Attachment, caregiving, and both parents
What attachment research supports, what multiple-attachment studies add, and what the science cannot decide for a court.
Can a child form important attachment relationships with both parents?
Yes. Modern attachment research recognises that children can form meaningful, relationship-specific attachments to both parents and other familiar caregivers. Attachment to one parent does not make the relationship with the other parent scientifically irrelevant.
Start with these papers
These are the main papers supporting the answer above. Open a research record for the findings, limitations, full citation, and original publication.
Configurations of mother–child and father–child attachment relationships as predictors of child language competence
Read the recent participant-level analysis of attachment to both parents.
Attachment goes to court: Child protection and custody issues
Read the international consensus on what attachment science can and cannot tell courts.
Sensitivity and attachment: A meta-analysis on parental antecedents of infant attachment
Read the foundational synthesis showing why caregiving quality matters more than a parent label.
When this guide is useful
Use this guide when an argument assumes that one parent must be the only psychological parent, or that attachment theory determines an exact parenting-time schedule.
The boundary to keep
Multiple attachments do not make caregivers interchangeable. The quality, safety, history, availability, and function of each relationship still matter. Attachment research does not prescribe equal time or any other exact percentage.
Findings worth knowing
Responsive care matters, but it is not the only cause of security
A review of 66 studies and 4,176 parent-infant pairs found a modest relationship between sensitive caregiving and secure attachment.
De Wolff and van IJzendoorn, 1997: read the evidence recordTwo secure parent relationships were associated with somewhat better language skills
Dagan and colleagues combined information for 719 children across seven studies. The mother-only and father-only secure groups had almost identical language results.
Dagan and colleagues, 2024: read the evidence recordInternational consensus describes an attachment network
The 2022 consensus supported familiar non-abusive caregivers, continuity of good-enough care, and the child's network of attachment relationships.
Forslund and colleagues, 2022: read the evidence recordAttachment cannot produce a custody score
Researchers continue to disagree about some individual court uses of attachment assessment. The consensus does not support using a classification to diagnose a parent or determine a schedule.
Forslund and colleagues, 2022: read the evidence recordThe strongest objection and the evidence in response
A child may be attached to both parents, but that does not mean equal time or frequent transitions are necessary.
That is correct. Multiple-attachment evidence answers the narrower claim that only one relationship matters. A schedule still requires evidence about safety, established care, the child's needs, distance, routines, transitions, conflict, and each parent's capacity.
Open these papers next
Each link opens a plain-language record with the report summary, researchers’ conclusions, limitations, full citation, and original publication link.
Configurations of mother–child and father–child attachment relationships as predictors of child language competence
Read the recent participant-level analysis of attachment to both parents.
Dagan, Schuengel, Verhage, Madigan, Roisman et al. (2024)Attachment goes to court: Child protection and custody issues
Read the international consensus on what attachment science can and cannot tell courts.
Forslund, Granqvist, van IJzendoorn, Sagi-Schwartz, Glaser, Steele, Hammarlund et al. (2022)Sensitivity and attachment: A meta-analysis on parental antecedents of infant attachment
Read the foundational synthesis showing why caregiving quality matters more than a parent label.
Marinus H. van IJzendoorn & Marianne S. De Wolff (1997)Using child development research to make appropriate custody and access decisions for young children
Read how attachment and parent involvement were connected to developmentally responsive parenting plans.
Joan B. Kelly & Michael E. Lamb (2000)