Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Paradigm revealed that most infants respond in one of a few predictable ways to separations
from caregivers; a major discovery for attachment researchers. But what is the wider significance of this finding?
In Parts One and Two of our series on attachment, we saw how different patterns of attachment arise during infancy. In part three, Dr. Goldberg explores the development of
attachment patterns beyond infancy and across the lifespan.
By Susan Goldberg, PhD
For Bowlby, the founder of attachment theory, attachment involved much more than an infant’s response to separation. Infant
separation and reunion behaviours were just a preview of things to come; one indication of an underlying pattern of expectations
about the self, others, and the world which would continue to evolve and persist throughout adulthood.
Bowlby’s ideas were revolutionary and controversial, generating a flurry of questions; what were the long-term implications
of early attachment security? What if, anything, do our earliest attachment relationships tells us about the kind of parents
we will become? And can our attachment history with our parents affect the security and well-being of our own children?
Continuing attachment research is providing answers to these fundamental questions. There is mounting evidence that security
of attachment can affect many aspects of a person’s well-being in profound and enduring ways, and that these outcomes can
in turn be conveyed to future generations.
Beyond infancy
In 1974, researchers at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota began a longitudinal study that
would span two decades and prove to be a landmark in attachment research. From an original sample of 267 expectant mothers
came a multitude of findings pointing to the critical importance of early relationships. What was once speculation now had
empirical support.
Infants of the young mothers were assessed at one year using the Strange Situation Paradigm. A group of children were re-assessed
between the ages of four and five. Five months of intensive observation revealed that the majority of children with secure
attachment histories scored higher on measures of self-esteem were more independent, responded more positively to other children,
and had better social skills than insecurely attached children.
New measures of attachment
In order to assess the stability of attachment over time, researchers developed new measures that could evaluate and classify
attachment styles in older children and adults:
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Children up to seven years of age are assessed using observational procedures. Following separations between children and
attachment figures, affective expressions, conversational exchanges, and subtle body language are observed and evaluated during
reunions.
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The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is the adult and adolescent equivalent of the Strange Situation Paradigm. Participants
are asked about early experiences with attachment figures. Attachment security is reflected by the degree to which respondents
coherently discuss childhood attachment experiences. Both the answers and the manner in which they are expressed are evaluated.
With the AAI and various observational measures, classifications schemes that correspond to the three infant attachment patterns
have been developed.
Preschool and school aged attachment
The Minnesota studies and many that followed showed promising outcomes for most children who were securely attached as infants.
Children who were securely attached at one year of age tend to be popular with peers, resilient, resourceful, and cooperative
in preschool. By age six, they are more compliant, responsive, cooperative, self-reliant, and empathic than those who were
insecurely attached infants. In general, secure attachment appears to act as a protective factor against emotional and behavioural
problems in childhood and adolescence.
Infants who display avoidant attachment in the Strange Situation Paradigm at one year are at greater risk for a defended or avoidant attachment style during preschool; especially in the presence of other risk factors. Avoidant children are vulnerable to
becoming emotionally insulated, hostile, or anti-social; engaging in activities such as stealing, lying, or cheating. They
are more likely to provoke adults and peers into rejecting them and are more likely to victimize others than those who were
secure as infants.
Children who display resistant attachment at one year of age tend to be dependent during the preschool years. Dependent children spend a disproportionate amount of time seeking attention from adults. They
may be easily frustrated or passive and helpless. Like resistant infants, dependent children are preoccupied with the caregiver
at the expense of other activities.
Children who show disorganized patterns of attachment in the Strange Situation Paradigm at one year of age have the greatest
risk of aggressive behaviour, conduct disorder, and dissociative behaviours later in life. Dissociative behaviours involve
a breakdown in a person’s perception of his or her surroundings, memory, identity, or consciousness.
By age six, disorganized attachment has become organized but into a pattern where the child, rather than the parent takes
responsibility for control. These children control, coerce, or dominate their caregiver either by humiliating and rejecting
her or by being attentive and protective. The controlling-caregiving child entertains or comforts the parent who usually shows limited emotion in response to the child’s often exaggerated positive
emotions. The punitive-caregiving child behaves in a hostile manner toward the parent who usually complies with the child’s requests.
A final childhood attachment classification, insecure-other, includes children who show insecurity but do not fit into the other categories. These children tend to show a mixture of
avoidant and dependent strategies.
Adolescent and adult attachment
Secure/Autonomous attachment in adolescence and adulthood corresponds to secure attachment in infants. These individuals can
recognize both the limitations and positive qualities of childhood attachment figures. Autonomous individuals value relationships,
are often forgiving of less than optimal caregiving, are at peace with imperfections in themselves and others, and are coherent
in describing their childhood experiences.
The classification of preoccupied attachment corresponds to insecure resistant attachment in infancy. Preoccupied respondents get very entangled in the details
of childhood but find it difficult to provide a clear overview of their past. They tend to be preoccupied with early experiences,
often appearing overly concerned with trying to please their parents. Preoccupied adults and adolescents are not at peace
with imperfections in themselves or others.
The attachment patterns of dismissing adolescents and adults, corresponds most closely with insecure avoidant attachment in infancy. In responding to the AAI,
these individuals tend to say little about childhood attachment experiences often providing only short, minimally informative
answers. They also minimize the impact of key relationships from their past.
Unresolved attachment, which corresponds most closely to disorganized attachment in infants, is characterized by a lack of
resolution of mourning of a significant loss or trauma. Individuals who are classified as unresolved in their attachment style
may show confusion surrounding a death or trauma, confusion about the permanency of a death, or a sense of being possessed
by the deceased person or abuser.
Stability and change in attachment patterns
Attachment theory assumes that attachment patterns can endure across the lifespan. The adoption of a particular attachment
strategy in infancy predicts a specific developmental trajectory that carries on throughout a person’s life. Definitive evidence
confirming the stability of attachment would require intensive life-time follow-up procedures. At present, there are less
comprehensive, often mixed, but nevertheless valuable findings.
The Family Lifestyles Project is an ongoing longitudinal study based at the University of California. Following children from
infancy to 19 years of age, attachment during infancy was found to be a significant predictor of attachment security during
adolescence.
In contrast to these findings, a sample of 57 high risk young adults showed no significant continuity of attachment style
between infancy and adulthood. The sample consisted of a subset of participants from the Minnesota Mother-Child Project, an
ongoing longitudinal study of children at risk for poor developmental outcomes. Continuity of attachment depended on specific
conditions of adversity. Maltreated insecure children were more likely to remain insecure. Insecure infants who became secure
as young adults, known as earned secure, were more likely to have better family functioning at age 13. And finally, secure infants who became insecure were more
likely to have depressed mothers.
Another 20-year longitudinal study, based in Minneapolis, looked specifically at the impact of negative life events on the
stability of attachment. Of the participants who had experienced significant loss or stress, 44% changed attachment classifications
from infancy to early adulthood, in contrast to the only 22% of individuals who did not experience negative life events.
Intimate relationships
We've seen how attachment security can continue to influence core aspects of a person’s life well into adulthood. How do these
effects in turn affect the quality of significant relationships in people’s lives? Although there is little longitudinal research
linking infant attachment and adult intimate relationships, there is some evidence to suggest that marital satisfaction can
be related to a person’s attachment classification on the AAI. Couples with one insecure partner experience more conflict
than couples with both autonomous partners; two insecure partners result in the greatest degree of conflict. Among engaged
and married couples, insecure women report more verbal and physical aggression and threats of abandonment from partners compared
to couples in which the women are autonomous.
The transmission of attachment to our children
The quality of our intimate relationships can play a role in our ability to be effective parents for our children. As well,
there is evidence to suggest that a person’s parenting style can mimic the style to which they were exposed as infants. Thus,
autonomous adults tend to consistently respond in loving ways to their infants’ distress. Dismissing and preoccupied parents
are more likely to be rejecting or inconsistent respectively, thus perpetuating the likelihood of insecure attachment in their
children.
Diane Benoit from the Hospital for Sick Children and Kevin Parker from Kingston General Hospital were interested in the degree
to which attachment classification extends across generations. They found that mothers’ attachment classifications during
pregnancy successfully predicted their infants’ classification at twelve months in 82% of cases. Looking across three generations,
65% of the grandmother-mother-infant triads had corresponding attachment classifications in all three generations. This finding
extends the already far-reaching implications of early attachment security.
In line with Bowlby’s vision of attachment as a lifespan construct, there is mounting evidence that the long term effects
of early attachment relationships can be far-reaching. Our attachment history can affect our emotional well-being which
in turn can influence friendships, our choice of significant others, and the quality of our romantic relationships. The strength
of core relationships affects the kind of parents we become and ultimately our own children’s sense of security and emotional
well-being.
Continuing research on stability and change in attachment patterns will shed more light on this critical area of human development.
In Part 4 of our series we will explore the particular child and parent characteristics that contribute to attachment security during development.
