As a last semester student of the course, Child Development and a current student of Human Development and Family Studies, I have been given the opportunity to re-learn about the childhood attachment theory. This theory all evolves from the early infant stages in which a child learns "trust vs. mistrust" in being able to trust their outside environment from having close care and protection from their very start within their homes. A child who has been given close care, was tended to when necessary, and comforted often, will not become a "spoiled child" but a trusting child their toddler stages and perhaps later on in life. Created by a child researcher by the name of Mary Ainsworth in 1978, she discovered what she called the three styles of attachment: secure attachment, ambivalent insecure attachments, and avoidant insecure attachment. When considering the many children in my family, including those who were placed in the foster care system, I have gained a better understanding of the attachment theory.
I have a little sister by the age of 6 years old, and immediately I consider her to be a product of secure attachment as an infant. Once my sister was 3years old, we all went to Coney Island and unfortunately she could not par-take in the days full events. As her older sisters, when we left her with my mother to go on particular rides, she often cried when we first left, but we were easily able to comfort her when we returned. She was also to be comforted by other adults who she knew, but held no relation to them. When we later went to the beach that same day, even though no one was holding her as my other little cousins cried about, she was comfortable in her environment because of the trust she held for her older sisters, understanding that we would always be there to comfort her when she needed. The youngest kid amongst the group and without any fear, she walked straight into the water wanting to explore and enjoy her environment independently. In the attachment theory, it defines a securely attached child as one that feels distressed at first when care givers leave, and then happily comforted once they return. While many consider my sister spoiled in the way we rush to her very needs, I'm just glad that she feels trusting in her environment as I know it will help her positively progress in life.
Two of my little cousins both brother and sister, have faced many struggles so early in life starting at the ages of 6 months and 1 years old. Five years later, and having suffered neglect, abuse, and the life of being foster care children, their attachments styles are quite damaged in compared to my little sister. Still, I could differentiate the different theories of attachment between the two. While brother and sister, not only does their ages and sex have an influence of their sense of attachment, but also their personality and temperament have added affects to it as well. The youngest sibling, the boy I would say would fall under the "ambivalent" attachment theory. This theory describes children who become distressed when a parent leaves, and even among their return cannot be comforted. Often times this is due to the parent unavailability to the child. Still not understanding the whole foster care process, the brother was quite distressed every time his mother left him, mostly because he couldn't understand what was happening. Yet even with her return, he still cried because he wasn't trusting in her availability that he wanted her to have with him. Being the older child, his sister was profoundly more distressed than her brother. She hated having visits with her mother, and most times ignored her mother when she came around, even hitting the social work who she felt mistrust from because she brought her mother to meet her. I would classify her as the avoidant- insecure attachment, in which it is defined as children who avoided their caregiver as well as would choose a complete stranger over their parent. Although this expresses signs of abuse or neglect from a caregiver, sadly both children have been exposed to such from an early stage on and are equally insecurely attached. While the secure and insecure attachments styles are on opposite spectrum's, we must work together as a society to influence caregivers to always and continue to comfort their children and help to foster trusting environments for them to grow.
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