How Childhood Attachment Style Affects Adult Behaviour (Essay Sample)

Childhood Attachment Style Affects Adulthood
Name
University Affiliation
Introduction
Roisman, & Fraley (2012) in his study about care giving experiences observed that an infant experiences in their initial years of life tend to shape their behaviors when they grow up. It implies that behaviors portrayed by every person stem from their early life experiences. When a child is born, its psychological, cognitive and social aspects are empty; however, their early relationship experiences start to organize their social, cognitive and biological development throughout their lifespan. Roisman, & Fraley (2012) stated that the initial years of any child is much affected by what is referred to as childhood attachment. In its definition, it is the affectionate bond between the child and the closest person to it. This paper reviews some of the literary materials on studies that have focused on childhood attachment in relations to their effects on their adulthood behaviors.
In his research, Rees Corrine (2007) states that childhood attachment is seriously under-represented in medical training practice and yet it is an important aspect to the growth and development of every child. Children in their nature are dependent and their dependency implies that the nature of their family relationships greatly affects their experiences. Rees (2007) asserts that early attachment experiences tend to create internal working models. Attachment tend to allow children to have a secure base on which they will be able to explore, learn and relate with other people in the society. Therefore, positive attachment is quite important because enhances safety, stress regulation, resilience and adaptability of children.
Moreover, children attachment patterns are heavily influenced by those of their parents; the attachments of both parents and children have an effect on the physical, psychological, behavioral and developmental well being (Rees, 2007). In most cases when a child is sick, the parents respond in ways influenced by their attachment patterns. Thus, attachment is an important consideration in many pediatric problems. Therefore, parent-child attachment should focus on child protection in problems such as infant crying, feeding problems, toileting problems, infections, accidents and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Rees (2007) asserts that one important point to note is not only to know whether a child is attached but how the child is attachment and whether the experience relationships are valuable, safe and reliable. A good attachment helps the child to feel safe and valuable. In addition, for an infant attachment to be more successful there must be a two-way or mutually reinforcing process which much relies on what each contributes to the relationship (Rees, 2007).
Roisman, & Fraley, (2012) in his study states that attachment also allows emotional regulation before an infant can self regulate. The involuntary stress regulation facilitated by the pituitary glands and hypothalamus set in the infancy stage. Stress regulation is quite important for exploration, learning, independence and having effective and meaningful relationships (Guidice, 2009). Therefore, anything that tends to interrupt the cycle of attachment influences the quality of attachment. If things such as substance abuse or even depression disturb the good attachment, it affects the quality of attachments. The child would experience attention as very valuable but unreliable causing anxiety. Secure attachment therefore tend to affect the child positively making the child to development whole round and probably growing up as a reasonable and responsible individual (Roisman, & Fraley, 2012). Insecure attachment makes the child to grow in a disorganized way and ineffective in self sufficiency. Therefore, the early life experiences of a child play a crucial role in the shaping of its moral and social behaviors when the child grows into an adult.
Bourne, Berry, & Jones, (2014) study focused on the relationship between psychological mindedness, parental ties and adult attachment. They defined psychological mindedness as the willingness to try to understand the “self” and other people; believing in benefits that come after discussing problems, open approach to new ideas and consideration of other people’s feelings (Bourne, Berry, & Jones, 2014). This study reveals that psychological mindedness is closely related to adaptive personality characteristics which include; openness to life experiences, agreeableness, and tolerance (Unger, & Luca, 2014). On the other hand, poor psychological mindedness is associated with negative, antisocial behaviors such bullying, low self-esteem, nervousness, and restlessness.
Moreover, psychological mindedness is linked to the parental ties and attachment. Bourne, Berry, & Jones, (2014) in their study pointed out that the initial childhood experiences in most cases lead to the formation of internal “working models” of attachments. These psychological aspects form the blueprints of what a person would expect to happen in future relationships with other attachment figures (Roisman, & Fraley 2012). There is more evidence that shows the association between early interpersonal experiences with adult attachment.
Elsewhere, a study carried out by Kozo, Mao, Toshiharu, Rie, I., Hiroshi, Ryoko, & Masako, (2015) revealed that chronic pain in the early life of a person has a considerable effect on the later life of that particular individual. They defined chronic pain as a complex biopsychosocial condition triggered by a range of psychosocial factors such as psychological distress, pain-related fear, work related problems and lack of social support (Kozo, et al., 2015). This study noted that when a child is exposed to pains that come as results of these biopsychosocial factors, then the future behaviors of such victims would be influenced negatively. In other words, the childhood environment determines the behaviors of that child when he/she grows up (Kozo, et al., 2015).
When a child is raised by parents who have bad relationships in that the parents are always quarreling or fighting, the bio-psychosocial factors affect the child sinc...