Why Early Relationships Matter: An Overview of Attachment

By Cynthia A. Frosch, Ph.D.

When you think of how the word “attachment” is used in society, you may conjure up an image of two teenage sweethearts “attached at the hip.” You may envision Charles Schultz’s character Linus affectionately “attached” to his blanket. Or your neighbor who seems “attached” to his classic car. Despite these uses of the word attachment, when child development researchers use the word, they are referring to a specific kind of relationship—an emotional bond that exists between two people and endures over time. Historically, the focus was on an infant’s attachment relationship with his or her mother. Today, however, researchers extend the words “attachment relationship” to include children’s relationships with a variety of attachment figures such as parents, siblings, teachers, foster parents, or grandparents. 

You may be wondering whether all attachment relationships are created equally. The answer, quite simply, is no. Children’s relationships with the important people in their lives differ in many ways. The emphasis is really on the quality of attachment. Researcher Mary Ainsworth was a real pioneer in this area and devoted much of her attention to identifying different types of attachment relationships that infants and mothers share. We now know that these same patterns apply to dads and other adults. 

Mary Ainsworth researched secure vs. insecure attachment relationships and noted a couple of different types of insecure attachments—one where the child seems to avoid the caregiver (a type of attachment known as insecure-avoidant); another where the child seems to be angry or resistant towards the caregiver (known as insecure-resistant or insecure-ambivalent).  Secure attachments, in comparison, were those in which children were comforted by contact with the attachment figure. Secure relationships enabled children to explore their surroundings, play freely, while offering a “home base” for children to return to if scared, lonely, or just needed interaction. 

Do attachments make a difference in children’s lives? Absolutely. There have been hundreds of studies that have examined how children with secure attachment relationships differ from children without secure relationships. Among other things, these studies have found that compared to children with less secure attachment relationships with their parents, children with secure early attachments:

•    work harder to solve problems.
•    have higher levels of academic achievement.
•    experience richer early literacy environments.
•    share better relationships with other children.
•    feel more positively about themselves and others.
•    experience higher quality, more sensitive parenting.