What is the Significance of Parent and Child Relationships to Sylvia-Amelia-Julia and Olivia in Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories and Dani in Jane El...

Fact: In the UK alone, a child goes missing every five minutes. Some of these children are found; others become the focus of high-profile media campaigns. A few are never seen again.

Psychologists call the relationship between child and parent “attachment.” The attachment theory, or the study of these relationships, has shed light on the importance of the relationships between parent and child as well as pointed out some of the key steps parents can take to raise their children well. In addition, mothers and fathers take on different roles in bringing up a well-developed child.

The warmth that parents bring to their children’s lives starts at infancy. Mothers and fathers of young children shower their kids with baby-talk and physical touch. These behaviours show the child that others are sensitive of their needs and those parents can be relied on for emotional responsiveness. However, this didn’t occur until twelve years later in Dani’s life, whereas Olivia, three years old , is her mother’s, Rosemary’s favourite and is described as ‘so lovable’ – a word Sylvia-Amelia-Julia had never heard her use to describe any of them – and is wished to “stay at this age for ever” because of this. Dani’s mother, Hayley, didn’t get the chance to hold her child before she was “placed in a clear Perspex cot and wheeled out of the birthing room” to the intensive care unit as she was premature – birthed at only five months “so small. So desperately, impossible small – barely larger than the midwife’s hands”. Although despite Hayley’s absolute exhaustion afterwards, she still felt “an overwhelming need to reach out and touch the child”, but her strength left her when she pushed herself up, so “she could do nothing but look” as her child was taken a...

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...o see them as teachers. Dani’s foster mum refusal to engage with Dani had always been like this, even before her Dad left. She had always felt second best. Mum made no secret about it – about “the fact that after Rebecca and James had came along she had wanted Dani to move somewhere else”.

The father’s role in a child’s development has traditionally been underestimated. According to researchers Ross Parke and Kevin MacDonald and, authors of the article “Parent-Child Physical Play,” which appeared in the journal Sex Roles, fathers play an integral role in the emotional and social development of children. Father-child interaction tends to be more intense, and through their shared activities children learn how to express and control their emotions with their fathers. By working together, mothers and fathers help their children develop their skills across the spectrum.