Conclusions
On a descriptive level, we have found that secure base support can be assessed from naturalistic observations well beyond infancy.
As in research on mother-infant interaction, the quality of secure base support a mother provides her preschooler is correlated with her AAI coherence.
Such correlations are just a starting point. They do not fully answer the question “How does attachment develop?” It is now time to look behind and beyond such correlations to better understand the caregiving and family contexts that generate them. When we do this we find some surprises.
First, fathers’ too provide secure base support during preschooler’s free-play, possibly even more so at this age than in infancy. Although their behavior looks similar to maternal secure base support, it has very different correlates. Specifically, it is not influenced by the fathers’ AAI. Instead, it is significantly linked to mothers’ perception of the child. In organizing his own secure base support, the father draws cues more from his child’s mother than from his own mother.
Therefore, we suggest that secure base support after infancy, its’ determinants, and paths of mother-father influence become a high priority in future research.