197
Geoffrey L. Brown, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Brent A.
McBride, Department of Human and Community Development, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Nana Shin, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University; Kelly K. Bost, De-
partment of Human and Community Development, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0126427) to Bost
& McBride. Opinions reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the granting agency.
The authors would like to express their appreciation to Cathy Inman, Paul King, and Nikita Ligutam for
their assistance with data collection.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Geoffrey L. Brown, Department of Psy-
chology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 E. Daniel St., Champaign, IL 61820. Electronic
mail: glbrown@cyrus.psych.uiuc.edu
Fathering, Vol. 5, No. 3, Fall 2007, 197-219.
© 2007 by the Men’s Studies Press, LLC. http://www.mensstudies.com. All rights reserved.
fth.0503.197/$12.00 DOI: 10.3149/fth.0503.197
Parenting Predictors of Father-Child Attachment
Security: Interactive Effects of Father Involvement
and Fathering Quality
GEOFFREY L. BROWN BRENT A. MCBRIDE
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NANA SHIN KELLY K. BOST
Auburn University University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
This study examined the parenting predictors of father-child attachment secu-
rity in early childhood. Results suggest that multiple dimensions of fathers’
parenting quality moderated the associations between father involvement, in
its original content-free sense, and father-child attachment. Specifically, father
involvement was generally unrelated to attachment security when fathers en-
gaged in high-quality parenting behavior, but associated with lower levels of
attachment security when fathers’ parenting was less adaptive. Findings pro-
vide further evidence for the important role of parenting quality in the father-
child attachment relationship, and suggest that the consequences of involved
fathering for father-child attachment security are dependent upon qualitative
aspects of fathering behavior.
Keywords: father-child attachment, childhood, fathering, security
The last several decades have seen an increase in research incorporating fathers
into studies of child and family development (Lamb & Tamis-Lemonda, 2004). In ad-
dition to documenting levels of paternal involvement, this research has also explored