The importance of shared environment in infant-father attachment: a behavioral genetic study of the attachment q-sort.
In this first behavior genetic study on infant-father attachment, we estimated genetic and environmental influences on infant-father attachment behaviors and on temperamental dependency, both assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS; B. E. Vaughn & E. Waters, 1990; E. Waters, 1995). Mothers of mono- and dizygotic twins (N = 56 pairs) sorted the AQS with a focus on the infant's behaviors in the presence of the father. Genetic modeling showed that attachment was largely explained by shared environmental (59%) and unique environmental (41%) factors. For dependency, genetic factors explained 66% of the variance, and unique environmental factors including measurement error explained 34%. Attachment to father appears to be, to a significant degree, a function of the environment that twins share.
Bakermans-Kranenburg
M J
MJ
Center for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.
van Uzendoorn
M H
MH
Bokhorst
C L
CL
Schuengel
C
C
D000328:Adult; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D033141:Genetic Determinism; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D011779:Q-Sort; D012931:Social Environment; D013694:Temperament; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology