Feeding, food, and attachment: An underestimated relationship?

Autor/inn/en	Schmidt, Wiebke Johanna; Keller, Heidi; Rosabal-Coto, Mariano; Fallas Gamboa, Karina; Solis Guillen, Carolina; Duran Delgado, Esteban
Titel	Feeding, food, and attachment: An underestimated relationship? Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Fütterung, Nahrung und Bindung: Eine unterschätzte Beziehung?
Quelle	In: Ethos, 51 (2023) 1, S. 62-80 PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0091-2131; 1548-1352
DOI	10.1111/etho.12380
Schlagwörter	Bindung; Bindungstheorie; Bindungsverhalten; Mutter-Kind-Beziehung; Säugling; Familie; Kleinkind; Kleinkindalter; Säuglingsalter; Stillen; Entwicklung; Betreuungsperson
Abstract	According to attachment theory, feeding, including breastfeeding, plays only a marginal role in relationship formation. However, studies - especially in rural traditional non-Western contexts - repeatedly demonstrate that feeding can be an important attachment mechanism. We interviewed 30 urban, middle-class families with 6-to-19-month-old infants in the surrounding greater metropolitan area of San Jose, Costa Rica, to investigate if they consider feeding relevant for attachment formation. Qualitative content analysis revealed that breastfeeding is a key factor in specifying whether caregivers believed feeding to be relevant for attachment formation. The study found that breastfeeding families considered feeding relevant for attachment, and bottle-feeding families associated feeding with mainly alimentary and no attachment-related functions. Furthermore, breastfeeding seems to foster exclusive maternal attachment, while multiple feeding seems to foster multiple attachments. Consequently, the feeding network seems to regulate a child's attachment network in urban middle-class families in San Jose. A triangulation of caregiver interviews, interviews with key informants, and member checking with key informants support the validity of the findings. (ZPID).
Erfasst von	Leibniz-Institut für Psychologie, Trier
Update	2024/1