Some studies have shown that infants with medical conditions are more often involved in insecure attachment relationships than other infants. Attachment researcher Alan Sroufe illustrates how innate qualities in the infant and parental caregiving might interact to shape attachment behaviours. While parenting style determines attachment classification, infant temperament may determine the baby's subgroup within a major category of attachment.
This is discussed further, below. While an infant's temperament determines the type of behaviour, the caregiver's response to these behaviours determines how the baby's innate tendencies develop into a particular attachment style. There are some infants who fall into subgroups of the main attachment classifications. A subgroup of infants 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 infants in secure attached relationships who show minimal distress and contact seeking. 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 infant and caregiver factors influence attachment relationships. Over time, the caregiver's reaction to this response will determine how the infant learns to regulate his or her innate distress response. There is some evidence to suggest that caregivers in the three attachment groups read emotions differently.
For example, caregivers of infants in avoidant relationships describe emotional pictures with less intense labels than other caregivers. This could be one mechanism that influences the development of attachment patterns. Attachment is one aspect of the infant-caregiver relationship. Both partners contribute to the development of infant attachment patterns. It is the interplay between an infant's temperament and a caregiver's response to emotions that determine the baby's style of responding during times of stress.
Although infant and caregiver factors interact to influence attachment, it is the primary caregiver who plays the greatest role in determining the attachment relationship.
A caregiver's ability to think and understand far exceeds that of the infant. Infant temperament and maternal sensitivity as predictors of attachment security. Infant Behaviour and Development. Van Ijzendoorn MH. Camp is fun and so much more! Let ACA help you find the right camp for your child.
Start Search. Christopher Thurber, PhD. March Orphaned Monkeys Lead Revolution In the s and 60s, University of Wisconsin psychologists Harry and Margaret Harlow conducted a series of groundbreaking studies with rhesus monkeys. In , the Harlows wrote: Although the attainment of primary satisfaction from nursing and physical contact characterizes the stage of comfort and attachment, we do not believe that these contribute equally.
Out of Africa Bowlby's "secure base" theory of attachment has stood the test of time and inspired mountains of research. Some Like it Hot Attachment happens between children and caregivers, but what exists within children?
What to Pack for Camp The four studies summarized in this article have revolutionized child psychology by teaching us the following: children's attachment to their caregivers depends more on physical comfort than on satisfying hunger; secure attachment to loving, reliable caregivers provides a base from which children explore and learn; children's behavior during separation and reunion can reveal the nature of their attachment relationship; and children are born with some stable traits that shape not what they do, but how they do it.
Now, what are the practical implications you can pack for camp? Basic Needs Hot dogs and bug juice may be necessary to sustain life, but physical comforts are an essential ingredient to sustain emotional health. Campers may be comforted by appropriate touch, such as handshakes, hugs, high-fives, and pats on the back. Social development requires plenty of healthy peer interaction.
Ensure that staff are around to encourage energetic, interactive play and healthy risk-taking. Think of camp as a social garden where children are the flowers and the fertilizer. First-year campers, only-children, and home-schooled children may be less prepared for the intense social interactions at camp.
Give them time and space to warm up to large group activities. Make an extra effort to introduce them to others and nurture their social skills by setting a good example. Interpersonal warmth, reliability, and patience come with practice. Hire only staff with prior experience working with children.
Security and Exploration Your staff are your campers' surrogate caregivers, and they should take their jobs as seriously as any parent. Let the fact that they are protecting somebody's most cherished possession guide their judgment and leadership-by-example. Each camper's cabin, group, or unit has the potential to become a new secure base, similar to home.
Train your staff to create a warm, reliable home-away-from-home. This will maximize the likelihood that children will participate in activities, make friends, and take healthy risks. Rhythms and novelty form a satisfying equilibrium.
Balance the newness, excitement, and intensity of each camp day with a predictable schedule, daily routines, quiet rest time, and meaningful rituals. Understand that homesickness is a normal reaction to separation. Attachment behaviors such as crying, letter-writing, and talking are developmentally appropriate ways that children have of seeking support and keeping in touch. Encourage campers to express their thoughts and needs.
Coach parents to respond to homesickness by expressing positive thoughts about camp and confidence in their child's abilities. Attachment and Separation Separation from home, whether for eight hours or eight weeks, activates attachment behaviors that give you insight into campers' relationships with their parents. If you detect anxiety, sadness, or homesickness, talk more with the parents and the camper in question to find out how you can help. Some families need guidance on how to separate.
Educate parents and campers about what emotions they might feel when they say good-bye on opening day. As Mary Ainsworth put it: "If the attachment system has been activated at a high level of intensity, close contact may be required for the termination of attachment behavior" p. Translation: If a kid has missed her parents, she may need a hug from them on closing day in order to feel better. Design a closing day that is both relaxing and festive.
Some campers will be aloof or even angry when they reunite with their parents. This is a normal response to feeling abandoned, even if the child loved camp and was never actually abandoned. Train your staff to help campers cope with homesickness, while at the same time nurturing their independence. Coping with negative emotions is a lifelong skill.
Much more information on preparing for camp, preventing homesickness, coaching parents, and helping kids cope is available in The Summer Camp Handbook Perspective Publishing, How much control do we have over our behavior? But traits that reflect the underlying talents and temperaments —how proficient with language a person is, how religious, how liberal or conservative— are partially heritable. While you may be more likely to be interested in something, or exhibit a specific kind of behavior because of your genes, the actual path your life takes depends a lot on the environment and what options are available to you 1.
While it is true that our environment does play a large role in creating our personality, our underlying temperament is always a part of us. A study by Lahey et al. They found that maternal rating of infant fussiness, activity level, predictability, and positive affect each predicted conduct problems during ages years. The more difficult the child was in infancy, the more difficult the child was at ages 4. However, mothers who were rated as responsive to their child in the first year of life by the interviewer conducting the survey reported fewer conduct problems later in life.
This study shows that basic temperament may be malleable, with the influence of responsive care giving during a time when the brain is still developing 4. There is support for this theory from the standpoint of molecular geneticists, who believe that it is a mistake to view genetic factors as unchangeable. Genes are dynamic in nature, and change over time in the quantity and quality of their effects. As much as it may go against mainstream belief, genes can change and develop over time.
We do not know how consistent or inconsistent genetic traits are, and whether environmental influence could be the cause of this change 3. The study by Lahey et al. Unfortunately, parenting can also influence children in the opposite way. If children are born with a temperament that shows no risk for precarious behavior, neglectful parents who create an insecure attachment may be responsible for that child developing atypical behavior such as a conduct disorder later in life 5.
Attachment theory provides a framework for understanding emotional reactions in infants by linking infant and caregiver in a paired set of complementary control systems.
Attachment is an instinctual need to connect with other human beings. If the theories about temperament discussed in this paper are true, attachment may function as a regulator between infant temperament and outside environmental influences. Attachment is a property of the dyadic relationship between infant and caregiver, which means that attachment security is not a reflection of the caregivers parenting skills or whether the child has an easygoing temperament.
For example, a cautious infant who takes time to warm up to people could pose a challenge to caregivers who need immediate feedback in order to feel successful in their interaction with their baby 6.
Maybe with more education parents can learn to help children who are exhibiting signs of a disordered temperament. To return to our guiding question, "Temperament and attachment: One construct or two? Abstract In this chapter we described the constructs of temperament and attachment and have discussed similarities and differences between the two. Publication types Research Support, U. Gov't, Non-P.
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