Part three of our series on attachment described attachment across the lifespan. In this fourth feature, Dr. Goldberg discusses the relative contribution of child
and parent factors in the development of attachment behaviours.
By Susan Goldberg, PhD
Attachment: Nature or nurture?
The nature-nurture debate is one of the most enduring and controversial of the twentieth century. Are a person’s essential
qualities and behaviours genetically determined or learned? The modern answer is that the capacity to behave in a particular
way is genetically determined but experience determines whether, how, and when capacities are engaged. This is the case with
attachment theory. A key theme of attachment is how infants manage distress. How often infants experience distress and how
it is expressed are influenced by genetic factors, but responses to stress are modified by experience and learning.
Attachment theorists believe that infant attachment patterns are essentially learned. Although infant characteristics contribute
to the infant-parent relationship, experiences provided by the caregiver are the primary determinant of infant attachment
patterns. According to attachment theory, the most important factor in the development of attachment style is an infant’s
experience of caregiver response in times of distress.
The research provides some support for this view. Parenting style has a significant impact on a child’s attachment behaviour.
Infants’ attachment classifications have been predicted prior to birth simply from mothers’ attitudes about the upcoming birth
of their child. Numerous studies have shown that maternal behaviours in the home predict attachment at one year better than
infant behaviours. These findings point to significant parental influence in the development of attachment patterns.
Parental factors and attachment
Parenting style
| Tips on How to Respond to Your Baby |
|
|
|
| There are many things you can do to respond to your baby when he is hurt, ill, or upset. If you respond to your baby now in
ways that make him feel loved and secure, it will give him confidence that someone is on his side.
|
Part two of the series described how parenting styles affect a child’s attachment classification. Parents who are consistently
available, sensitive to their child’s signals, and receptive and accepting of the child’s distress tend to have securely attached
children. In contrast, parents of insecurely attached children tend to be less responsive to their children’s signs of distress
and needs for comfort and protection. These parents are unavailable either physically, psychologically, or emotionally and
tend to be insensitive or unpredictable in their parenting style.
Parental sensitivity and attachment style
In 1972, Sylvia Bell and Mary Ainsworth carried out a study of maternal responsiveness to infant crying. Mothers who were
more responsive to their babies’ cries had babies who cried less and expressed more varied vocalizations and gestures. Researchers
have since tried to replicate these findings with mixed results.
Most studies on parenting style and attachment include some measure of parental sensitivity or responsiveness to infants’
signals of distress. A 1987 review of 13 studies on maternal sensitivity and infant attachment and a more recent 1997 review
of 66 studies found a low to moderate effect of maternal sensitivity on attachment.
In general, the results are mixed and less compelling than the 1972 Bell and Ainsworth findings. This may be because of the
way maternal sensitivity and attachment have been defined. In many cases, the definition of attachment is broader and includes
more aspects of the parent-child relationship than the original conception of attachment as a protective phenomenon used in
the 1972 study.
A few studies have examined maternal sensitivity specifically in protective situations. One found that low maternal responsiveness
had a significant effect on attachment but only when social support was low. Others found significant differences in maternal
soothing of infant fussing between mothers of secure and resistant babies. Anther study found parental distress management
predicted attachment security.
The most support for a maternal behaviour/attachment link comes from research with disorganized infants. Parents of disorganized
children might have difficulty relieving infant distress because they are a source of fear to the infant. There is some preliminary
evidence to support this theory. Frightening or frightened caregiver behaviours have been found to be elevated in parents
of disorganized infants. A more detailed discussion of parental influences on disorganized attachment will be included in
part five of the series, Attachment under adversity.
Parental attachment
Parental attachment style predicts infant attachment. One review of nine studies found 77% of autonomous adults had secure
infants, 57% of dismissing adults had avoidant infants, 21% of preoccupied adults had resistant infants and 52% of unresolved
adults had disorganized infants.
There is little evidence that specific personality traits in the parent are associated with a particular pattern of attachment.
But there is evidence that general parenting style and parents’ attachment histories may significantly influence their children’s
and even future generations’ attachment outcomes.
Child factors and attachment
Parents clearly have a role in the shaping of attachment behaviours. But can the same be said of children? Do infant characteristics
influence developing attachments? Some child characteristics that have been studied by attachment researchers are child
temperament and the presence of a medical condition.
Child temperament
Temperament refers to those aspects of a child’s behaviour and emotional responsiveness which are congenitally determined. It is impossible
to get a pure measure of temperament since experience always has an influence on behaviour. But in general children tend to
display noticeable differences in behaviour that are present immediately after birth that likely have a significant genetic
influence. An infant’s threshold for expressing distress is a temperament factor. Infant distress is a central component
of attachment theory. It follows that infant temperament has a role in the development of attachment behaviours.
Temperament and attachment theorists agree that attachment is influenced by both child and parent factors but they differ
with respect to the emphasis they place on each of these variables. They also disagree on the meaning of infants’ behaviour
in the Strange Situation Paradigm. For attachment theorists, infant behaviour reflects the child’s expectations of the parent
as a protector based on past experiences in times of stress.
In contrast, temperament theorists believe that it is temperament and not history with caregivers which determines a child’s
attachment classification. According to temperament theory, there are innate differences in infants’ intensity and modulation
of distress. These differences result in the range of behaviours observed in the Strange Situation Paradigm. If we consider
the case of avoidant infants, temperament theorists argue that avoidant children are physiologically programmed to have relatively
mild distress responses. Therefore, in the Strange Situation Paradigm, they feel little distress and have no need to solicit
contact with their mother on reunion. It is not that they are avoiding her, as attachment theorists would claim.
There is strong evidence against this view. Studies that which look at the physiological rather than behavioural responses
to stress have found that avoidant children show as much or more physiological arousal than other infants. This suggests that
the behaviour observed in the Strange Situation Paradigm is a child’s way of dealing with stress rather than the actual level
of arousal or distress.
Infant medical conditions
Attachment research on infants with medical conditions provides insight into the role of child factors in the development
of attachment. The lives of infants with medical conditions are often very different from those of healthy infants. Studying
how these extreme circumstances influence attachment helps researchers understand how factors in the child affect the development
of attachment patterns.
In the past, it was generally believed that infants’ medical conditions affected attachment security. Over the years, a number
of studies have explored the impact of various infant medical problems on the parent-infant relationship. Some studies have
shown that infants with medical conditions are more often insecure than other infants. However a study that analyzed 34 clinical
studies on attachment showed that infants’ medical problems had little impact on attachment style.
The parent/child interaction
Attachment researcher Alan Stroufe illustrates how innate qualities in the child and parental caregiving might interact to
shape attachment behaviours. While parenting style determines attachment classification, child temperament may determine the
child’s subgroup within a major category of attachment. This is discussed further, below. While maternal care determines a
child’s security of attachment, the child’s temperament determines the particular form in which insecurity is expressed. While
a child’s temperament determines the type of behaviour, the parent’s response to these behaviours determines how the child’s
innate tendencies develop into a particular attachment style.
There are some children who fall into subgroups of the main attachment classifications. This provides support for Stroufe’s
explanation of the interaction of child and parent factors. A subgroup of children who are predisposed to high levels of distress
expresses strong emotions in the Strange Situation Paradigm upon separation as well as vigorous contact seeking upon reunion.
But because these infants are unambivalent in their contact seeking and easily settled by caregivers, they are considered
secure rather than resistant in their attachment classification. Similarly, there is a subgroup of securely attached children
who show minimal distress and contact seeking. They are rated as secure rather than avoidant because they are positive in
response to their caregivers’ return.
Emotion regulation
Emotion regulation refers to the adapting of emotional reactions to satisfy the demands and expectations of the environment. It is through the
process of emotion regulation that both child and parent factors influence attachment relationships. Initially, it is an infant’s
temperament which determines the intensity of his or her distress response. Over time, the parent’s reaction to this response
will determine how the child learns to regulate his or her innate distress response.
There is some evidence to suggest that mothers in the three attachment groups read emotions differently. For example, mothers
of avoidant infants describe emotional pictures with less intense labels than other mothers. This could be one mechanism that
influences the development of attachment patterns.
Attachment is one aspect of the caregiver-child relationship. Both partners contribute to the development of infant attachment
patterns. It is the interplay between a child’s temperament and a parent’s response to emotions that determine the child’s
style of responding during times of stress. Although child and parent factors interact to influence attachment, it is the
parent who plays the greatest role in determining the attachment relationship. An adult’s ability to think and understand
far exceeds that of the infant. Given the infant’s dependency on the parent, this capacity places caregivers in the position
of responsibility and control in the development of infant attachment behaviours.
