Attachment Impact on Child’s Development Psychology Assignment (Essay Sample)

Attachment Impact on Child’s Development
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Institution
Attachment Impact on Child’s Development
In the life of a child, attachment is a primary developmental milestone, which remains to be a paramount issue throughout the child’s lifespan. Among many relationships that an individual form in their lifespan, the relationship between a caregiver who is often a mother and the infant or child is the most critical. In early childhood, this is important because the child success is related to their childhood experiences. It is worth noting that this attachment specifically to a particular protective caregiver or parent assists the infants and children to regulate, as well as normalize their negative emotions during times of distress and stress. Moreover, this attachment also enables the infants and children to explore their environment successful regardless of frightening stimuli. Primarily, the birth of a child generates a process of attachment between the child and the parent or the caregiver and the larger social environment. By definition, an attachment is the pattern of emotional and behavioral interaction that are generated over time, when a child expresses a need for attention, comfort or security (Granqvista, 2017). The primary characteristics of a child is to form an attachment with a consistent and reliable caregiver. If this attachment does not exist, the later development of the child will be affected. The scholar has pointed out that the initial experiences of a child contour the development of the child and their adaptive capacities not to mention the vulnerability to and resistance against future pathologies. On this note, this research paper aims to explore ways in which attachment affects the child development. The paper will review different piece of literatures pertaining the role of attachment relationship to the child development.
In essence, the development of a child is a broad concept, but in particular, it entails the biological, psychological and emotional changes of the child from the time of birth through adolescence to being an adult. Precisely, it involves individual progress from being dependent on the parent to complete autonomy or own dependency. On this note, this paper reviews peer-reviewed publication that examines attachment from a young age through adolescent. Initially, most publications focused on the observation of the caregiver and the child in early childhood, however, over the past decade, researchers have now begun to increase their attention to articulating the attachment of the child and the across lifespan (Mattanah, Lopez, & Govern, 2011). In essence, the main reason for exploring attachment across the lifespan is to get a clear picture of how attachment since birth affect attachment in adolescence and adulthood and how this has an effect on an individual personality or development. Nevertheless, this paper explores the attachment in early childhood and its effect on the child development at adulthood.
Literature Review
Building on attachment theory developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, researchers have been able to study the impact of early attachment to the development of the child (Mattanah, Lopez, & Govern, 2011). The theory proposed that a child propensity to look for proximity to their mothers or caregivers during the moment of discomfort is an enduring motivational system that is designed by inherent selection to help them advance themselves. Precisely a child developed an attachment with their primary caregiver, usually the mother, in their initial years of childhood and this attachment continues across childhood until an individual reaches complete autonomy. Markedly, the bond between two children to their caregiver differs because child’s need for attachment is often based on the child needs for security and attention. In other words, the attachment needs or relationship supports both the caregiver and the child. West Matthews and Kerns (2013) note that the working of attachment between the child and the caregiver is simple. In particular, when the child becomes anxious or shows other emotional aspects, the attachment system is activated, and the child looks for proximity to the attachment figure for comfort rather than exploring the environment. Notably, when the child is comfortable, the attachment system is inactive, and the child explores the environment. Thus, the child-parent attachment is an important influence on the child exploration of and involvement in the immediate environment.
Numerous authors agree on the impact of the mother’s attachment to the child development. In particular, Malekpour, (2017) explores the effect of early attachment of the child and the caregiver and later development. He divides attachment into two main categories namely secure and insecure bond and examines the development that comes from each in early childhood. According to the author, the relationship between the child and the parent is no doubt a future prototype for the later relationship of the youngster to those around him or her. Precisely, it is the first template that the child utilizes to apply any later experiences. He argues that through a secure attachment, the parents establishes an essential sense of trust that a parent will always be there when the child needs the parent, but more importantly, it establishes a foundation for emotional regulation of the child and other psychological patterns of the child. The more a child has these two fundamental aspects in his or her life, Malekpour posits that it is undoubtedly easier for the child to become an independent adult and be able to develop a good relationship with those around his or her immediate environment. Healey and Fisher (2011) note that this is one of the reasons between half and two third of children entering foster care at young age demonstrate adverse outcomes in their development because of lack of initial attachment.
Additionally, Malekpour (2017) postulates that a secure attachment has a fundamental impact on the child brain development. The brain according to him is most adaptable for the first two years of child life and act as a psychobiological regulator of the child’s nervous system. Correspondingly, West, Matthews, and Kerns (2013) argue that the inception stage of the child represents the way the brain will be functioning at a later age. In particular, the authors conducted a study, where the teachers completed a mock report card at grade three children, particularly assessing aspects such as reading, written and other subjects in the course. The study involves assessment of attachment security, considering the family income to needs ration, and the cognitive performance variable of the child. The authors finding in this research is that children who have a high attachment in a given demographic often indicated have high cognitive performance. On this note, Malekpour (2017) postulates that such findings could be associated with the right brain development, which processes the socio-emotional information and regulates the body to an effective state. West, Matthews, and Kerns’ primary argument is that the secure attachment of the child and the social environment are highly correlated. Nonetheless, their study and Malekpour shows that the brain area that allows a child to learn new things and can adapt to a new environment is affected by the secure attachment provided by the caregiver.
Malekpour (2017) also explores the insecure attachment and the developmental psychopathology of the child. He argues that young children who do not have an emotional attachment with at least one reliable caregivers often display an array of developmental deficits that are likely to proceed to adulthood. Primarily, this often happens when a child develops emotional ties with unresponsive, abusive, highly erratic parents, which ultimately fails the attachment that the child requires. Malekpour argues that such failure of bonding could lead to serious developmental consequences of the child. In this regard, Morley and Moran (2011) associate the failure of caregiver-child bond with depression that inflicts children at a younger age. The authors base their argument based on the attachment theory working on the hypothesis that the children variation in vulnerability to external forces. The authors particularly note that depression among parents is one reason parents fail to have a proper attachment to their children. Depression is by definition a disorder of cognition, and according to the authors, it can be related to a fever that spreads from the caregiver to the child. Referring to Beck’s theory of helplessness, Morley and Moran postulate that the child vulnerability and depression of the parent are highly correlated. In other words, Morley and Moran's argument is that adult who experienced consistent and sensitive primary attachment in their first years are more confident and can deal with emotional attacks from other than a child who did not experience stable and secure attachment.
The depression as described by Morley and Moran is a form of an insecure attachment described by Malekpour. He argues that any form of insecure attachment soaks up the child statutory resources, which often lead to future problems or external behaviors such as negative and immature behavior, non-compliance and aggressive behaviors. Lee and Hankin (2009) conducted a research study testing and mediating path on dysfunctional attitudes such as low esteem, and explaining the baseline of insecure attachment dimension and their impact on elevations of anxiety and depressive symptoms. The authors indicate that the dimensions of insecure attachment of a caregiver to the child lead to later emotional distress and the ability of the child to control initial symptom levels. Lee and Hankin claim that insecure attachment does not directly cau...