Types Of Attachment Styles And Parenting Styles

Infant attachment is the first relationship a child experiences and is crucial to the child’s survival (BOOK). A mother’s response to her child will yield either a secure bond or insecurity with the infant. Parents who respond “more sensitively and responsively to the child’s distress” establish a secure bond faster than “parents of insecure children”. (Attachment and Emotion, page 475) The quality of the attachment has “profound implications for the child’s feelings of security and capacity to form trusting relationships” (Book). Simply stated, a positive early attachment will likely yield positive physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development for the child. (BOOK)

Attachment is an emotional bond that is created between one person to another across a life span. Attachment can be a connection between two individuals, but it is a bond that involves a regular contact with that person and also expressed distress when separated from that person. Also, attachment can play an important role during childhood, adolescent and romantic relationships. Attachment tends to be enduring and meaningful because it can last for a long time between people. However, being attached can motivate children to stay close to people that they love. Attachment can also help people build emotional bond between each others, that can have a secure base so that people can safely explore their environment. Although studies have shown that children who are securely attached can also develop an increase of independence and confidence. Meanwhile, children who are not securely attached can develop risks such as poor internal working models in life.

A healthy or secure attachment develops over time because of a caregiver’s consistent, sensitive care that they have towards a young child. Each time a caregiver interacts in ways that focus fully on the individual child, it furthers connections. When a caregiver attempts to read a baby’s cues and tries to respond to the child’s needs and wishes, the baby learns the caregiver is a source of comfort and security. Children with secure attachments learn that their world is a safe place because the people in it are caring and understanding. They also learn that their ways of communicating result in others responding and understanding them. This reinforces their efforts to continue to express themselves to others. Consistent back-and-forth exchanges that happen over time are one of the ways to build positive relationships. Children with secure attachments feel confident in exploring their environment, which allows them to learn. It’s the accumulation of intimacy during these numerous interactions that turns ordinary tasks into a relationship-based curriculum.

There are two kinds of attachment: secure attachment and insecure attachment. Secure attachment can be developed when there is a healthy reciprocal relationship between child and caregiver.

To develop into a psychologically healthy human being, a child must have a relationship with an adult who is nurturing, protective, and fosters trust and security.19 Attachment refers to this relationship between 2 people and forms the basis for long-term relationships or bonds with other persons. Attachment is an active process—it can be secure or insecure, maladapative or productive. Attachment to a primary caregiver is essential to the development of emotional security and social conscience.20 Optimal child development occurs when a spectrum of needs are consistently met over an extended period. Successful parenting is based on a healthy, respectful, and long-lasting relationship with the child. This process of parenting, especially in

Secure attachment is commonly considered the healthiest style of attachment. This bond results when a caregiver responds to the child’s needs in an appropriate manner. The child will learn that the caregiver will be responsive and available (Romero). When parents provide a safe and secure environment, a child can build a nurturing relationship. Most of all, a child will simply feel valued and loved (Greenberg; Romero).

Attachment is the positive emotional bond that develops between parent and children (Feldman, 2006). In addition, a secure attachment in infancy is crucial since it launches the parent and child relationship in a positive way. This early strong family tie also assists a child to explore his/her environment and is able to develop social and emotional skills as well as a sense of trust (Barnes, 1995). Family means a lot to me and I was brought up in a loving, supportive and secure family. My mum stayed at home with me while I was growing up. She never hesitated to show her love for me with lots of hugs and kisses. Therefore, this

An infant with a secure attachment style has a natural bond with their parent, where they are able to trust them, at the same time leaving their side to discover and explore their surroundings. In an insecure/resistant attachment the relationship the child has with their mother or caregiver is very clingy, thus making them very upset once the caregiver is away. When the mother or caregiver is back they are not easily comforted and resist their effort in comforting them. In an insecure/avoidant attachment the infant is, “indifferent and seems to avoid the mother, they are as easily comforted by a stranger, as by their parent” (Siegler 2011, p.429). Lastly, the disorganized/disoriented attachment is another insecure attachment style in which the infant has no way of coping with stress making their behavior confusing or contradictory. Through these brief descriptions of the attachment theory, many researchers have defined the turning point in which each attachment definition can have an influence on one’s self esteem, well-being and their marital relationship.

John Bowlby, who originally developed the theory of attachment, describes it as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings” (Somerville, 2009). Furthermore, there are four main characteristic of infant attachment, proximity maintenance, safe haven, secure base, and separation distress. Proximity maintenance is the desire to stay close to the people we have formed an attachment. Safe haven refers to the action of returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety when danger or fear is present. A secure base is a place where the attachment figure acts as a base of security from which a child can explore the surrounding world. Separation distress is the anxiety that occurs when the attachment figure is absent (Cherry, 2011).

As humans, building relationships between others is a form of connecting and communicating. It is a social situation that is experienced every day through the course of a lifetime. The initial relationship that is made is between the mother and the child. This bond that connects two people is known to be called attachment. The theory of attachment begins at birth, and from that, continuing on to other relationships in family, friends, and romance. Attachment is taught through social experiences, however the relationship with the mother and her temperament are the key factors in shaping the infants attachment type, which

Attachment is a strong emotional connection between two people, often a bond between a child and caregiver. Since Bowlby’s (1969) theory, describing the importance of developing an attachment for successful emotional and social development, other researchers have theorised that not forming attachments affects individuals, including their possible development of mental health issues.

To begin with attachment theory, first everyone should understand what the attachment is. According to attachment means bonding between a child and caregiver or vice versa. The attachment theory is the theory that describes the long term interpersonal relationship between the humans. Also, it can be defined as the strong bond between parent and child, and later in peer and romantic relationship (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 85). It generates a specific fact that how the humans react in relationships when they get hurt, separated from loved ones and perceiving a threat. Basically the two main types of attachment are secure and insecure. Secure attachment is the attachments where mother and father are available for their child and during that time child demonstrates his or her stress and reestablish the connection (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 87). Insecure attachment is the attachment where parents are not regularly in touch with their children or they ignore their child which built a failed emotion communication (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 87). Also, it may be repeated from one generation to another until it is not recovered. However, as a result of attachment theory, it is so important for children to know about it and there are also several emotional effects on children when their parents leave to go to another county due to their connections or bond between them.

In his book Development Across the Life Span Robert Feldman gives the following definition for attachment, “Attachment is the positive emotional bond that develops between a child and a particular, special individual. ”(pg.186) Attachments between parents and children are very important. They make the child to feel secure, loved, and help to ensure that the child's basic needs are met. In an ideal world all parents and children would develop secure, healthy attachments, unfortunately, this is not always the case.

When a child is growing up, it is up to the caregivers to make sure that the environment that the child is raised in, is safe and secure, is very important, especially when it comes to attachments. There are four different types of attachment patterns: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent and disorganized/disoriented. When a child feels secure or insecure in their relationships, the effects are everlasting. They have the potential of impacting how they will parent their own children in the future. The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning states that children will learn important lessons from the ones they are around and how to interact and communicate effectively with other adults and peers. “Secure

No family is perfect, but it is how you handle situations that come up throughout life that really determines the health of your family system. The determining factors that can distinguish a healthy family system are great communication, good psychosocial development, a decent self-concept, social skills, as well as individualistic orientation. A healthy family will have conflicts and arguments, but it is how they get past those difficult