Intervening with Fathers and Their Children from the Perspective of the Activation Relationship

To this day, parent-child intervention has been guided by attachment theory, addressing issues of sensitivity and parenting competence from the standpoint of the mother-child relationship. The absence of a theory-driven model of fathering hindered the development of specific interventions addressing the father-child relationship. Since 2004, the activation relationship theory has propelled research and theory influencing how we intervene with fathers and their children. This chapter presents the emergence and development of the activation relationship theory, before examining an early intervention program involving father-child dyads.