This study seeks to understand socialisation from an emotional angle: attachment. We wish to better understand the contribution the quality of caregiving brings to the socialisation of children aged 3–5 years. These children come from single-parent and bi-parental homes in the acculturating urban and rural settings of Yaoundé and Mfou, Cameroon. The traditional parental support systems African families had in the past is weakening due to modernisation and the nuclearisation of the African family nowadays. We observed a rise in asocial behaviours while undertaking research aimed at finding tips to improve the socialisation of single parented children. Guided by Bowlby and Ainsworth's attachment theory and Erikson's psychosocial theory of development, a qualitative multiple case-study design was used. Data were gathered through naturalistic and participant observation of forty nursery-school children and semi-structured interviews with their parents or caregivers and teachers, across six research sites spanning urban and rural settings. Most children from both family structures displayed behaviours consistent with the initiative pole of Erikson's third psychosocial stage, indicating adequate socialisation. Positive outcomes were tied not to family structure but to the quality of the caregiver–child relationship (warmth, consistency, responsiveness, and dialogue-based conflict resolution). Difficulties were more frequent among children in single-parent homes (8 of 12) than in two-parent homes (7 of 28), but caregiving quality separated outcomes within both groups: dialogue-based, warm and consistent care was associated with better outcomes, whereas difficulties clustered where caregivers reported being overwhelmed or relied on fear-based control. Five of the six children in extended single- parent homes had difficulties, suggesting that the extended-family buffer can no longer be assumed especially for urban single-parent households. Rural children displayed more spontaneous initiative, while urban children had restricted peer contact and frequent screen exposure. Support for families should therefore target caregiving quality and community socialisation structures rather than family structure as a marker of risk. These findings challenge deficit narratives of single parenthood and position caregiving quality as the operative mechanism of child socialisation in the Cameroonian context.