Mother–child and father–child attachment configurations: Associations with parental alliance and preschoolers’ externalizing and internalizing behaviors.

= 137). The quality of the parental alliance was measured using the Parental Alliance Inventory, and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist. Multivariate analyses of covariances results show the importance of assessing attachment with both parent-child dyads as only father-child organized insecurity was linked to children's externalizing behaviors, and a secure mother-child attachment did not act as a buffer for an insecure father-child attachment when it came to children's externalizing behaviors. Results also highlight the need to distinguish organized insecurity and disorganization in statistical analyses as the insecure father-child dyads exhibited significantly higher externalizing behavior scores than their disorganized counterparts. No significant associations were found between attachment measures, children's internalizing behaviors, and parental alliance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).