About the project

We assess the role of the child’s attachment to each of its caregivers, while controlling for parental mental health and other parental characteristics already before the child’s birth. The first phase of the project extends from 3 months before, to 1000 days (approximately 3 years) after the child’s birth, and consists of two studies:

1. large cohort study of parenting and family development (10 000 families)

2. smaller size focus study of socioemotional development in different family forms.

The project is internationally unique, currently possible only in a Nordic country, with welfare state commitment to gender equality, various forms of childcare and guaranteed parental leave during the child’s first years contributing to the diversity that is necessary for the study, in both family and childcare environments.

Our findings will provide evidence for optimizing children’s well-being and in different family forms, and for much needed recommendations concerning family policy in the future. The project will also contribute unique knowledge regarding the development of multiple attachment relationships from early on, in today’s families where several caregivers combine their efforts in shared or caregiver-specific contexts.