivity and autonomy support. In this sample of 236 mother–child dyads, there was no indication of main effects of childcare participation on attachment. There were, however, some interactive effects, such that the children who showed the least secure attachment behaviors were those who did not attend childcare and had either less sensitive or less autonomy-supportive mothers. The findings suggest that the effects of childcare on mother–child attachment are best understood in light of the parenting children receive at home.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• childcare
• daycare
• maternal sensitivity
• maternal autonomy support

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and le Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture.