Introduction
Attachment can be defined as a profound and long-lasting emotional tie between two people when both wish to be physically close to one another and experience increased feelings of safety in the presence of an attachment figure. Attachment to adults in a child is characterized by conduct those entails reacting to the child’s needs with empathy and in a developmentally appropriate manner. The term “attachment” was first coined by British psychologist John Bowlby in 1969. He defined it as a “permanent psychological connectedness between human beings.” Bowlby and others proposed that infants are born with an innate need to form relationships with the people who care for them, in contrast to the notions of attachment that claim that attachment is a process that can be learned. These attachment types focused on how children and their parents interacted with one another during childhood. The paper will focus on the evidence that attachment types as risk factors for later emotional and behavioral problems.
Secure Attachment
When the value of a connection is withdrawn from its surroundings, children with stable attachments express concern. Children emotionally attached to their attachment value or primary caregiver have a greater demand for comfort or protection during stressful situations (Ten Brink et al., 2020). Empathetic caregivers respond to the needs of the children in their care in a timely, consistent, and effective manner, treating them with compassion and care (Bosmans et al., 2020). Infant attachment types and the degree to which connection is safe for either the child caregiver or the adoptive caregiver in infant pairs have a poor relationship. There is a strong link between how people develop connections and how they parent their children (Taunton et al., 2021). When their children have a secure attachment type, parents resemble autonomous parents with approved status.
This parenting style entails providing a child warmth, comfort, and understanding while creating clear boundaries and maintaining authority. This parenting style encourages a child’s physical, mental, and emotional growth (McMahon et al., 2021). As a result, children with authoritative parenting styles have the most secure attachment styles. Children benefit from authoritative parents because they have a secure and structured environment. Children who have loving parents have high self-esteem and confidence. It has been discovered that there is a clear relationship between permissible parenting styles and children’s personality development (McMahon et al., 2021). Even though different parenting approaches are more widespread in different societies, every parenting style contains cultural variances (Walsh et al., 2019). Understanding the relationship between parenting style and attachment style is critical because the activities of parents toward their children eventually establish the attachment patterns of those children.
An excellent example would be a caregiver who can effectively manage both positive and negative emotions, and responds appropriately to the attachment behavior displayed by the charge’s child. Securely attached youngsters generally feel sad when their parents or other caregivers depart, but they are relieved to see them return (karakaĹź, 2019). When feeling fearful, these children will seek comfort from a parent or guardian. Adults with different attachment styles generally feel less improvement and happiness in their relationships than youngsters (Oliveira & Fearon, 2019). Having to do with psychological concerns and disorders, however, if an attachment is negatively destroyed, depending on how intensely the attachment was established, this may lead to a psychiatric disorder (Keller, 2018). Such individuals develop feelings of insecurity, loneliness, and exclusion.
Anxious-Resistant Attachment
Children and adults can also exhibit signs of unprotected attachment and resistance. When a child is physically removed from the parent to whom he or she has formed an attachment, the youngster may exhibit signs of insecurity. When the original number of parents is still there, it may be challenging to meet their demands. As people age, the individual who developed the unbreakable bond may discover that they require the same level of solace and warmth from their coworkers (Oliveira & Fearon, 2019). If they secluded themselves from other people or if they were single, they would experience the same challenges (Chin, 2020). For example, the child may develop an antagonistic attitude toward the parent, refuse to receive care from the parent, and become excessively independent.
Children with a chaotic attachment style do not display recognized attachment behavior. Their actions and responses to caregivers usually involve a variety of behaviors, with avoidance and resistance being the most prevalent (Roberts, 2019). Even when being cared for, these children are said to display confusing behavior, often giving the appearance that they are anxious or perplexed. One-year-olds exhibit a combination of avoidant and resistant behaviors and may appear baffled, frightened, or anxious (Golshani et al., 2021). Six-year-olds may begin to assume parental responsibilities, and some may even begin to provide care for their parents.
Symptoms of resistive attachment disorder include difficulty confiding in others, low self-esteem, anxieties that their relationships will forsake them, and a strong desire for closeness. Neglecting one’s physical health, as evidenced by poor nutrition, a lack of exercise, and clinical issues, are among the factors contributing to the resistance to the attachment (Chin, 2020). Children subjected to physical or sexual abuse, whether infringed upon or harmed, are more likely to demonstrate resistant behavior (Girme et al., 2021). Disconnection from a significant parental figure due to illness, death, separation, or reception.
Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment
A child with anxiety may believe he must cling to his parent to meet his needs. Because the separation may have left them overburdened, it may be difficult for them to feel comforted by the parent when reunited. This sort of attachment develops when a child experiences emotional pain at the hands of a parent instead of developing feelings of love for the parent (Cooke et al., 2019). In contrast, when a youngster desires a parent’s affection or attention, the parent may become concerned or apprehensive about the child’s needs. Parents who cultivate tense connections with their children are more prone to disregard their children’s needs (Cooke et al., 2019). When they provide care child, they do so in a manner that does not disturb or overwhelm the child.
They may be more concerned with appearing to be a good parent than with tuning in to their children, which involves recognizing their children for who they are and understanding their needs. Typically, a child experiencing a challenging attachment scenario feels drained rather than cared for by his parent because the parent’s attention feels empty and crushing (Golshani et al., 2021). Typically, worried children cling to their parents out of a sense of desperation (Girme et al., 2021). In addition, children frequently feel guilty because they should be the ones providing care for their parents.
Anxious-Avoidant and Dismissive-Avoidant Attachment
Children who have experienced severe physical or sexual abuse and emotional neglect or abuse develop this type of connection. Laboratory studies have demonstrated that the first 18 months of a child’s life are crucial for brain development (Girard, 2021). When a child is exposed to acute trauma throughout his or her early years, the brain’s susceptibility and emotional regulation capacity may be permanently affected. People with attachment problems owing to anxiety are more likely to have experienced traumatic events as youngsters and to fear their parents more. It is likely that the parents were physically or verbally abusive or that they had untreated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), personality disorders, or severe depression (Demirci et al., 2020). When the child sought comfort, he was met by a worried or terrified parent, which further startled or confused the child, and the parent was unable to comfort him (Park & Harris, 2022). Anxious or disturbed adults caring for children are not the only things that might generate fear in children.
This attachment style can lead to mood swings and sensations of being overwhelmed, the risk of borderline personality disorder, dissociation, a sense of being detached from reality, and a negative attitude toward oneself and others (Demirci et al., 2020). They may have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), low self-confidence and self-worth, difficulty building trust, a fear of being vulnerable or revealing too much, rejection and abandonment, and a persistent need to seek approval from others in order to feel good about themselves.
Conclusion
Attachment is a clinical term used in a variety of circumstances. Particularly, attachment theory highlights how important it is for a child to develop a strong emotional bond with their primary caregivers. Disruption or loss of this tie can severely influence a child’s emotional and psychological development into adulthood and their future romantic relationships. People learn how to trust other people, how to respond emotionally, and how to be responded to by other people when they have a secure attachment to another person. A further benefit of having stable attachments is that they promote the growth of empathy. If a child has the perspective that she is valuable and deserves to be cared for, she will also be able to extend that perspective to others.
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