Explanation Social-Emotional Development of Infants: The Role of Family Financial Stress, Father Involvement, and Mother-Infant Attachment

This study aimed to explain the socio-emotional development of infants based on family financial stress, father involvement, and mother-infant attachment. The study was a causal model. Two hundred twenty-one mothers completed the long form of Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (Altafim et al., 2020), Maternal Postpartum Attachment Scale (Condon & Corkindale, 1998) Father Involvement Scale (Rempel & Rempel, 2011; Hawkins et al., 2002), and Family Financial Stress Scale (Crandall, Magnusson, Novilla, Novilla & Dyer, 2017). The results showed the positive effect of mother-infant attachment on the social-emotional development of infants. The father's involvement also had a positive effect on the mother-infant attachment. The mediating role of mother-infant attachment in the relationship between father involvement and the socio-emotional development of infants was confirmed. In the model modification process, the family financial stress variable was removed from the proposed research model. According to the research findings, the father's involvement can improve the mother-infant attachment and thus increase the social-emotional development of the infant.