Fatherhood: How Differentiation and Identity Status Affect Attachment to Children

Fathers have often been misrepresented in studies evaluating the father's role and the father's relationship to his children, due to being evaluated by theories that were originally intended to study the relationship between mothers and children. The current study evaluates fathers' differentiation and identity status as predictors of their attachment to their children. We used structural equation modeling and multiple regression to evaluate the relationships among the variables. We found that differentiation predicted identity status but that neither differentiation nor identity status predicted attachment. Further, commitment significantly predicted parent attachment, relationship avoidance, and relationship anxiety, whereas crisis significantly predicted only relationship avoidance. The implications of these results for therapists are discussed.