In , Sylvia Bell and Mary Ainsworth carried out a study of maternal responsiveness to infant crying. Mothers who were more responsive to their infant's cries had babies who cried less and expressed more varied vocalizations and gestures. Researchers have since tried to replicate these findings with mixed results. A review of 13 studies on maternal sensitivity and infant-caregiver attachment and a more recent 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 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 infant-caregiver relationship than the original conception of attachment as a protective phenomenon used in the 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 babies classified as secure and resistant. Another study found caregiver distress management predicted attachment security. Caregivers who promote disorganized attachment in their infants might have difficulty relieving infant distress because they are a source of fear to the baby.
There is some preliminary evidence to support this theory. Frightening, frightened or extremely insensitive caregiver behaviours have been found to be elevated in caregivers of infants classified as having disorganized attachment in the Strange Situation Paradigm. A more detailed discussion of parental influences on disorganized attachment will be included in Attachment part five: Attachment under adversity. As we have seen, parental attachment style predicts infant-caregiver attachment.
There is little evidence that specific personality traits in the caregiver are associated with a particular pattern of infant-caregiver attachment. Caregivers clearly have a role in the shaping of attachment patterns and behaviours.
But can the same be said of infants? Do infant characteristics influence developing attachments? Some infant characteristics that have been studied by attachment researchers are infant temperament and the presence of a medical condition. Temperament refers to those aspects of an infant's behaviour and emotional responsiveness which are genetically determined.
It is impossible to get a pure measure of temperament since experience always has an influence on behaviour. But in general, infants tend to display noticeable differences in behaviour that are present immediately after birth that likely have a significant genetic influence. 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 infant and caregiver factors but they differ with respect to the emphasis they place on each of these variables.
For attachment theorists, infant behaviour reflects the baby's expectations of the caregiver 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 an infant's attachment classification. These differences result in the range of behaviours observed in the Strange Situation Paradigm. If we consider the case of infants in avoidant attachment relationships, temperament theorists argue that these infants are physiologically programmed to have relatively mild distress responses.
Thus, "secure," "avoidant," "ambivalent anxious-ambivalent, resistant ," and "disorganized" infants tend to have primary caregivers who are "autonomous," "dismissing," "preoccupied," and "unresolved," respectively, with respect to attachment Categories of attachment behaviors of infants in the strange situation and corresponding attachment categories among adults are proposed in several studies 9 , 12 Table 1. Another study in South Korea by Jung 14 with dyads of preschool children and their mothers confirmed that children's attachment patterns were related to their mothers' attachment patterns to their own mothers.
Parental insecure attachment styles also have a crucial impact on the development of psychiatric manifestations in school-aged children. Yoo et al. The possibility that attachment security is partially influenced biologically in relation with temperament needs to be examined. Temperament can be described as a neurobiological element of the individual that differs from person to person in emotions, sociability, and self-control. Temperament is epigenetic, originating in genes but also affected by child-rearing practices.
Although certain dopamine receptor D4 polymorphisms a 48 base-pair repeat in exon 3 of DRD4 are associated with low neuronal reactivity, increased exploratory behavior, and novelty seeking 16 , such associations require replication studies before they can be viewed as causative. The concept of temperament can help parents understand and accept the characteristics of their children without feeling responsible for having caused them. Identifying children's temperaments may also allow for adjustment in parenting styles.
This classic study of temperament traits in children followed individuals from 84 families, predominantly educated families in New York, from 3 months of age to adulthood, and observed how well they fit in at school, with their friends, and at home.
Results of the study revealed nine temperamental dimensions 17 , In addition to the nine dimensions, Thomas and Chess 17 also classified children's temperaments into three types. There have been numerous other investigations to characterize the structure of temperament.
Percents represent the proportions of children belonging to the category of the classification system. The terms enclosed with quotation marks are Thomas and Chess' temperament dimensions Parents are children's first and foremost nurturers, teachers, guides, counselors, and protectors. Parents wonder what their children will be like when they grow up and want them to become the most capable adults they can be.
However, parents differ on how they raise and interact with their children. Growing up with great parents is a great blessing in life, and the way a child is raised influences the kind of person he or she will become.
As attachment styles seem to transfer over generations, so do parenting styles. From this context, it is a real success in life and realization of human potential if an individual who grew up in a disadvantaged or ill-treated family breaks the vicious cycle and practices positive parenting.
Children who misbehave often do so not out of malice, but out of ignorance, boredom, or frustration, and simply need to be taught, listened to, or redirected. A child who is ignored by his parents often misbehaves as a way to seek attention. When parents respond immediately to attention-seeking misbehaviors, such as temper tantrums or screaming, it inadvertently reinforces that behavior. Instead, rewarding the child's appropriate behaviors with praise and hugs can be more effective. It is important to catch them being good and to avoid expressing negative judgments or using incorrect labels that demean the child.
What we believe about others or ourselves can become true due to a self-fulfilling prophecy because we tend to act in accordance with what we believe. Children develop their opinions about themselves by observing the way significant others respond to and communicate with them.
A parent's feedback or opinions about them are social mirrors and are used to form self-images and self-judgments. Baumrind 21 defined three categories of principal parenting styles. The categories, which were later extended to include indifferent or negligent parents, were as follows: authoritative demanding and responsive to child with respectful attitude , authoritarian demanding but not responsive, "do-as-I-say" style , permissive or indulgent more responsive than demanding , and indifferent or neglecting neither demanding nor responsive.
Authoritative parenting is, by far, the most effective parenting styles because it promotes a child's ability to withstand potentially negative influences, including life stress and exposure to antisocial peers. Authoritarian parents are likely to produce anxious youth with low self-esteem, lack of spontaneity, and lack of intellectual curiosity 22 Fig. Parenting is a reciprocal process in which the parent influences the child's development, and in return, the child influences the parent.
The influence of temperament and other attributes of children may be mitigated or negligible as long as caregivers modify their behavior to fit the needs of the children However, when a mother's capacity to do so is limited by her own personality or stressful conditions, then infants with a difficult temperament or problem behaviors are at risk for developing attachment insecurity. Studies have shown that most securely attached infants develop distinctly different attachment bonds with each parent and their various caregivers This suggests that parents can modulate their children's temperament by influencing their children's environment.
For instance, Chess et al. Hence, they emphasize that interaction should be considered in terms of "goodness-of-fit," which is the compatibility of a person's temperament with their family, school, and community. Any temperament trait may not be inherently problematic; rather, it is the interaction that determines the "acceptability" of that trait. Mothers in a high-stress or overcrowded environment, or who are deprived of employment security, would be more likely to have securely attached infants if they respond to the children's motivations rather than their actions.
From several core ideas of early life experiences, we can discern valuable insights into parenting practices. Sensitive and responsive care from parents is vital for the optimal growth and development of each child. Children who are rarely spoken to, who are left to cry themselves out, who have little opportunity to explore their environment, or who experience frequent anger or boredom cannot fully develop their potential and stable personalities, despite their normal genetic endowment.
National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Korean J Pediatr v. Korean J Pediatr. Published online Dec Find articles by Yoo Rha Hong. Find articles by Jae Sun Park. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Corresponding author. Received Aug 8; Accepted Oct This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Abstract The purpose of this review is to present the basic concepts of attachment theory and temperament traits and to discuss the integration of these concepts into parenting practices.
Introduction The birth of a child initiates a life-long process of mutual adaptation between the child and his or her caregivers and the broader social environment. Bowlby's key ideas about infant-caregiver attachment According to John Bowlby's theory 1 of attachment development, a child is "attached" to someone when he or she is "strongly disposed to seek proximity to and contact with a specific figure and to do so in certain situations, notably when he is frightened, tired or ill.
Ainsworth's research model for testing attachment quality Mary Ainsworth, a developmental psychologist who studied with Bowlby, developed a controlled laboratory situation called the "strange situation," so named because it is a novel experience for the child 2. Open in a separate window. Three patterns of attachment corresponding to Ainsworth's caregiving style. In this chapter we described the constructs of temperament and attachment and have discussed similarities and differences between the two.
We addressed the issue of whether temperament contributes to overall attachment security or to the specific type of attachment that children display.
We conclude that although temperament may influence the type of secure and insecure attachment relationship children form with their parent, temperament alone will not determine if a child is classified as securely or insecurely attached. We presented evidence suggesting that certain dimensions of temperament, specifically negative emotionality, may be associated with infants' behavior during the Strange Situation, such as proneness-to-distress during separations.
However, we noted that these temperament dimensions do not predict overall security of attachment. It is likely that although no single temperament characteristic, such as proneness-to-distress, in and of itself determines overall attachment security, it is possible that a constellation of temperament characteristics may be more strongly related to attachment security.
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