The notion that attachment relationships co-constructed during the early years of life serve as guides or templates for the child’s subsequent relationships with peers and that security in attachment relationships supports the child’s positive social adaptation in children’s peer groups has a long history in developmental research and theory (e.g., Bost, Vaughn, Washington, Cielinski, & Bradbard, 1998; Bowlby, 1973, 1982; Lieberman, 1977; Park & Waters, 1989; Rose-Krasnor, Rubin, Booth, & Coplan, 1996; Waters & Sroufe, 1983).

However, most “attachment to peer relationship” studies have focused on the relationship with mothers and the role of father-child attachment has been rarely studied. Our talk builds on our previous work and aims to contribute to the field by analyzing pre-school age children’s quality of attachment with father and mother and some dimensions of child social development (e.g: self-esteem, social acceptance from peers, number of reciprocal friends).

Please contact marco.rego@iscte-iul.pt for your registration.