Attachment

Leman, P., Bremner, A., Parke, R.D. & Gauvain, M. (2019). Developmental psychology
(2nd edition). McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 7, pp.184–199.
As you’re reading, pay particular attention to the following key points and make notes on them
in your study journal:

• The key theories of attachment, including the different types

• Influences on the quality of attachment
• The consequences of the quality of attachment

The development of attachment, a strong emotional bond that forms in the second half of the
first year between an infant and one or more of the child’s regular caregivers, is closely related
to emotional development.
Visible signs of attachment are the warm greetings a child gives their parents when they
approach, smiling broadly, active efforts to make contact when picked up, touching a parent’s
face and snuggling close.
Attachment can also be seen in a child’s efforts to stay near their parents in an unfamiliar
situation, crawling or running to them and holding on to a leg. Attachment can also be seen in
the distress that older babies show when their parents leave them temporarily; its negative
counterpart is expressed in the separation protest.
The emergence of attachment is one of the developmental milestones in the first year of life. It
is of great interest to researchers not only because it is so intense and dramatic but also because
it is thought to enhance the parents’ effectiveness in the later socialization of their children.
Children who have developed an attachment to their parents presumably want to maintain
their parents’ affection and approval and so are motivated to adopt the standards of behaviour
the parents set for them.
Attachment is a widely studied topic and we begin this section with several theories of why
attachment develops, including psychoanalytic, learning and

Theories of attachment
Various theories, including psychoanalytic, learning, and ethological theories, offer
explanations for attachment development, each with different assumptions about key
variables and underlying processes.
• According to Freud’s classic psychoanalytic theory of attachment, babies become attached to
their caregivers because the caregivers are associated with the gratification of their infants’
innate drive to obtain pleasure through sucking and other forms of oral stimulation.
• This argument from traditional psychoanalytic theory, focusing on innate drives and
pleasure-seeking, is generally not supported by research evidence.
• However, the theory’s emphasis on a person’s inner needs and feelings, and its focus on
mother-infant interaction remain important influences in the study of infant attachment.

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• Although specific Freudian interpretations may be seen as bizarre nowadays, the contribution
of psychoanalytic work lies in helping to open up ground for research in the area.
• There has also been recent work that has sought to demonstrate concordance between
neuroscience and psychoanalytic approaches.
• Although there are some associations between some brain processes and adult attachment
style, these may be associated with orientations towards adult relationships and their
developmental significance is not well understood.
• How far childhood experiences affect neural functioning (and vice versa) or connections is a
potentially fertile field for further study, although It is not yet clear how these connect to
traditional psychoanalysis.
• Other theories are better supported by empirical evidence.
Like psychoanalytic theory, the learning theory of attachment has traditionally associated the
formation of mother–infant attachment with the mother’s reduction of the baby’s primary drive
of hunger.
• Because the mother gives the infant food, a primary reinforcer, she becomes a secondary
reinforcer. Presumably, this ability to satisfy the baby’s hunger forms the basis for infant
attachment to the mother or any other caregiver linked to feeding.
Many studies, however, have challenged the view that feeding is critical for the development
of attachment.
• In the most famous of these, Harlow separated infant monkeys from their real mothers and
raised them in the company of two surrogate mothers. One ‘mother’ was made of stiff wire
and had a feeding bottle attached to it; the other was made of soft terrycloth but lacked a
bottle (Harlow & Zimmerman, 1959). Especially in moments of stress, the baby monkeys
preferred to cling to the cloth mother, even though she dispensed no food. Attachment to this
surrogate mother clearly did not require the reduction of hunger.
Research on humans tells a similar story.
• Schaffer and Emerson's 1964 study revealed that human infants form attachments beyond
their primary caregivers. Babies developed bonds with fathers and other familiar adults, even
when these individuals had minimal involvement in feeding.
• Notably, in cases where mothers were emotionally distant but provided basic care, while
fathers were engaged and attentive, infants often formed stronger attachments to their fathers.
This occurred despite spending more time with their mothers, suggesting that the quality of
interaction, rather than quantity of time or feeding role, is crucial in forming attachments.
The central point of the learning theory explanation is that attachment is not automatic; it
develops over time as a result of satisfying interactions with responsive adults.
Some learning theorists suggest that the visual, auditory and tactile stimulation that adults
provide during their daily interactions with an infant are the basis for the development of
attachment (Gewirtz, 1969).
According to this view, babies are initially attracted to their regular caregivers because they are
the most important and reliable sources of this type of stimulation. As interactions with these

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caregivers continue over weeks and months, infants learn to depend on and to value these special
adults in their lives, becoming attached to them.
• Cognitive developmental approaches propose that for an infant to form specific attachments,
she must be able to distinguish between her mother and a stranger and recognize that people
continue to exist even when out of sight. According to Piaget, this understanding, known as
object permanence, is crucial for acknowledging that objects and people have an existence
independent of the infant's direct interaction with them.
• Advances in the infant’s cognitive development may also account, in part, for the gradual
shift in the ways attachment is expressed. Physical proximity to attachment figures becomes
less important as children grow older.
• With age, children become increasingly able to maintain psychological contact with a parent
through verbal and non-verbal communication.
• In addition, because they are also better able to understand that parental absences are
sometimes necessary and usually temporary, they are less upset by separations.
• Parents can reduce their children’s distress over separations further by explaining the reasons
for their departures.
• Providing specific information, like the duration of the absence, can ease children's distress
during separations. In one study, for instance, 2-year-olds handled separation from their
mothers much better when the mothers gave them clear information (‘I’m going out now for
just a minute, but I’ll be right back’) than when the mother left without a word.

Another approach that has emphasized the reciprocal nature of the attachment process is
John Bowlby’s ethological theory of attachment (1958, 1969, 1973).
• Both evolutionary theory and observational studies of animals helped shape this theory. An
important early demonstration of the value of the ethological approach was provided by
Lorenz’s (1952) classic studies of imprinting.
• Bowlby suggested that attachment has its roots in a set of instinctual infant responses that
are important for the protection and survival of the species.
• The infant responses of crying, smiling, sucking, clinging and following (visually at first, and
later physically) both elicit the parental care and protection that the baby needs and promote
contact between the child and the parents.
• Just as the infant is biologically prepared to respond to the sights, sounds, and nurturing
provided by the parents, the parents are also biologically prepared to respond to the baby’s
behaviour.
As a result of these biologically pre-programmed responses, both parent and infant develop a
mutual attachment.
• The emphasis on the active role in the formation of attachment played by the infant’s early
social signalling systems, such as smiling and crying, is the value of Bowlby’s position.

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• Another attractive feature is the theory’s stress on the development of mutual attachment,
whereby both partners, not just one, become bonded to each other (Cassidy, 1999; Thompson,
2006a). From this perspective, attachment is a relationship, not simply a behaviour of either the
infant or the parent (Sroufe et al., 2005).

• More controversial is Bowlby’s suggestion that these early behaviours are biologically
programmed. As we have seen, for example, there is considerable evidence that smiling has
social as well as biological origins.

The development of attachment

Attachment does not develop suddenly and unheralded, but rather emerges in a series of steps,
moving from a baby’s general preference for human beings to inanimate objects to a child’s real
partnership with its parents.
Schaffer (1996) proposes four phases in the development of attachment; these are outlined in
Table 7-3.

In the first phase, which lasts only a month or two, the baby’s social responses are relatively
indiscriminate.
In the second phase, the baby gradually learns to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar people.
even very young infants can distinguish their mothers’ faces, voices, and even smells from
those of other women. However, although a baby under 6 months of age can discriminate
between their mother and other caregivers, and prefer familiar caregivers to strangers, they do
not yet protest when familiar caregivers depart; the baby is not yet truly attached to these
people.

In the third phase, which begins when the baby is about 7 months old, specific attachments
develop. Now the infant actively seeks contact with certain regular caregivers, such as the
mother, greeting them happily and often crying when those people temporarily depart. The
baby does not behave like this with just anyone – only with specific attachment figures.

When the child passes the 2-year mark and enters toddlerhood (from about 2 to 5), the
attachment relationship moves into the final phase – the so-called goal-corrected partnership

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(Bowlby,1969). At this point, owing to advances in cognitive development, children become
aware of other people’s feelings, goals and plans, and begin to consider these things in
formulating their actions. As Colin (1996) noted, ‘the child becomes a partner in planning how
the dyad will handle separations’

• Infants develop attachments not only to their mothers but also to their fathers and to a
variety of other persons with whom they regularly interact. When children are a little older,
for example, they often develop attachments to siblings or other peers.

• Moreover, according to anthropologists, mothers are exclusive caregivers in only about 3%

of human societies. In as many as 40% of societies, mothers are not even the major caregivers.
And, as we will see later, the quality of attachment relationships can vary greatly (Sroufe et
al., 2005).

In one study, older babies showed similar patterns of attachment to their mothers and fathers
in a situation in which a friendly but unfamiliar visitor observed the children in their homes
with both parents present (Lamb, 1997, 2004).
Attachment behaviours differ based on the presence of stressors.
In non-stressful situations, the babies showed no preference for either parent in their
attachment behaviour. They were just as likely to touch, approach and be near their fathers
as their mothers.
In other, stressful situations, however, babies generally look to their mother for security and
comfort if she is available. This is probably because the mother has most often served this role
in the past. Mothers are usually the go-to for security and comfort in stressful situations.

(Cultural differences)

• In some cultures, like the Aka, a hunter-gatherer society in Central Africa, fathers are notably
involved in childcare, with studies showing they provide more direct care to their babies than
in other societies. The Aka men participate actively in caring for their infants.

• In contrast, within the Efe culture, another forager society in Congo, childcare is
predominantly seen as a woman's duty. Efe fathers spend significant time with their babies,
but a smaller portion of that time is dedicated to direct childcare activities.

• Among the Agta, in Cagayan, Philippines, a hunter-gatherer society in which women and
men share work and subsistence activities almost equally, mothers remain the primary
caregivers.

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In many cultures, fathers have a special role in the infant’s
development – that of playmate. The quality of a father’s play
with a baby generally differs from a mother’s: fathers engage
in more unusual and physically arousing games (especially with
their sons), whereas mothers tend to stimulate their babies
verbally and play quieter games such as peek-a-boo (Parke,1996,
2002).

• Even when fathers have assumed the role of their babies’ primary caregiver, they tend to
display this physically arousing style of interaction.
• Although fathers in countries such as Australia, Great Britain and Israel spend four to five
times more time playing with their infants than caring for them, apparently not all fathers
engage in rough-and-tumble play with their children. Fathers in India, Central Africa and
Sweden are apparently less likely to engage in this style of play (Hewlett, 2004).
• Fathers who enter parenthood at a later age (over 35) tend to be less physical in their play
than younger men (Neville & Parke, 1997).
(Biology)
Clearly, culture is important in shaping fathering roles, but biology may play a role in
preparing men for their fatherhood roles as well.
• Mothers, as well as fathers, undergo a variety of hormonal changes during pregnancy and
childbirth that make them sensitive to infant cries and primed for parenthood.
• Men experience changes in several hormones, including a drop in testosterone after the birth
of the baby, when the father has the first opportunity to interact with his new offspring (Storey
et al., 2000). Men with lower testosterone were more responsive to infant cues such as crying
and holding baby dolls longer than men who did not show these hormonal decreases (Fleming
et al., 2002).
• These shifts are especially true for men who were closely involved with their wives during
pregnancy, which suggests that intimate ties between partners during pregnancy may
stimulate hormonal changes. This is an important reminder that hormones may alter social
behaviour, but social relationships may modify hormonal levels as well.

• Although infants’ most significant attachment relationships are usually with fathers and
mothers, a variety of other individuals are important in the infant’s social world, including peers,
siblings, and relatives such as grandparents, aunts and uncles
• Peers can become important attachment figures, even for very young children. For example,
one investigator found that in a preschool/kindergarten where some children were transferring
to new schools, both those who were leaving and those who were staying behind experienced a
variety of reactions, including increased fussiness, heightened activity level, illness and
changes in eating and sleeping patterns (Field, 1986). These reactions were viewed as
separation stress associated with the loss of familiar peers. As children reach adolescence, they
develop attachment relationships with friends and with romantic partners. Separation stress

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is associated with the loss of familiar peers. As children reach adolescence, they develop
attachment relationships with friends and romantic partners.

The nature and quality of attachment

• The formation of early attachments is not uniform from one child to another or from one
relationship to the next.
• Many children form highly secure attachments. The important adults in their lives serve as
a source of support and affection that gives them confidence to explore the world and become
more independent.
• For others, however, attachments seem much less secure and dependable.
• Researchers describe such variations as differences in the quality of attachments.
• Mary Ainsworth conducted studies focusing on the idea of a secure base. She suggested that
infants organize their attachment behaviour around a specific adult. They appear to rely on
this adult as a secure base for exploration and as a source of comfort during distress. Ainsworth
closely observed infants' attachment and exploratory actions around the age of 1 year
• The striking differences in the infants’ behaviours in what is known as the Strange Situation,
a carefully worked-out scenario in which a mother twice leaves her baby alone or with a
stranger and returns twice to be reunited with her child (see Table 7-4), enabled Ainsworth to
assess the infant–mother relationships and to classify them according to their nature and
quality. This procedure is typically used with infants at 8 or 9 months of age.
• Subsequent research both expanded on Ainsworth’s work and added a longitudinal feature,
comparing children’s behaviour from infancy to young adulthood.
Table 7-4 The Strange Situation scenario
Episode Persons present Duration Brief description of actions
number

I Mother, baby and 30 seconds The observer introduces the mother and baby to the experimental room and
observer then leaves. (The room contains many appealing toys scattered about.)
2 Mother and baby 3 minutes Mother is non-participant while baby explores; if necessary, play Is stimulated
after 2 minutes.
3 Stranger, mother 3 minutes Stranger enters. First minute: stranger silent. Second minute: stranger
and baby converses with mother. Third minute: stranger approaches baby. After 3
4 Stranger and baby minutes:
3 minutes or less First motherepisode.
separation leaves unobtrusively.
Stranger's behaviour Is geared to that of baby.

s Mother and baby 3 minutes or more First reunion episode. Mother greets and/ or comforts baby, then tries to settle
the baby again in play. Mother then leaves, saying 'bye-bye'.
6 Baby alone 3 minutes or less Second separation episode.

7 Stranger and baby 3 minutes or less Continuation of second separation. Stranger enters and gears behaviour to that
of baby.
8 Mother and baby 3 minutes or less Second reunion episode. Mother enters, greets baby, then picks baby up.
Meanwhile, stranger leaves unobtrusively.

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Table 7-5 Children’s attachment behaviour in the Strange Situation: a typology

Table 7-5 summarizes four categories of attachment relationship:

• secure,
• insecure avoidant,
• insecure-resistant
• and insecure-disorganized attachment.
As we note here, the importance of these classifications lies in their value in predicting
differences in infants’ and children’s later emotional, social and cognitive development.
• Of the white, middle-class children studied, Ainsworth classified some 60% to 65% as
displaying secure attachment to their mothers because they readily sought contact with
her after the stress of her departure in an unfamiliar setting and were quickly comforted
by her, even if initially quite upset.
• These babies also felt secure enough to explore a novel environment when the mother
was present. They did not whine and cling to her but actively investigated their
surroundings, as if the mother’s presence gave them confidence.
• In familiar situations, such as the home, these children are minimally disturbed by
minor separations from the mother, although they greet her happily when she returns.

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 Ainsworth classified the remaining children she studied as insecure in one of several ways.
Ainsworth identified and categorized children with insecure-avoidant attachment based on
behaviors in the Strange Situation experiment as follows:
• insecure-avoidant children showed little distress upon their mother’s first departure but
actively avoided them upon return.
• Avoidance behaviors included turning away, increasing distance, and ignoring the
mother.
• After the mother’s second departure, these babies became visibly upset, they again
avoided her on her return.
• Later researchers found that this first insecure pattern typically characterizes about
20% of American samples.

A second type of insecure relationship is called insecure-resistant attachment.

• infants who display this type of attachment often become extremely upset when the
mother leaves them but are oddly ambivalent towards her when she returns.
• Intermittently, they seek contact with her and then angrily push her away.
• Insecure-resistant attachment involves about 10% to 15% of American infants.

The third type of insecure relationship, identified by later researchers, is called insecure-
disorganized attachment (Solomon & George, 1999).
• When babies who display this kind of behaviour are reunited with their mothers in the
Strange Situation scenario, they seem disorganized and disorientated.
• They look dazed, they freeze in the middle of their movements, or they engage in
repetitive behaviours, such as rocking.
• These children also seem apprehensive and fearful of their attachment figures and are
unable to cope in a consistent and organized way with distress in the presence of their
caregivers.

Note that all these attachment classifications reflect the quality of the relationship between
the child and the parent, not traits of either the child or the parent. Interestingly, as Table
7-5 shows, similar child–parent relationship patterns can be observed in these children and
parents when the children are 6 years old (Main & Cassidy, 1988).
New methods for assessing attachment have been developed in recent years.
The Attachment Q Sort (AQS) method involves caregivers sorting cards with descriptions
of a child's behavior, offering a way to assess attachment through familiar caregiver
judgments.
• Relying on the judgments of caregivers who are familiar with the child's behaviour, the
Attachment Q Sort (AQS) involves the mother or another caregiver sorting a set of
cards with phrases that describe the child's behaviour.
• These phrases could be like 'rarely asks for help', 'keeps track of mother's location while
playing around the house', or 'quickly greets mother with a big smile when she enters

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 the room.' The sorting involves placing these phrases into sets from most descriptive to
least descriptive of the child.
• The method, is useful for children between the ages of 1 and 5,
• It was designed to facilitate making ratings, in naturalistic settings, of a broad variety
of attachment-related behaviours (e.g., secure-base behaviour, attachment-exploration
balance and affective responsiveness).

The attachment Insecurity Screening Inventory (AISI) is often used with older children (6–
12 years).it can be a helpful screening tool in pre-clinical settings (Spruit et al., 2018).

Later-age assessments of attachment developed by Solomon & George (1999) and

Bretherton (2005) Solomon & George, 1999; Bretherton, 2005). They closely resemble the
Strange Situation and permit across-time comparisons between children in infancy and
later developmental stages.

Finally, other innovative procedures that do not rely on mother-child separations for
assessing attachment have been developed.
The California Attachment Procedure (CAP) focuses on how mothers manage children’s
fear and upset in response to stressful events such as loud noises or a scary robot instead of
maternal separations (Clarke-Stewart et al., 2000). This approach has been used with
children at 18 months and more accurately classifies the attachment of children who are
accustomed to routine separations from their parents, such as those involved in childcare.
BOX 7-3 Attachment types in different cultures
Ainsworth's Strange Situation has been a valuable tool in studying children's attachment relationships with
their parents, but its applicability across cultures requires nuanced consideration.
In the case of independence-promoting parents like those in Norway, a child displaying 'avoidant' behavior
during reunion might not necessarily indicate an insecure attachment. Instead, it could reflect the child's
learned independence and self-reliance nurtured within that cultural context.
Researchers investigating the universality of attachment concepts have identified that while Ainsworth's
categories broadly apply across cultures, variations exist in how infants from different ethnic groups manifest
secure and insecure attachments.
Understanding the origin of attachment behaviors is another critical aspect. Thompson (2006) points out that
parental behaviors are shaped by a range of factors, including personality traits, belief systems, and
environmental circumstances like resource availability and parental stress levels. In this framework, different
attachment styles can be viewed as adaptive responses by infants to diverse parental investment patterns.
Understanding cultural variations in caregiving is crucial for interpreting behaviors in attachment studies
like Ainsworth's Strange Situation test.
Different cultural practices, like constant contact with mothers in some societies, can influence how infants
react during reunions. For example, Ganda infants showed more distress with brief separations due to their
societal norms of prolonged separations. In the US, independence is promoted early, while co-sleeping is
common elsewhere, like in Japan. These variations impact how infants express attachment behaviors and
react to separations, highlighting the importance of cultural contexts in understanding attachment
dynamics.

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Influences on attachment quality
• Ainsworth was the first to describe how parents’ styles of interacting with their infants are
linked with the kinds of attachment relationships that infants and parents develop.
• Mothers of securely attached infants, for instance, usually permit their babies to play an
active role in determining the onset, pacing and end of feeding early in life.
• This behaviour is not sufficient to promote a secure attachment, but it serves a positive
purpose because it identifies a mother as generally responsive to her baby’s needs.
• The mother of a securely attached infant is also consistently available to her baby; she does
not sometimes ignore her baby when he or she signals a genuine need for her
• This style of parenting, called sensitive care, is widely associated with the formation of secure
attachments. Moreover, this link between sensitive parenting and attachment security is
evident in many cultures, such as Australia, Brazil and South Africa
Several parenting styles are associated with insecure attachments.
• Cassidy and Berlin (1994), for example, have found that mothers of babies with an insecure-
avoidant type of attachment tend to be unavailable and rejecting. These mothers are generally
unresponsive to their infants’ signals, rarely have close bodily contact with them, and often
interact with them in an angry, irritable way.
• The parents of infants with insecure-resistant attachments exhibit an inconsistently available
parenting style. Mothers who display this style respond to their babies’ needs at times, but at
other times, they do not, and in general, they offer little affection and are awkward in their
interactions with their infants.
• The most problematic forms of parenting are found among parents whose attachment to
their infants is of the insecure-disorganized type; these parents often neglect their babies or abuse
them in other ways.
• the approach/avoidance behaviour –infants with this type of attachment show an alternating
pattern of approaching a person or object and retreating or escaping from it –when reunited
with their caregivers in the Strange Situation This pattern may actually be an adaptive
response; these babies do not know what to expect, given the abuse they have already suffered.
Carlson et al. (1989) found that mistreated infants were significantly more likely to develop
insecure-disorganized attachments (82%) than were children who were not mistreated (19%).
• another factor often associated with this pattern of attachment is maternal depression.
Babies of depressed mothers show approach/avoidance behaviour along with sadness upon
reunion. Observations of such mothers with their 6-month-old babies have revealed little
mutual eye contact and minimal mutual responsiveness; instead, mother and baby each tend
to avoid eye contact. The presence of a non-depressed caregiver such as a father can, in part,
mitigate the negative effects of maternal depression on the infant’s development.
• Studies of the Dogan, who live in Mali, West Africa, suggest that frightening or frightened
maternal behaviour is linked with disorganized attachment patterns – a finding similar to

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those reported in the Netherlands (. In this situation, as in the case of abuse, the parent is seen
as a source of both comfort and fear, which leads to the infant’s disorganized behaviour.

The longer-term implications of early attachment problems can be severe.

• Hoeve et al. (2012) conducted a meta-analysis of 74 published papers and over 55,000
participants, to identify a link between poor attachment to parents and delinquency for both
boys and girls.
• The link was stronger for poor attachment to mothers than to fathers and, interestingly,
there were stronger effects if the parent and child were the same sex. Effects were also
stronger for younger than older participants. This comprehensive study demonstrates that
although there may be debate about the theoretical basis of attachment, the identification
or bond with a parent is an important determining factor in child development.
• The effects are more pronounced in children of the same gender as the parent.
• Younger participants exhibit a stronger impact compared to older ones.
• Parent-child relationships play a crucial role in child development.
• The study emphasizes the importance of the parent-child bond irrespective of ongoing
attachment theory debates.

Being reared in an institution or orphanage may lead to high levels of disorganized

attachment as well. The style of caregiving, which includes a lack of eye contact, mechanical
interaction patterns with little talking, slow responsiveness to child distress, and ineffective
soothing, probably contributed to these unhealthy attachment classifications.

Although the consequences of early attachment problems are deemed particularly

problematic, attachment processes do not cease in infancy but continue to be important in
later phases of development such as adolescence.
• Just as infants gain comfort from using the mother as a secure base, adolescents continue
to find value in the quality of the attachment relationship with their parents.
• When the mother was supportive and attuned to the adolescent’s needs and self-perceptions,
and when the mother and adolescent were able to maintain their relationship through
disagreements, the adolescents’ attachment relationship with their mother was more secure
(Allen et al., 2003).
• Just as a secure base allows the infant to begin to explore her physical world, a secure base
as expressed by a positive and supportive mother–adolescent relationship allows the adolescent
to explore independence in ideas and behaviours. The forms of attachment relationships shift
across development, but the fundamental dynamics remain the same
Adolescent attachment differs significantly from parent-infant interactions while retaining
fundamental aspects like love and nurturance.

As children grow, parents may begin to offer direct support and assistance to adolescents in
managing increasingly complex peer and other relationships and demands.

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• Laible (2007) suggested that positive attachment relationships tended to lead to adolescents
with higher levels of emotional competence, which led to more positive social behaviour.
Other studies (e.g., Guedes et al., 2018) identify similar mechanisms for adolescent victims of
aggression who, similarly, may be lacking social and emotional competence or peer support
networks to buffer against negative outcomes.
What can we learn about attachment quality from infant-parent interactions in other
cultures?
Examining Israeli kibbutz parenting styles where infants are raised in communal settings, Sagi et
al. (1994) found that infants who slept at home with their families were more likely to develop
secure attachments compared to those who spent nights in an infant care centre. The study noted a
lack of infants with insecure-avoidant attachments in kibbutzim due to caregivers' supportive and
non-rejecting behaviours. The differences observed between the sleep-at-home and sleep-at-the-
kibbutz babies were attributed to mothers' greater opportunity to respond sensitively to their babies
needs during the evening and night-time hours that increased the mothers’ overall sensitivity to
their infants (Sagi-Schwartz & Aviezer, 2005)
Table 7-6 Attachment in children raised in an Israeli kibbutz

More evidence of the impact of maternal sensitivity on the attachment relationship comes from
an experimental study by Anisfeld and co-workers (1990).
• The study involved lower-income inner-city mothers of newborns, divided into two groups: an
experimental group receiving soft baby carriers and a control group receiving rigid 'car seat'
carriers.
• The aim was to increase physical contact and maternal responsiveness.
• Soft baby carriers led to increased maternal responsiveness to infants' vocalizations at 3.5
months.
• At 13 months, 83% of babies with soft carriers were securely attached to their mothers, compared
to 39% in the control group.

Relationships between parents and infants are affected by and affect other relationships among
family members, as well as relationships outside the home.
For example, marital adjustment plays a role in infant-parent attachment, with secure
attachment more likely in cases of good marital adjustment. Although the birth of a child is
generally associated with a decline in marital satisfaction, mothers whose infants become
securely attached usually report less dissatisfaction with their marriages than mothers whose
children are insecurely attached

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The kind of care that parents received when they were infants is another influence on the
quality of attachment that develops between them and their children leading to the development
of what Bowlby (1973) calls internal working models of the self and parents.
• According to Bowlby, these models are mental representations about oneself, one’s parents
and the styles of interaction one experienced as a child.
• Internal working models, according to Bowlby, are mental representations about self, parents,
and childhood interactions.
• Working models are also often referred to as attachment representations. These models are
shaped by how parents interpret their early experiences. People tend to recreate childhood
relationships in parenthood due to these internal working models.
• To investigate this notion of intergenerational continuity, Main and her colleagues interviewed
40 middle-class mothers about recollections of their relationships with their mothers during
infancy and childhood. Supporting Bowlby’s theory, the mothers’ memory patterns did relate
to the quality of their current attachment relationships with their infants.
Main classified women into three attachment groups based on their relationships with their
infants: autonomous, dismissing, and preoccupied, each reflecting different attachment styles
and memories from childhood.
• Autonomous women valued close relationships but maintained objectivity.
• Dismissing women had avoidant attachment styles and often devalued attachment.
• Preoccupied women, parents of resistant infants, recalled conflict-ridden incidents from
childhood but struggled to organize them.
Table 7-7 Relationships between mothers’ and children’s attachment status

Intergenerational continuity is not always straightforward, for some children and adults are
able to overcome early adversity and insecure attachments, and eventually develop satisfying
interpersonal relationships with their spouses, partners and offspring.
Several cross-sectional studies have supported the existence of this resilient group of
individuals, now called ‘earned secure’ people
Roisman and colleagues (2002), who used data from a 23-year longitudinal study, showed that
individuals can overcome early problems and develop ‘secure’ attachment relationships. Even
though these young adults had negative childhood experiences, those who overcame their past
and developed secure internal working models of attachment relationships had high-quality
romantic relationships in their early twenties.

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The romantic ties of these earned secure young adults were comparable to those of individuals
who were continuously secure and of higher quality than those of individuals with insecure
attachments.
Additional support for intergenerational continuity comes from a study in Germany where
Grossmann and colleagues found strong links between adults’ recollections and their
attachment relationships with their infants.
In Israel, Scharf (2001) found that kids raised in a kibbutz setup showed different attachment
styles compared to those raised in families. The kibbutz kids had more issues with attachment
and dealing with separations. However, if kibbutz kids moved to family setups between ages
3 and 6, their attachment styles became similar to those of family-raised kids. This shows that
kids' attachment styles can change based on their environment.
Infant temperament's influence on the development of attachment is probably mediated by
many other factors.
• A ‘difficult’ infant is not necessarily destined to have a poor relationship with her
parents. Parents who have a difficult or irritable baby can usually cope successfully if
they receive help and support from others. When adequate social support is available
to the mother, an irritable baby is not likely to become insecurely attached as a non-
irritable one.
• If a mother is socially isolated or has poor relationships with other adults, however, she
is more likely to have problems fostering secure attachment in a difficult infant.
Thus, the effect of temperament on attachment cannot be separated from the influence of the
total social context in which the baby is developing.

Stability and outcomes of quality of attachment

There is substantial stability in the quality of attachment from one period of time to another.
As was discussed earlier in the chapter, among infants tested with their mothers in the strange
Situation, the same attachment patterns were detected both at 12 months and 6 years of age
(Solomon & George, 1999).
Although the correlation was not perfect between attachment behaviour in these children at
different points in time – for example,
• 100% of the children rated securely attached at 12 months were rated similarly at 6
years of age,
• only 66% of the children rated insecure-disorganized at 12 months were rated similarly
at 6 years of age – the overall findings support the notion that attachment behaviour is
highly stable.
• A German study found that first-year attachment classifications predicted 78% of sixth-
year classifications (Wartner et al., 1994).

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• Waters and colleagues (2000) found that 72% of their sample classified as secure versus
insecure in infancy were similarly rated 20 years later – an impressive level of stability of
attachment across the lifespan.
• Even in adulthood, attachment representations tend to be relatively stable: 78% of
couples received similar Adult Attachment Interview classifications before marriage
and 18 months later (Crowell, Treboux, & Waters, 2002).

But general stability in the quality of parent–child relationships does not mean that change
is impossible.
• Substantial minorities of children with insecure attachments as infants manage to
develop better relationships with their parents by school age. This is particularly likely
when a child’s parents begin to experience less stress in their lives (e.g., fewer financial
worries or less marital tension) and so can become more available to their child and to
interact in ways more responsive to the child’s needs (Thompson, Lamb, & Estes, 1982).
• Alternatively, secure infant-parent attachment relationships can become insecure if the
life circumstances of the family deteriorate due to job loss, divorce, illness or abuse. More
infants (44%) who later experienced negative life events changed attachment
classifications from infancy to adulthood than children (22%) in families with no
significant negative events (Waters et al., 2000).

Professional intervention can help improve a troubled parent-child relationship

(Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, & Juffer, 2003).
In the Netherlands, mothers who were taught to be more sensitive to their infants developed
better attachment relationships with them than did the mothers of a control group of infants
(van den Boom, 1994).
68% of the experimental group were classified as securely attached at 12 months of age, whereas
only 28% of the control group were securely attached, another 58% were insecure-avoidant and
16% were insecure-resistant.

 There are many outcomes and consequences of different attachment relationships.

• Early secure attachment appears to be related to more complex exploratory behaviour at 2
years of age.
• as the child continues to develop, this intellectual curiosity is reflected in an intensified
interest and enjoyment in solving problems.
• This positive approach to problem-solving is seldom seen in toddlers who were insecurely
attached as infants. Matas, Arend, and Sroufe (1978) found that securely attached 2-year-olds
were more enthusiastic, persistent, cooperative and effective in solving problems than their
insecurely attached peers.
• The former group showed less frustration, less negative affect, less crying and whining, and
less aggression towards their mothers. In addition, the securely attached toddlers engaged in

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more symbolic or pretend play – for example, transforming a block of wood into an imaginary
car or a stick into a witch’s broom.
The effects of attachment status on cognitive outcomes are not restricted to infants and
toddlers.
• High-quality parent-child relationships and higher early maternal sensitive responsiveness
were linked with better cognitive development at age 7. In turn, attachment disorganization
was linked with poorer cognitive outcomes.
In this case, the relations were not due to shared genetic factors because the children were all
adopted at an early age. In a longitudinal study in Iceland, Jacobsen and Hofmann (1997)
found that children who at age 7 were securely attached were likely to be more attentive and
participative in the classroom at the ages of 9, 12 and 15. They maintained higher grades than
children judged avoidant, ambivalent or disorganized in their attachment.
 It is not only mothers’ and fathers’ relationships with their children that are important to
her or their cognitive development but the child’s relations with other significant caregivers as
well.
Marinus van IJzendoorn and colleagues in the Netherlands and Israel (found that the quality
of the whole attachment network (mother, father, others) in infancy predicted the children’s
intelligence scores when they were 5 years old; the greater the attachment security, the higher
the test score.
Many studies support the idea that the quality of the caregiver–infant relationship is
important for later social development.
• A recent longitudinal study in which children were traced from infancy to age 19 illustrates
the importance of early attachment for later social behaviours. Securely and insecurely
attached youngsters developed very different social and emotional patterns.
• At 4 to 5 years of age, teachers rated securely attached children as showing more positive
emotions and having greater empathy for others and more ability to initiate, respond to and
sustain interactions with other people.
• Securely attached children also whined less, were less aggressive and displayed fewer negative
reactions when other children approached them. Not surprisingly, their teachers rated them
more socially competent and socially skilled and as having more friends than other children,
and their classmates considered them more popular than others.
• At 8 and 12 years of age, the securely attached continued to be rated as more socially
competent, more peer orientated and less dependent on adults. Moreover, they were more
likely to develop close friendships than their less securely attached peers
• Attachment history also predicted friendship choices: children with secure attachment
histories were more likely to form friendships with other securely attached peers. At age 19,
the socio-emotional functioning of those adolescents with a history of secure attachment was
rated higher as well.
• In comparison with peers who had a history of insecure attachment, these young adults were
more likely to have close family relationships, long-term friendships, sustained romantic
involvement, higher self-confidence and greater determination regarding personal goals.

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• Others have found similar links between the quality of early attachment and later school-age
peer competence and friendship patterns.
• The long-term consequences of attachment security are evident not just in biologically related
families but also in families of adopted children.
Infants who were adopted before 6 months of age and who developed high-quality infant-
mother relationships and secure attachments were better adjusted socially at age 7.
• This work underscores the importance of later adjustment of good early caregiving and
suggests that the effect is not simply due to a shared genetic history.
Just as Bowlby argued, the links between attachment and social outcomes are forged by
children 's internal working models.

In his longitudinal study, Sroufe (2005) assessed children ’ s cognitive working models of
relationships at various times throughout childhood and adolescence.
• For example, in the preschool years, these researchers evaluated children ’ s relationship
expectations, attitudes and feelings. Securely attached children ’ s relationship models were
characterized by expectations of empathy between play partners, a high expectation of sharing
during play and constructive approaches to conflict resolution (e.g., taking turns, seeking adult
acceptance, getting another toy). During adolescence (age 12), securely attached children
construed their friendships as close, emotionally connected and skilled in conflict resolution. These
investigators showed that cognitive working models and social behaviours mutually influence each
other across time.
• In other words, cognitive representations in the preschool period predict social behaviours in
middle childhood, in turn, the representations in middle childhood predict social behaviours at
12 years of age, and these cognitive models predict social outcomes at 19 years of age.
• Moreover, across time, social behaviours at one point predict later cognitive representations.
For example, social behaviours in middle childhood influence a child’s cognitive working
models in early adolescence. Other studies find similar links between working models and social
behaviours with peers. Together, these studies illustrate the interplay between attachment,
cognitive understanding and children’s social outcomes.
►Emotions also play a role in accounting for the links between attachment and social
competence.
• For example, attachment to his mother affects how a child processes emotional information
and understands and regulates his emotions.
-Securely attached children tend to remember positive events more accurately than negative
events, whereas insecurely attached children do the opposite
- securely attached preschoolers are better at understanding emotions than insecurely attached
children
- Finally, securely attached children are better at regulating their emotions, which accounted
for their superior social relationships with peers.

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In trying to understand children’s social behaviours, it is also important to consider both
infant-mother and infant–father attachment relationships (Berlin & Cassidy, 1999; Lamb,
2004).

• Even very young children may develop different relationships with each parent.
In a study of 1-year-old infants, Main and Weston (1981) classified babies according to whether
they were securely attached to both parents, to their mothers but not their fathers, to their
fathers but not their mothers, or to neither parent.

• To determine whether the infants’ relationships with their mothers and fathers affected their
social responsiveness to other people, Main and Weston observed the infants’ reactions to a
friendly clown.

• The infants who were securely attached to both parents were more responsive to the clown
than those who were securely attached to only one parent and insecurely attached to the other,
and the babies who were insecurely attached to both parents were the least responsive of all.

• These results suggest that a less-than-optimal relationship with one parent is balanced by a
better relationship with the other parent – and that therefore it is not enough to study just
mothers or fathers alone. Viewing the parents as part of a family system is the best way to
understand their role in child development (Parke & Buriel, 2006).

In summary,
• a healthy attachment to parents facilitates exploration, curiosity and mastery of the
social and physical environment.
• Early healthy attachment also increases the child’s trust in other social relationships
and permits the later development of mature affectional relationships with peers.
• Longitudinal studies aimed at defining the links between early parent–infant
interaction and later relationships in adolescence and adulthood suggest the long-term
stability of the cognitive and social effects of early attachment.
• Clearly, developmental history leaves its mark (Thompson, 2006b).

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