An individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis on the attachment network to multiple caregivers

Since the seminal 1992 paper by van IJzendoorn, Sagi, and Lambermon, putting forward the “The multiple caretaker paradox”, relatively little attention has been given to the potential joint effects of the role early attachment network to mother and father play in development. Recently, Dagan and Sagi-Schwartz (2018) have published a paper that attempts to revive this unsettled issue, calling for research on the subject and offering a framework for posing attachment network hypotheses. This Collaboration for Attachment Research Synthesis project attempts to use an Individual Participant Data meta-analyses to test the hypotheses put forward in Dagan and Sagi-Schwartz (2018). Specifically, we test (a) whether the number of secure attachments (0,1, or 2) matter in predicting a range of developmental outcomes, and (b) whether the quality of attachment relationship with one parent contributes more than the other to these outcomes.