New perspectives on attachment from studies on externalizing problems of children
This article shows how, over the last ten years, my research works on physical aggression and externalizing problems of children under six years old contributed to the field of attachment. The longitudinal follow-up of teenage mothers' children showed that the mother-child attachment is associated with the girls' antisocial behaviours but not with those of boys. These works led to a project allowing to investigate the role of the father and child playing fight in the socialization of the children's aggressiveness, especially with regards to the boys. Thereafter, the theory of the activation relationship was developed to better understand the fathers' contribution to the attachment and the development of the child. Finally, the article underlines the importance of the attachment theory for the Centre jeunesse de Montréal-Institut universitaire in the intervention with troubled young children.