Studies on parent-child relationships and attachment development with joint parental custody
How does attachment develop when very young children who grow up with joint parental custody (JPC) and alternating between both parents’ homes? Research shows that children in JPC who share their time between the two parental homes seem to be able to develop secure attachment relationships to both their parents. Our studies are therefore not about how a certain family form may be linked to insecure attachment. Instead, we focus on how this development takes place and how the children experience the relationship with their parents.
We ask the following questions:
• Do children view the two parents as parts of the same caregiving network or do they experience them as separate, with no points of contact?
• Under what circumstances can children develop balanced relationships with both of their separated parents?
Through a series of studies with participatory research approaches, we now focus on parents with JPC and whose children live alternately with both parents after separation, adults who grew up with such family forms, as well as children and young people (10-18 years) who have been alternating between both parents’ homes from the first years of life. In a next step, we focus on very young children, who will be engaged in a study together with their caregivers.
