Critically discuss the implications of attachment theory for different forms of child care.

U8971371

Option 1

Attachment is a universal and vital component of human relationships. This essay will examine the impact the theory of attachment has made on the assessment of different types of child care. The attachment theories and evidence, which describe the characteristics of the early mother-child bonds, put forward by the famous psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist, John Bowlby and his student Mary Ainsworth, will be outlined. Subsequently, the additional, and sometimes contradicting, evidence and explanations will be discussed focusing primarily on the emotional and social development implications of different forms of care, such as care provided by other family members, childminders or institutions. Is it possible that, as the theories of attachment suggest, only the children who receive continuous and devoted attention of their primary caregiver will be able to achieve sound emotional and social growth? Can the negative outcomes of children’s very early experiences be mended later? These questions will be explored in this essay.

John Bowlby, was commissioned by the World Health Organisation to investigate if children were likely to be harmed if they were separated from their mothers in the early years (Cowie, 1995). Subsequently, he produced a report in which he argued that very young children form a special kind of relationship with their primary caregiver, usually the mother. This relationship is specific and different from the relationships they form with other people. Bowlby defined this process as monotropism (Cowie, 1995). According to Bowlby, this kind of emotional tie is manifested by the behaviour which seeks to strike a balance between desire to maintain the proximity to the primary caregiver and the natural predisposition to explore the world around. Very early, children develop so-called internal working models, internalised ideas about the nature of their relationships with the primary caregivers based on their previous interactions as well as the expectations and experiences associated with them (Bowlby, 1969). These models remain relatively unchanged and continue to influence the patterns of behaviour in later relationships. Bowlby claimed that attachment behaviours are activated in a stressful situation of separation or being in an unfamiliar environment, an event defined as separation anxiety (Bowlby, 1953). Bowlby identified the so-called critical period, between around six months and three years of age, when it is essential for the mental health of an infant to experience ‘a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship’ with the primary caregiver (Bowlby, 1953, p.13). If this bond is, for whatever reasons, broken, the infant will suffer serious emotional and developmental consequences. This notion forms the basis of the maternal deprivation hypothesis, which has been since of great interest to child development theorists.

Mary Ainsworth, a student of Bowlby’s, is another leading contributor to the theory of attachment and the internal working model (Cowie, 1995). Like Bowlby, Ainsworth believed in the concept of secure base of the primary caregiver from which the child explores the environment (Ainsworth, 1985; Ainsworth and Bell, 1974; Ainsworth et al., 1978). Ainsworth was particularly interested in individual differences between mother-child pairs regarding the quality of their attachment relationship. She argued that sensitive and responsive behaviour of the mother during their child’s first year is likely to contribute to development of a firm and lasting bond. Ainsworth used the Strange Situation technique to evaluate maternal sensitivity to her baby’s signals (Ainsworth and Wittig, 1969). This was a laboratory-based procedure, which involved observing a mother and her child during episodes of brief separation and subsequent reunions. On the basis of her observation, Ainsworth identified three contrasting types of attachment: anxious-avoidant (Type A), secure (Type B) and anxious-ambivalent (Type C) (Ainsworth et al, 1978). Securely attached infants, according to Ainsworth, perceive their mothers as available and ready to protect and comfort. These infants, as she suggested, are more likely to form a concept of self worth, which will positively influence their future emotional and social development. Research studies conducted by Ainsworth with a contrasting sample of families in the USA and Uganda revealed similarities in distribution of the three attachment patterns between the two cultures (Ainsworth, 1985; Ainsworth and Bell, 1974; Ainsworth et al., 1978). Both Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s attachment claims and evidence have been a subject of subsequent investigation and evaluation.

Evidence for some of the Bowlby’s claims came from his own study of juvenile delinquents (Bowlby, 1944). A large percentage of these young people had been separated from their mothers in the early stages of their lives. Bowlby believed it possible that this early disruption of the bond between mother and infant was the cause of anti-social behaviour. In the 1940s, an American psychiatrist, William Goldfarb studied a group of children aged between ten and fourteen years who had been separated from their mother before the age of nine months and spent their first three years of life in ...