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Understand the nature of attachment between infants and carers

Normally, the first adults with whom infants interact are their parents. In most cases, one parent serves as the primary carer. As many studies have shown, a close relationship called attachment is important for infant’s social development. Attachment is a social and emotional bond between infant and carer that spans both time and space. It involves both the warm feelings that the parent and child have for each other and the comfort and support they provide for each other, which becomes especially important during times of fear or stress. This interaction must work both ways, with each participant fulfilling certain needs of each other. Formation of a strong and durable bond depends on the behavior of both people in the relationship. According to theorist John Bowlby(1969), attachment is a part of many organisms’ native endowment. He and Mary Ainsworth have developed an approach that has succeeded in discovering some of the variables that influence attachment in humans.

Infant attachment

Newborn infants rely completely on their parents (or other carers) to supply them with nourishment, keep them warm and clean, and protect them from harm. To most parents, the role of primary carer is much more than a duty; it is a source of

joy and satisfaction. Nearly all parents anticipate the birth of their children with expectation that they will love and cherish them. And when a child born, most of them do exactly that. As time goes on, and as parent and child interact, they become strongly attached to each other. What factors cause this attachment to occur? Evidence suggested that human infants are innately able to produce special behaviors that shape and control the behavior of their carers. As Bowlby( 1969) noted, the most important of these behaviors are sucking, cuddling, looking and crying.

Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety

For an infant, the world can be a frightening place. The presence of a primary caregiver provides a baby with considerable reassurance when they first become able to explore the environment. Although the unfamiliar environment produces fear, the caregiver provides a secure base that the infant can leave from time to time to see what the world is like.

Babies are born prepared to become attached to their primary caregiver, who is most cases is their mother. Attachment appears to be a behavior pattern that is necessary for normal development. However, although attachment appears to be an inherited disposition, infants do not have a natural inclination to become attached to any one specific adult. Rather, the person to whom the baby becomes attached is determi

ned through learning; the individual who serves as the infant’s primary caregiver. Attachment partially reveals itself in two specific forms of infant behavior: stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.

Stranger anxiety, which is usually appears in infants between the ages 6 and 12 months, consists of wariness and sometimes fearful responses, such as crying and clinging to their carers, that infants exhibit in the presence of strangers. Male strangers generate the most anxiety in infants. Child strangers generate the least anxiety in infants, while female strangers generate an intermediate amount of anxiety. Stranger anxiety can be reduce and even eliminated under certain conditions. For example, if the infant is in familiar surroundings with its mother, and the mother acts in friendly manners towards the stranger, the infant is likely to be less anxious in the presence of the stranger than it would if the surroundings were unfamiliar or if the mother was unfriendly towards the strangers.

Separation anxiety is set of fearful responses, such as crying, arousal and clinging to the carer, which an infant exhibits when the carer attempts to leave the infant. Separation anxiety differs from stranger anxiety in two ways: time of emergence and the conditions under which the fear response occur. It first appears in infants when they are about 6 months old and generally peaks at about 15 months, a finding consistent among many cultures. Like stranger anxiety, separation anxiety can occur under different conditions with different degrees of intensity. For example, if an infant is used to being left in a certain environment, say a day-care centre, it may show little or no separation anxiety. The same holds true for situations in which the infant is left with sibling or other familiar person. However, if the same infant is left in an unfamiliar setting, it shows signs of distress. Some infants show ‘’disorganised’’ attachment behavior, that is they show conflicting behavior towards the carer. They may rush to the sounds of an opening door when hearing the carer about to enters a room and then run away when the carer enters; they may also adopt a ‘’frozen’’ or still posture when the carer is in the room. A longitudinal study of disorganized attachment behavior in 157 children ( studied from 24 months to 19 years), found that disorganized behavioral correlated with insensitive caring, living alone with infant, neglect, physical and psychological neglect and an intrusive caring lifestyle.

One measure of separation anxiety was devised by Ainsworth and her colleagues. They developed a test of attachment called the strange situation that consists of a series of eight episodes, during which baby is exposed of a various events that might cause some distress. The episodes involve the experimenter introducing the infant and the parent to a playroom and then leaving, the parent leaving and being reunited with the infant, or a stranger entering the playroom with and without the parent present. Each episode lasts for approximately three minutes. The strange situation test is based on the idea that if the attachment process has been successful, an infant should use its mother as a secure base from which to explore an unfamiliar environment. By noting the infant’s reactions to the stranger situation. Researchers can evaluate the nature of the attachment. The use of the stranger situation test has led Ainsworth and her colleagues to identify three patterns of attachment.

Secure attachment us the idea pattern: infant show a distinct preference for their mothers over strangers. Infants may cry when their carers leave, but stop as soon as they return.

Babies may also form two type of insecure attachment, which are resistance attachment and avoidance attachment

Resistance attachment shows tension in their relations with their carers. Infants stay close to their mother before the mother leaves but show both approach and avoidance behavior when the mother returns. Infants continue to cry for a while after their mother returns and may even push her away.

Infants also display avoidance attachment generally do not cry when they are left alone. When their mother returns, the infant are likely to avoid or ignore them. Those infants tend not to cling or cuddle when they are picked up.

Although infant’s personalities certainly affect the nature of their carers and hence the nature of their attachment, mother’s behavior appears to be the most important factor in establishing a secure or insecure attachment.

Mothers of securely attached infants tend to be those who respond promptly to their crying and who are adept at handling them and responding to their needs. The babies apparently learn that their mothers can be trusted to react sensitively and appropriately.

Mothers who do not modulate their responses according to their infant’s own behavior, who appear insensitive to their infant’s changing needs are most likely to foster avoidance attachment.

Mothers who are impatient with their infants and who seem more interested in their own activities than in interacting with their offspring tend to foster resistant attachment.

The nature of attachment between infants and carers appears to be related to children’s later social behavior. For example, Walter et al (1979) found that children who were securely attached at 15 months were among the most popular and the most sociable children in their nursery school 3 and half year of age. In contrast, insecure attached infants had difficulties with social adjustment later in childhood; they had poor social skills and tended to be hostile, impulsive and withdrawn